There were a lot of exciting and moving moments at the 76th Emmys last night. Liza Colón-Zayas became the first Latina actress to win Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and dedicated her award to her fellow Latinas. Lamorne Morris shared an endearing and funny dedication to his mother. Ebon Moss-Bachrach thanked his parents for watching over his cat. There were moving speeches from the cast and crew of the history-making “Shogun,” and Alex Edelman moved us all while thanking his late friend and collaborator, Adam Brace, in his award speech for outstanding writing in a variety series for his show about antisemitism.
Yet, my favorite part was still the two cute bespectacled Jewish men who took on hosting duties, Eugene Levy and Dan Levy, who made history as the first father and son duo to host the award show.
Some are already petitioning for these two to host every award show ever, and I’m joining that fight. Watching them together filled a bit of that “Schitt’s Creek” shaped hole in my heart.
In their banter, the two focused more on their Canadian identity than their Jewish heritage — saying how hard it is for them, as polite Canadians, to cut people off, but they did give the crowd a bit of a lesson on how to pronounce their very classic Jewish last name. For those who don’t know the origin of the last name Levy, alternatively spelled Levi, the name is supposed to signify that its bearer is one the descendants of the Levites, originating in the tribe of Levi, who aren’t Cohens — descendants of Aharon the Priest (both Cohen and Levy/Levi are the most common Jewish last names in Israel!).
“We are not stand-up comedians,” Eugene told the crowd in their opening remarks. “No, in fact, I wouldn’t even call us hosts. We’re more like actors acting like hosts,” Dan continued, adding that “if it goes well for us tonight, my name is pronounced LEH-vee, not LEE-VEE,” touting the classic Hebrew pronunciation of the name (also how you pronounce that levee Don McLean sings about in “American Pie”). Eugene then joked that if it all went badly, his name is pronounced “Martin Short” — he plays a movie version of the comedian’s character in the latest season of “Only Murders in the Building.”
Speaking of “American Pie,” the elder Levy then talked about his quintessential bumbling dad role from that movie franchise, in which he played Jason Biggs’ (who is not Jewish, I know, I know, but is married to a Jew) dad. (Both characters were pretty Jewish-coded in my opinion.)
“You know this is a very special night for me. I played a lot of dads in my day. Yes, I was a dad in ‘American Pie,’ I was a dad in ‘Finding Dory,’ I was a dad in our show ‘Schitt’s Creek,'” he said, to a nodding Dan.
“But without question, my most rewarding dad role has been being your dad,” he said, lovingly slapping his son’s suited shoulder as the crowd awed (the camera even panned to a very clearly moved Emily Hampshire, who played Stevie in “Schitt’s Creek”).
After a pause, the “Best in Show” actor took us out of that little heartfelt moment when he continued by saying “… in ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ because it earned me an Emmy.'”
It was a good joke, a great joke even, because at its core you could see the sincere love the Levys have for each other, a love that Eugene expressed very candidly when he won his Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, which he accepted in a masked tent in Canada, with Dan tearing up in the background, wearing a quilt as an ode to the family’s Scottish heritage.
“As a dad, getting to work on camera with both my kids, Daniel and Sarah — hi honey — such a joy. Love you both and could not be prouder,” he said that night at the 72nd Emmy Awards. “And that brings me to my multi-Emmy nominated partner, Daniel Levy, who took our show that we came up with and brilliantly guided it to this little Emmy party.”
The rest of the opening monologue last night was brilliant, full of their dry wit and humor, what they call their “bicker-banter,” and a lot of it felt so familiar to many Jewish families, from Dan sharing text messages from his dad written “Baby Reindeer” style, full of delightful typos and embarrassing musings that a lot of us have probably endearingly gotten from our parents, to all the terrible health and medical trauma that has or could befall Eugene if people stressed him out and didn’t adhere to the allotted time for their acceptance speech. “I don’t want to be alarmist but having to cut you off could kill this man,” Dan said, like your average stereotypically hypochondriac Jew (we don’t like stereotypes, but we know in some cases they are based on truths).
It was such a pleasure to see these two in top comedic shape on stage, especially when reunited with their fellow “Schitt’s Creek” cast members when presenting the final award of the evening. So yes, I for one am nominating Dan and Eugene LEH-VEE, not LEE-VEE, to host every award show this season.
