Emmys Skit About Mike Pence’s Debate Fly Incident Gets Torched: ‘Awful,’ ‘Cringeworthy’

CBS/Television Academy/YouTube
CBS/Television Academy/YouTube
Warner Todd Huston

Midway through Sunday night’s 73rd Emmy Awards telecast, host Cedric the Entertainer starred in a skit based on the 2020 vice presidential debate and the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head. Viewers watching at home summed up the skit — which ended with the fly shrieking “all flies matter” — with words like “awful” and “cringeworthy.”

The segment begins with Cedric the Entertainer talking to the fly. “You do your thing, ya get out. No shenanigans,” Cedric says speaking to a clear plastic box containing a fly.

The next scene shows the 2020 vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. In the skit, Cedric’s fly apparently has a hard time following orders and lands on “cloud nine” — Mike Pence’s head — and soon claims to be stuck.

Watch below: 

The fly landed just fine, but if comments on Twitter are any indication, Cedric’s skit did not.

USA Today columnist Erik Hall, for instance, wondered why the Emmys reached back so far for the skit? He even questioned why the show even needed Cedric.

“Who wrote these terrible bits for Cedric the Entertainer?!” Hall wrote. “The fly landed on Mike Pence a year ago. Give the #Emmys winners more time to speak & get rid of these!”

Film critic Scott Menzel was also unimpressed. “I feel bad for Cedric right now. These jokes are cringeworthy. The fly one was particularly awful. It’s like someone forgot to tell the writers it isn’t 2020 anymore and Trump isn’t President,” he tweeted.

Other Twitter users also wondered why the dated material:

Then there was Variety TV critic Daniel D’Addario who had a cutting remark for Cedric: “Tonight he’s just Cedric,” as in not “The Entertainer.”

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