In what is surely an unprecedented move, the Emmys made the annual accounting segment something worth rewatching — and it’s all thanks to Leslie Jones.
Shortly after the wild celebrations that ensued after Jones’s fellow SNL cast member/Ghostbuster Kate McKinnon won her Emmy, Jones took to the stage with the Emmys accountants as they explained the work that goes into keeping the Emmys results confidential and untampered-with.
— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) September 19, 2016
I swear I lost my shit!! MY BITCH IS A EMMY WINNER!pic.twitter.com/Uvnal7kuHg
But as Jones pointed out, the accountants are putting all that work into something that no one really cares about, when they should be looking after what actually matters: Jones’s Twitter account, which was famously hacked by alt-right trolls in August.
No one, after all, really cares that much about whether Jeffrey Tambor was going to win this year. (We all knew he was; we’ve seen award shows before.) But Jones cares a whole lot about her nudes showing up on CNN. "I just wanted to feel beautiful, y’all," she told the audience.
The whole segment was a ballsy move on Jones’s part. It is, sadly, common enough for actresses to have to deal with their nude photos being hacked and displayed to the entire internet that there are a few standard publicist-approved scripts to choose from. What’s in vogue right now is to decry the invasion of privacy and then steadfastly ignore any other mentions of the hack, with maybe a single angry interview thrown in there for variety.
In addressing the attacks head on, Jones took control of the narrative. She made her point of view the only one that matters — and she made it hilarious.