John Mulaney had the first bleeped moment of the night at the 2026 Emmy Awards.
The comedian, 44, took to the stage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Monday, September 14, to present the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Before announcing the winner, however, Mulaney got a few laughs out of the crowd with several jokes, including a censored jab at DJ Khaled.
“I believe it was DJ Khaled who said, ‘Real men don’t go down on their wives,’” Mulaney quipped at the awards show. “But these nominees know that that is B.S. They know there’s often less pressure on them if they do that first.”
Mulaney’s joke was a reference to an infamous 2015 interview where Khaled, 50, said that he does not perform oral sex on his wife, Nicole Tuck, because there are “different rules for men.”
“A woman should praise the man — the king,” Khaled claimed at the time. “If you holding it down for your woman, I feel like the woman should praise. And a man should praise the queen. But you know, my way of praising is called, ha-ha, ‘How was dinner?’, ‘You like the house you living in? You like all them clothes you getting?”
He continued, “I’m taking care of your family, I’m taking care of my family…’ You know, I’m putting in the work.”
Elsewhere in his hilarious monologue, Mulaney joked, “Some of the men in this category do method acting, and some do regular, less annoying acting.”
The speech had many fans calling for the Saturday Night Live writer to host the Emmys next year.
“John Mulaney gets my vote #Emmys,” one user wrote via X, while another person added, “John Mulaney stole the show in only 5 minutes. Easily the funniest and most interesting part of tonight.”
Though many fans of Mulaney have lobbied for him to take on an awards show hosting gig, the comedian has revealed that he turned down an offer to host the Academy Awards in 2024. (He did, however, host that year’s Governors Awards, which celebrates lifetime achievement and special contributions to the film industry.)
“I was very flattered,” Mulaney said of the Oscars offer on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast in 2025. “They came to me, must have been last summer. And I knew Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t gonna do it. And they offered it. And it was honestly that I had a lot going on. And it’s months and months of work.”
