Somehow, The Last of Us didn’t win a single award at 2024’s first Emmy Awards ceremony.
The dazzling post-apocalyptic series released early in 2023, but still stirred up enough hype to earn at least one prediction of “best show of the year.” It eventually earned some fierce competition in the form of The Bear season 2 and Succession season 4, to name a few, and that competition showed up for the mid-January awards ceremony.
Succession took home the majority of the awards in the drama categories, with two of its stars beating out both Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal for Best Actor and Best Actress. Despite the clear The Last of Us slander present at the awards, at least we still got to enjoy a quick glimpse of Max’s live-action Joel Miller in the flesh.
Pascal presented the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and seized the opportunity, while he was on stage, to poke fun at the competition. He ultimately lost Best Actor in a Drama Series to Kieran Culkin, who blew audiences away as Succession‘s Roman Roy, and Pascal wasted no time in clapping back at 41-year-old victor.
Pedro Pascal’s bleeped-out Emmy’s speech
Pascal will always be the internet’s daddy, with or without an Emmy on his shelf, but he cemented his role a bit further during his brief appearance at the 75th Annual Emmy Awards. Pascal, who attended the ceremony with his beloved sister Lux on his *good* arm, sauntered onto the stage in an all-black ensemble. Even the sling supporting his injured arm matched the getup and led to one of the most talked-about moments of the evening.
While presenting the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, Pascal seized his moment to joke about the sling he’s been sporting throughout the awards season. Just before listing the nominees, Pascal joked that he was taking a spell to “make this about me” and answer the world’s questions about his arm.
After clarifying that it is in fact his shoulder, rather than his arm, that necessitates the use of a sling, Pascal fired some well-aimed shots at the competition, joking that Kieran Culkin — who beat him out for Best Actor in a Drama Series — “beat the shit out of” Pascal, and earned him his unique Emmy’s getup.
This statement is, of course, nothing more than a joke, but it landed much better than Jo Koy’s Golden Globes quips. In fact, Pascal injured his shoulder in a fall, but the idea that Culkin literally beat him up to cinch that Emmy award is much more entertaining. It also guarantees that, while Pascal may have walked away from the ceremony with no Emmy in hand, he’ll always have the web on his side.
