Request Media Kit

Between Two Ferns’ Obama Bit Gets Emmy Nod

Thursday’s Emmy nominations, though dominated by HBO (per usual), featured a striking number of nods for Netflix, whose hit series House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black garnered 13 and 12 n...
Between Two Ferns’ Obama Bit Gets Emmy Nod
Written by Josh Wolford
  • Thursday’s Emmy nominations, though dominated by HBO (per usual), featured a striking number of nods for Netflix, whose hit series House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black garnered 13 and 12 nominations, respectively. One nomination for Rick Gervais’ Derek and five for two Netflix original documentaries brought the grand total to 31 nominations – something that must absolutely thrill Reed Hastings, Ted Sarandos, and company.

    But Netflix wasn’t the internet’s only representative in the Emmy noms. Funny or Die, along with executive producers Zach Galifianakis, Scott Aukerman, BJ Porter, and Mike Farah, received a nomination for Between Two Ferns in the Outstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program category – all thanks to their episode featuring President Barack Obama. You know the one:

    It’ll be up against Adult Swim’s Childrens Hospital, a Parks and Rec In Europe short, The Soup‘s True Detective parody, and the Super Bowl XLVIII Halftime Show (Bruno Mars). I’d say it has a pretty good shot at taking home the trophy.

    Other than showing the world that he could expertly pull off a fat joke, Obama sat down with Zach Galifianakis on Between Two Ferns to spur signups for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges as the signup period was ticking down. The White House made a calculated decision to reach out to the younger crowd by throwing them an (admittedly pretty funny) elevated sales pitch – and it worked.

    “I can assure you that the Funny or Die video will be one of the reasons we get young Americans to HealthCare.gov–one of the reasons we get young Americans to enroll in health insurance programs, but not the only one,” said (former) White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

    And now, it could also win an Emmy.

    Image via Funny or Die, screenshot

    Get the WebProNews newsletter
    delivered to your inbox

    Get the free daily newsletter read by decision makers

    Subscribe
    Advertise with Us

    Ready to get started?

    Get our media kit