Jokes miss the mark at 66th Emmy awards

SOFIA VERGARA has found herself in the middle of a social media storm over seemingly sexist jokes during the 66^th edition of the Emmys, America’s premier television awards ceremony.

The Colombian comedienne and actress participated in a joke on stage at the Nokia theatre in Los Angeles widely seen to objectify women, and which was lacking in humour to the vast majority of viewers.

Clad glamorously in a white ballgown, Vergara posed as an ‘aesthetic distraction’, slowly spinning around on a turntable whilst Bruce Rosenblum, the chairman of The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, delivered a traditionally serious and dry speech about the event, including phrases such as ‘we can’t forget that our success is based on giving the audience something to see’.

The joke generated immediate reaction on the social media site Twitter, where the stunt was labelled as sexist by critics.

Vergara hit back at critics after the event, saying that a person can be attractive, funny, and have a laugh at their own expense. The popular actress had seen success earlier in the evening, along with the rest of the cast of the hit comedy Modern Family, which picked up the award for ‘Best Comedy Series’ for the fifth consecutive year in a row.

Drama series Breaking Bad topped the honours list with five awards, including ‘Best Drama Series’, and ‘Best Actor’ and ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul respectively.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus won ‘Best Actress Comedy Series’ for the third consecutive time for her role in Veep, and Jim Parsons won his fourth ´Best Actor Comedy Series’ in a row.

The night also saw success for British efforts, with an Emmy going to Steven Moffat for his writing on Sherlock, as well as to Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman for ‘Best Actor’ and ‘Best Supporting Actor’ in a mini-series, also for their work on Sherlock.