Jennifer Coolidge was honored with the Comedic Genius award at the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards. Although the show turned into a clip show due to the writers strike, the White Lotus star accepted her award via a pretaped message.
“Thank you MTV for honoring me with this incredible Comedic Genius award,” Coolidge said while naming past recipients like Melissa McCarthy, Will Ferrell, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kevin Hart and Jack Black.
Coolidge joked that the award was made of her favorite food — popcorn. The Legally Blonde alum also took the opportunity during her acceptance speech to acknowledge the WGA strike that is ongoing.
“Almost all great comedy starts with great writers,” she said. “I just think that as a proud member of SAG, I stand here before you tonight side by side with my sisters and brothers from the WGA that are fighting right now — fighting for the rights of artists everywhere.”
Coolidge continued, “I think of the words of Shakespeare where he once said, ‘The play is the thing.’ Well, I don’t wanna put words in his mouth or anything but I think what he really meant was — It’s everything.”
The Comedic Genius recipient ended her speech by dancing to “Jump Around” by House of Pain.
Watch the speech in the video posted below.