Between a stroll into nostalgia (reminiscent of the last Primetime Emmys in January) and a series of expected victories by heavyweights like The bear, Shogun, Baby reindeerAnd HackingThe 76th Primetime Emmys could have been predicted to the second. The ceremony, which aired Sunday on ABC, had all the usual highlights, honoring industry greats like producer Greg Berlanti and beloved TV archetypes like TV moms, dads, villains, doctors and cops. What wasn’t predictable, though? The celebrities’ feline fixation on a notoriously sour comment from our Republican vice presidential nominee.

When a video of a 2021 Fox News interview resurfaced in July in which JD Vance told Tucker Carlson that our country is run by Democrats, “corporate oligarchs” and “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are unhappy with their own lives and the choices they’ve made” and “want to make the rest of the country unhappy too,” people scoffed at the sensational generalization. Vance’s comment, which found new life on social media after Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, names Harris, Pete Buttigieg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as emblematic of the fact that “the entire future of the Democrats” is “controlled by people without children.” Despite the fact that this slander is untrue—Harris is a stepmom, while Buttigieg and his husband have adopted twins—it became a flashpoint in the culture war that is the 2024 election. Vance’s denigration of both cats And People without children have faced vocal opposition in the form of editorials, statements from members of Congress, and comments from some celebrities, including Chelsea Handler, Jennifer Aniston, and most recently Taylor Swift — who signed her recent statement supporting Harris, “Taylor Swift, childless cat lady.”

Now the Emmys have added a handful of additional jabs to Vance’s snarky remark. It started with Emmy nominee Selena Gomez, who presented the first award of the night for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, along with her Only murders in the building Co-hosts Steve Martin and Martin Short and is known to be Swift’s best friend – she said: “And let me tell you, what an honor it is to work with two guys who are so far from being childless cat ladies.” Then Candice Bergen, star of Murphy Browncame on stage to present the award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. During the presentation, Bergen reminded us how the show upset then-Vice President Dan Quayle when Bergen’s title character became pregnant and decided to raise her child as a single mother. Bergen followed her retrospective with, “Oh, how far we’ve come… Today, a Republican candidate for Vice President would never attack a woman for having children. So, as they say, my work here is done. Meow!(I dare say it was the meow heard around the world.) And as a bonus, if The CarryWhen Ebon Moss-Bachrach won Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for the second year in a row, he thanked his parents, praising them for “taking such good care of my cat.” Was that a political reference or just a thank you to his parents? Unclear, but we’ll take it.

Overall, the ceremony was rather lax in terms of socio-political statements compared to the awards ceremonies of recent years, although Reservation dogs D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai wore a red handprint over his mouth to raise awareness for #NoMoreStolenSisters, while BridgertonNicola Coughlan wore an Artists4Ceasefire pin and Baby reindeerRichard Gadd from the ceremony wore a pin in support of the UK-based organization We Are Survivors. Yet in their nearly three hours (a miracle!), the Emmys found time to constantly remind the audience to vote, celebrate the most diverse nominees list ever, and recognize the hard-working cat parents among us. It wasn’t just a cat party, though – dog owners were represented too, in the form of a simultaneously touching and heartfelt acceptance speech from Last week tonightIt was John Oliver who compared himself to Sarah McLachlan when a musical cue was played for him from the stage while he was delivering the eulogy for his deceased dog.

In short, for better or worse, the Emmys have ensured that pets (a topic that dominated numerous headlines last week for rather unsavory reasons) remain a topic of conversation. I’ll give the last word to Murphy Brown himself: Meow.