DC Public Schools takes advantage of Emmy shoutouts from Dave Chappelle and John Oliver

(Image credit: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 18 September 2017

When John Oliver tells his fans to tweet out a hashtag, they listen, which is why #DCPublicSchools started trending during Sunday night's Emmy awards.

It started with a joke by presenter Dave Chappelle, who said he hadn't gone to rehearsals and was going to have to lean on the teleprompter. "Shoutout to DC Public Schools," he added. A few segments later, the Last Week Tonight host took the stage when the show won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a variety series (and, later, Best Variety Talk Series), and said, "I would like to unexpectedly thank DC Public Schools, just to get it trending on Twitter for no reason."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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