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

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."

Soon, #DCPublicSchools started trending, and the district's Twitter page got in on the action, first tweeting emojis at Chappelle, then Oliver, followed by a photo of an adorably surprised young student and the caption, "Us right now."

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The district later said the shoutout was "an unexpected honor," and in a Twitter thank you speech gave props to its staff, students, and their families. Not wanting to waste their moment in the spotlight, they also shared a link that shared statistics and information on this "district on the rise."