Last laugh for ‘Big Mouth’: Can its final season win the Best Animated Program Emmy?
After eight years of monsters inspired by our feelings, tons of talking inanimate objects, a library of original songs that could fill a double-album, and so many quotations from Guy Bilzerian’s law commercials, Big Mouth has officially come to an end. The widely praised Netflix animated sitcom recently premiered its eighth and final season, but the question remains: Can it finally win the Emmy for Best Animated Program?
Big Mouth comes from the minds of Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg alongside Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett and centers on several kids in the Westchester suburbs of New York who are starting to hit puberty. The changes in their bodies are navigated and personified by a whole host of crazy characters that include hormone monsters, anxiety mosquitoes, shame wizards, and even the ghost of Duke Ellington. The show stars Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, Jenny Slate, Ayo Edebiri, Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, Andrew Rannells, and Jordan Peele.
Since its first year of eligibility, Big Mouth has had a consistent presence at the Emmy Awards, while the categories that it pops up in have been a bit more erratic. For the first season in 2018, it didn’t make it into Best Animated Program, but did manage to get a nomination for Best Music and Lyrics for composer Mark Rivers' original song “Am I Gay?” The following year, the show made it into the race for the top animated program with the episode “The Planned Parenthood Show,” but lost the prize to The Simpsons.
Season 3 got a big boost at the Emmys in 2020 with two nominations for the show (its episode "Disclosure The Movie: The Musical!" lost to Rick and Morty) and for Rudolph, who took home her first career Emmy for Best Character Voice-Over Performance for playing Connie the Hormone Monstress in “How to Have an Orgasm.” That year, the Instagram series Big Mouth Guide to Life also won in the category of Best Derivative Interactive Program.
The show was last nominated for Best Animated Program in 2021 for the fourth season episode “The New Me,” but lost that race to Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal.
Rudolph went on to claim three additional trophies in the voice-over category: for “A Very Special 9/11 Episode” in 2021, “Asexual Healing” in 2023, and “The Ambition Gremlin” in 2024. She only lost once — in 2022, to the late Chadwick Boseman (What If...?) — when she was nominated for the episode “A Very Big Mouth Christmas.”
So, what does this all mean for Big Mouth as it makes one last attempt to seize the trophy for Best Animated Program? Well, that’s where things get complicated. The last time the show got in here was four years ago, but getting back in wouldn’t be completely unheard of. Several programs have not gotten attention here only to score nominations for their very last seasons, including Adventure Time and Phineas and Ferb. Even perennial favorite South Park has had long absences from the category, only to return after several years.
Getting the nomination might be the more challenging task for the show. If it were to get in, there are several factors that could play in its favor. The reviews for the final season have been incredibly favorable, with the episodes scoring a 100 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. When you throw in the reigning political attitudes that seek to suppress sexual education for youth in the United States, Big Mouth could be an extremely attractive pick for Emmy voters. If that mindset prevails, it could become the show of the moment and finally have a rendezvous with a certain golden-winged lady.
All episodes of Big Mouth are streaming now on Netflix.
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