John Oliver names Liverpool stars in hilarious speech as British comedian wins Emmy Award

Liverpool stars Alisson, Trent-Alexander Arnold and Virgil van Dijk were all name-dropped as John Oliver scooped yet another Emmy award.

The British comedian was testing the limit of his winners' speech and began to name the Liverpool team after his 'Last Week Tonight' TV show came first in the Outstanding Scripted Variety Series.

It is the eighth straight year that the HBO show has won in an Outstanding Series category.

And a jubilant Oliver, whose writers won the Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series award, began to pay tribute to his beloved Reds.

Though he named just three players before host Anthony Anderson's mum Doris — introduced to the audience as 'play-off mama' tasked with wrapping up long speeches — hinted he was overrunning.

He began his speech by saying: «Thanks so much to my staff, many of them are here tonight.

»Thank you to HBO and our lawyers, who are angry with us all the time. Thank you to my wife, Kate, who is here tonight."

After then apologising to his children for failing to get them Pokemon cards, he turned his attention to Jurgen Klopp's side, as he remarked: «I am not leaving until I get played off by Anthony Anderson's mum.

»So I'm going to start reading off the names of the Liverpool football team.

«In goal, Alisson Becker. Then you've got Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk. Oh she's not here? I can get through the whole team then!»

It was at that point that Anderson's mother stood up from her seat and loudly joked 'Baby...', prompting Oliver to state: «I would like to thank Jesus and my family.»

Oliver, who was raised in Birmingham to parents from Merseyside, explained his family dynamic to Liverpool's media team in 2016.

He said: «My family is from Liverpool — both sides. My mum’s family are