The people who play make-believe for a living unleashed on President Donald Trump at the 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards.

It was an embarrassing display of vulgarity and petulance — even by Hollywood’s low standards.

Many of our readers have asked me, “Todd, how could you watch such a disgusting television program?”

I watched so our readers would not have to be subjected to such garish behavior. Consider it an act of public service, America.

It was not so much an awards ceremony as it was a more narcissistic version of a Democratic National Committee meeting. The self-absorbed crowd lavished love on Hillary Clinton and hurled insults at President Trump.

Within just a few minutes, host Stephen Colbert had navigated through an opening segment that included references to the Confederacy, global warming and Nazis.

“Imagine if your president wasn’t loved by Nazis,” Julia Louis-Dreyfus said.

At least they did not spontaneously thrust their hands in the air and shout, “Heil, Hitler.”

Mr. Colbert and the audience should be commended for their restraint.

“We all know that the Emmys mean a lot to Donald Trump because he was nominated multiple times for ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ but he never won,” Colbert said. “Why didn’t you give him an Emmy? I’ll tell you this — if he had won an Emmy, I bet he wouldn’t have run for president. So this is all your fault. I thought you people love morally compromised antiheroes. You like Walter White — he’s just Walter much whiter.”

There were a bevy of jokes about impeachment and orange hair, but the worst of the worst were squawking magpies Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda.

“Back in the 1980s, in that movie, we refused to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying hypocritical bigot,” Fonda said, referring to the film “9 to 5.”

“And in 2017, we still refuse to be controlled by a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot,” Tomlin said to huge applause.

The state of race relations was also a theme.

“I want to thank Trump for making black people number one on the most oppressed list,” Emmy winner Donald Glover said. “He’s the reason I’m probably up here.”

And Issa Rae, the star of HBO’s “Insecure,” declared on the red carpet that she only wanted black people to win awards.

“I’m rooting for everyone black,” she said. “I am!”

I’ll leave it for the experts to determine whether or not Ms. Rae’s comments rose to the level of racism or just run-of-the-mill bigotry.

But there may have been one person even more despised than President Trump — and that would be new Emmys announcer Jermaine Fowler.

His delivery could best be described as a cross between a cat getting caught in a wood chipper and the drive-thru guy at Burger King.