Golden Globes: Eva Longoria on joke with America Ferrera

The Golden Globes may seem like a distant memory, but Eva Longoria and America Ferrera’s brief yet show-stealing comedy bit still has people talking.

Longoria and Ferrera explained the origin of their well-received Globes moment — in which they they joked about being mistakenly identified as other popular Latina actresses — during separate panels at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour in Pasadena.

“We got an amazing response. Next season’s the America and Eva show,” Longoria joked at the panel for her NBC series Telenovela.

“When we found out we were presenting together at the Golden Globes… they always send you copy and it’s always terrible. Bad jokes. We both took it back to both of our [shows’] writing staffs,” Longoria continued.

Ultimately, it was Ferrera and Superstore writer and executive producer Justin Spitzer who penned the joke.

“Well, actually, Justin and I were throwing ideas around. I went to Justin and said what’s going to be funny here? We went back and forth with it, and then Justin came up with the idea to play on what happened,” Ferrera said at Wednesday’s Superstore panel. Spitzer clarified that he only came up with “a little piece” of the idea, while America wrote most of it. “She’s very modest,” he said.

“It wasn’t until the day of that she sent me copy that they had written… and it was so funny,” Longoria said. “I’m always [being] called Eva Mendes, and then when that happened at the Hollywood Foreign Press with her being called Gina [Rodriguez], we just thought it would be funny.”

The response — especially its discourse on diversity — has surprised Longoria, who executive-produces and stars in Telenovela as a Spanish soap star who can’t speak Spanish. “It has caused such a macro conversation!” she said. “But that was a moment in which there’s truth and jest and I think it went over very, very well.”

Longoria said she and Ferrera became friends back when they both worked for ABC — Longoria on Desperate Housewives, and Ferrera on Ugly Betty — and were surprised to be placed on the same comedy line-up at NBC. “It’s two Latina leads. I don’t think NBC sought out to do that, that just ended up happening.”

Superstore airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on NBC; Telenovela follows at 8:30 p.m.