Posted on 03/26/2026 4:03:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Satirist Bill Maher is this year's recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Maher will receive the award at the Kennedy Center on June 28th. The show will stream on Netflix at a later date. Satirist Bill Maher is this year's recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Maher will receive the award at the Kennedy Center on June 28th. The show will stream on Netflix at a later date.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP Bill Maher will be receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor after all.
There's been some confusion about whether the comedian and longtime host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher would, indeed, be getting the top humor award. After The Atlantic cited anonymous sources saying he was, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it "fake news." But today the Kennedy Center made it official.
"For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy," said Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center's vice president of public relations in a statement. "For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse – one politically incorrect joke at a time."
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Is President Trump, chair of the Kennedy Center's board, in on the joke?
Maher once visited Trump at the White House and he tends to be more conservative than many of his comedian peers but after their dinner Trump soured on Maher, calling him a "highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT" on social media.
Maher's acerbic wit has targeted both political parties and he's been particularly hard on Trump recently, criticizing his decisions to wage a war with Iran and his personnel choices.
"Trump said, 'when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.' Um, who's 'we?,'" Maher said in a recent monologue.
Past recipients of the Mark Twain Prize include Conan O'Brien, Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy and Carol Burnett.
In a statement released through the Kennedy Center, Maher said, "It is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who's been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain."
Maher will receive the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center on June 28. The show will stream on Netflix at a later date.
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Mark Twain was a humorist which is a lot different than being a comedian.
Rumors of Mark Twain being a standup have been greatly exaggerated.
All said with humble piety.
Kennedy-Trump center NPR.
Can’t report things factually, can you?
I caught that straight-up.
But it is NPR after all - Numbskull’s Parading as Reporters.
“….he tends to be more conservative than many of his comedian peers.”
And there is your answer to why late night comedy is dead. Bill Maher, “more conservative” than his peers. Sad thing is I can’t disagree with it. We’re really cooked.
Does Bill write his own jokes?
I thought the lefties said Mark Twain was a wacist!
Many would say the same thing about those numerous Ernest Hemingway Writing Contests held every year across the country. For a long while, there was even one called ‘International Imitation Hemingway Competition (aka “Bad Hemingway).
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