{"id":349104,"date":"2026-03-26T16:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/349104\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:47:07","slug":"bill-maher-to-receive-mark-twain-prize-for-humor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/349104\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Maher to receive Mark Twain Prize for Humor"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s the point of even being the president if you can\u2019t do the one thing that would unite all Americans? President Donald Trump has many unpopular opinions. From immigration to the economy to the movies Paramount should be making<\/a>, Trump is a pretty effective bad-take engine. But as the old saying goes, \u201cHeartbreaking! The worst person you know just made a great point.\u201d President Trump reportedly doesn\u2019t think that Bill Maher should receive the Kennedy Center\u2019s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Alas, the man can kidnap the president of a sovereign nation, but he can\u2019t stop that, and after 40 years, Trump has finally reached the limit of what putting his name on a building<\/a> can get him. Per The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, Maher will receive the Prize on June 28 at the Trump-Kennedy Center, and the ceremony will be streamed exclusively on the home of bigoted, ideologically toxic comedy: Netflix. The whole thing begs the question: Has the Kennedy Center voting board even heard Club Random?<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to the Mark Twain people: I just had the award explained to me, and apparently it\u2019s like an Emmy, except I win,\u201d Maher said, presumably with that smug, \u201cdid I really just say that\u201d look on his face. \u201cI\u2019d just like to say that it is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who\u2019s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is all to the chagrin of the White House, which is in deep, deep denial that someone as unfunny as Maher could receive the Prize. Considered quite prestigious, the honor had previously gone to Conan O\u2019Brien, Steve Martin, George Carlin, Neil Simon, Jay Leno, Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Bill Cosby, and\u2014you know what? It\u2019s fine. He can have it. Regardless of the body\u2019s inconsistent track record, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had some big feelings about Maher getting it. \u201cThis is fake news. Bill Maher will NOT be getting this award,\u201d she said last week. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung doubled down on Leavitt\u2019s attempts not to appear too mad about Maher\u2019s smug, centrist brand of provocation receiving the honor. \u201cLiterally FAKE NEWS,\u201d he said. It was all for naught.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy,\u201d said Roma Daravi, VP of PR for the Trump-Kennedy Center. \u201cFor even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse \u2013 one politically incorrect joke at a time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Davari is clearly referring to such politically incorrect jokes as the time Maher referred to himself as a racial slur (yes, that racial slur)<\/a> in an interview with then-seated Republican Senator Ben Sasse. Or the time he said Islam<\/a> is \u201cthe only religion that acts like the mafia, that will fucking kill you if you do the wrong thing.\u201d Or the time he made buddy-buddy with white supremacist Milo Yiannopoulos<\/a> on Real Time, who used the national audience to promote transphobic vitriol and call Black Lives Matter a terrorist group. Thankfully, social ills like Islamophobia, racism, transphobia, and misogyny have been completely eradicated from American life because, as Maher says, sunshine is the best disinfectant. We have Maher and his obsession with booking Anne Coulter to thank, in part, for the completely manageable and totally sane society we have today. Can we propose a new rule: Stop encouraging Bill Maher.<\/p>\n

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