The Trump Kennedy Center will give this year’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor to Bill Maher — despite adamant claims by the White House that it wouldn’t happen.
“For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy,” said Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations. “For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse — one politically incorrect joke at a time.”
Seen, Heard & Whispered was told that the D.C. center appreciated Mr. Maher’s willingness to throw “punches at both sides of the aisle.”
“The center is a place where all opinions & beliefs are welcome,” a source said.
Mr. Maher, longtime host of HBO’s “Real Time” show, pronounced himself thrilled with the award.
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“Thank you to the Mark Twain people: I just had the award explained to me, and apparently it’s like an Emmy, except I win,” he said. “I’d just like to say that it is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain.”
The award is a bit of an embarrassment for the White House, though.
After the news of the award leaked last week in a report in The Atlantic, presidential spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called the idea “fake news.”
“Bill Maher will not be getting this award,” she said.
The Atlantic said the White House called the center to “make clear that Maher would not receive the prize.”
President Trump has been brutal in his assessment of Mr. Maher recently, including a lengthy social media post last month calling him a “highly overrated lightweight” and urging Republicans to stop appearing on his show.
Mr. Trump did say Mr. Maher was “slightly more talented” than the late-night comics the networks offer up in Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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