On Sunday night, Bill Maher became the 26th comedian to receive the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts鈥� Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, honoring a career that has straddled comedy and politics for over 30 years.
Though he started as a traditional stand鈥憉p comedian, Maher became a household name in 1993 with the launch of Comedy Central鈥檚 Politically Incorrect.
After that show moved to ABC and was famously canceled, he transitioned to HBO, where he has now hosted Real Time with Bill Maher for 24 years 鈥� continuing his legacy of making both political parties laugh and, just as easily, making them angry.
On Sunday night, many of those coming to honor Maher noticed the tarp covering the front of the Kennedy Center, which hides where President Donald Trump鈥檚 name was removed following a judge鈥檚 ruling.
Former Mark Twain Prize winner Jay Leno said he would have talked about it on The Tonight Show when he was host.
鈥淚t鈥檚 silly,鈥� said Leno. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just vanity and vanity is always funny, whether it was Bill Clinton with his things. 鈥� I think we鈥檇 have a lot of fun.鈥�
Comedian and impressionist Matt Friend compared the tarp covering to the Upside Down world from the Netflix show Stranger Things, and ESPN鈥檚 Stephen A. Smith said, 鈥淲e need to be focused on bigger things than our name in every damn place.鈥�
Maher couldn鈥檛 say the word 鈥渢arp鈥� without laughing as he spoke to 麻豆官网 on the red carpet.
鈥淚 love it. I mean, the way he can do things,鈥� Maher said. 鈥淎s much as you might want to try to foresee his move, you couldn鈥檛 do it. I couldn鈥檛 have thought of that. And then there it is.鈥�
Most comedians of Maher鈥檚 era bring up their first appearance on Johnny Carson鈥檚 version of The Tonight Show as a career highlight.
Maher first heard Carson say his name while he waited behind the iconic curtain on Aug. 31, 1982. When reminded of a joke he told about former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev 鈥� 鈥淗e looks like he stubbed his face鈥� 鈥� Maher started to smile, chuckled and said, 鈥淚 think I remember.鈥�
When asked how that night compares to this one, he thought for a moment and said he had not been asked that.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there鈥檚 anything better than your first 鈥� sex, show business, whatever,鈥� Maher said. 鈥淧robably the first time I went on stage in high school and got laughs for the first time from a real audience. I think that鈥檚 the top, but this is a pretty good way to come back full circle.鈥�
The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor honoring Bill Maher premieres July 21 on Netflix.
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