What Bill Maher Said About Trump As He Received Kennedy Center Prize
UPDATED: Bill Maher celebrated his ability to anger the right and the left Sunday as he received the Kennedy Center‘s Mark Twain Prize, with a message to those who complain about being mocked: Stop being ridiculous.
He cited the center’s chairman, Donald Trump, who was not present, and his attacks on him.
“Now the president, when he is in attack mode, never fails to say I am part of the lunatic left,” Maher said in accepting the award. “Okay, he’s not wrong that there is one. I’m just not part of it, and I’m sure there is a lunatic right. And when either side gets mad at me because I put them in jokes, jokes that work, my message to them is simple: You want to not get mocked? Stop being funny. Then the jokes will work. When they are ridiculous, they do work, and when people laugh, you’re caught.”
He added, “Laughter is involuntary. It’s people’s inescapable truth detector, whether they want to believe it or not.”
When The Atlantic first reported earlier this year that Maher would receive the prize, the White House said that it would not happen. But after about a week, he was announced as the recipient. Netflix, which is streaming the ceremony later this month, also has a say in who will be honored, given that it has had rights to the event, set to debut on the streamer July 21.
Earlier, Maher talked to reporters about the possibility of Trump showing up — “because anything is possible with him” — but that never happened. Instead, comedian Matt Friend came to the stage and imitated Trump, eventually demanding that he get the award. “I get so many more laughs than this guy,” Friend as Trump said.
“Just take it. I am used to losing awards,” Maher said. He later noted that he has received 41 nominations but has continuously lost. “I lost one year to the Yule Log. Is it something I said? It’s everything I said.”
Maher was recognized as a figure in comedy who embraced free speech and didn’t play to just one side of the aisle. The ceremony featured extensive clips, dating to his days on ABC with Politically Incorrect, canceled after comments he made in the aftermath of 9/11, as well as his stand-up specials and podcasts. Throughout the ceremony, figures such as Arianna Huffington, Stephen A. Smith, Jay Leno and Woody Harrelson paid tribute, while Jerry Seinfeld spoke from Las Vegas. John Mellencamp closed the show with a performance.
Louis C.K., facing the furor of sexual misconduct allegations, said of Maher, “He offered to help me when no one else would.”
“I am not a political guy,” Louis C.K. said. “I wrote one joke about Trump and it took me about 18 months. It was about when he was shot the first time, and it was about the kid, because the kid had a plan, you know? He was going to go to the rally, shoot Trump and kill him, but instead, he got shot, and he died, and really, from his point of view, that could not have been worse.”
Whitney Cummings offered some of the most biting humor about Trump during the evening. “I actually heard Trump may come tonight but he couldn’t make it. He got caught in sex traffic.” In an audience that included a handful of Trump administration figures like Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick (whose wife Allison is on the Kennedy Center board), the quip got some ooohs, along with laughs.
Friend, as Trump, and Maher went into an extended exchange over the late-night comedian’s visit to Trump last year at the White House.
“Well, Bill, you went back on a deal. You come to the White House, I give you a steak, you go completely off on me,” Friend’s Trump said.
“No, no. I gotta stop you there,” Maher said. “You keep saying that. We never had any deal. The dinner was always about just having the two sides talk to each other instead of shouting at each other. There was no quid pro quo.”
Friend’s Trump replied, “Well, Bill, I’m gonna be honest. You were very nervous. You had a drink right away.”
Maher responded, “You keep saying that, too. That’s a bunch of bullsh*t. also. Yes, I had a drink before dinner, as people do. It’s not that weird to have a drink before dinner. For God’s sake, you work with Pete Hegseth.” That got loud laughter in the audience.
Maher also called out the left, noting recent efforts to censor Twain’s Huckleberry Finn because it uses racist language, even though it is in “the service of mocking racism.”
“The silly purists on the left want to ban it now, which just shows that if you hang around long enough and create something important enough, everyone hates you at some point, and that is when you know you are doing it right,” he said.
Maher praised his audience, saying, “People say they want honesty, they don’t. They want to live in a bubble. They say they want to be challenged. They don’t, except for my audience. They love it, and I love them for it. And I’m sorry, I think that makes them better. Why? Because I don’t ask what will please the audience. I ask what is true and they are OK with that.”
“They are a unique group of people who do not demand to be pandered to, and in fact, want me not to do that, and it has been the honor of a lifetime to try and lead a backlash to groupthink.”
An afterparty on the top floor of the center featured replicas of Maher’s Real Time and Club Random sets. Among those spotted: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and former Attorney General Pam Bondi, another Kennedy Center board member. Others who attended the event included Sen. John Fetterman (D-MA) and Dr. Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
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Bill can’t do his show without mentioning Trump in the first five minutes of his show. Don’t know what he will do in 2-1/2 years?. What’s CNN and MSNBC going to do?
Say what you want about Trump he has taken over a Decade of Morning, Noon, and Night press, it’s Trump skywritten across the World’s sky. Quite an accomplishment!
Bill offends everyone equally. We need more of this. Not less. Glad he has a stage, even if I don’t always agree with him.
Say what you like about Maher, he took his own advice decades ago and is hanging on to it with an iron grip.
This. Trump trolls mock him, but Bill has been critical BOTH parties for abandoning common sense.
Maher has great observations and calls people to the mat when absolutely necessary (or if entertaining), but the man has lived in a bubble to the point that he’s self-isolated from those he says he champions. It’s a common thing with successful people in Hollywood. They literally forget where they came from even when they think they haven’t (except the nepo’s since privilege is all they’ve ever known).
Couple that with Maher’s inherent out-of-touchness that simply comes from the aging process, no matter how hard he claims to be ‘with it.’ The only comedian/satirist who acknowledged age but still held onto core universal truths that crossed generations was George Carlin. A man who left a legacy of greatness and poignancy people like Maher chase but likely will never achieve. And Maher himself would acknowledge that.
“This country was bought and paid for a long time ago. That empty shit they shuffle around and repackage every four years doesn’t mean a thing.” — George Carlin
Ain’t no comparison, man… like, none whatsoever.
Imagine winning one of comedy’s most prestigious awards and the only people that stand up to honor you are Louis CK and Whitney Cummings. Was Jeff Dunham busy?
“Imagine winning one of comedy’s most prestigious awards”… your sentence should stop there….
PS – Arianna Huffington, Stephen A. Smith, Jay Leno and Woody Harrelson paid tribute, while Jerry Seinfeld spoke from Las Vegas. John Mellencamp closed the show with a performance…
“…Arianna Huffington, Stephen A. Smith, Jay Leno and Woody Harrelson…That’s a regular Mount Rushmore of comedy right there. Hahaha.
@hahaha
How does one say “I’m a moron donkey, without saying I’m a moron donkey”.
Whitney Cummings is very much adjacent to Mt. Rushmore and is a friend to Bill going back 20 years.
Woody is an old friend, also a multiple Oscar & Emmy nominated actor.
Arianna Huffington is also an old friend. Oh, she’s also the co-founder of HuffPost, founder and CEO of Thrive Global, author of fifteen books, named Time magazine’s world’s 100 most influential people & Forbes Most Powerful Women.
You actually said “hahaha” after including a 2-decade host of the top-rated late night show who’s done standup longer than you’ve been alive & a multiple Oscar/Emmy-nominated actor who had a lengthy run on the greatest sitcom to ever exist. Gotcha. Friggin’ amateurs.
That’s because most celebrities are a bunch of cowardly wimps. I salute those who did show up to support their friend, and my respect for them doubled.