On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 12:40 PM, Jon Delfin <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I'll always remember Ellen as the slutty third banana on "Open House," > > the "Duet" spinoff series. > > > > She seems a decent person and she can be funny, but this is another > > choice where I'm struggling to equate her talents and achievements > > with those of Mark Twain. > > You, me, and Mark Evanier. > http://www.newsfromme.com/2012/05/15/never-the-twain-shall-meet-2/ > I feel like I have posted the same response to almost the same post on the same topic for the last three or four years. I will try to make this year's edition brief. Those critical of the recipients seem to think the award is something like a lifetime achievement award for comedy - that the people who get it should be the funniest people of their generation, and who can point to a long body of work as being among the funniest people of their generation. Maybe that would be a nice award, but it is not was the Mark Twain Award is about. As noted on their web page ( http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/specialevents/marktwain/): "The Mark Twain Prize recognizes people who have had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th century novelist and essayist best known as Mark Twain. As a social commentator, satirist and creator of characters, Samuel Clemens was a fearless observer of society, who startled many while delighting and informing many more with his uncompromising perspective of social injustice and personal folly. He revealed the great truth of humor when he said "against the assault of laughter nothing can stand." The past recipients of the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize have been: Richard Pryor (1998), Jonathan Winters (1999), Carl Reiner (2000), Whoopi Goldberg (2001), Bob Newhart (2002), Lily Tomlin (2003), Lorne Michaels (2004), Steve Martin (2005), Neil Simon (2006), Billy Crystal (2007), George Carlin (2008), Bill Cosby (2009), Tina Fey (2010), and Will Ferrell (2011). As in the past, I make no claim that this year's winner is the only, or even the single best, potential winner of the prize. But I do think that DeGeneris, whose stand-up act I am only mildly a fan of (and have not really seen her perform anywhere in many years, though I did not her wild hair on her first Tonight Show gig in that recent Çarson documentary) fits in well both with the stated criteria and with list of past winners. The name that seems least deserving to me is Ferrell, not only because he is only occasionally funny (though for my money, when he is he is pretty damn funny) but because he seems least describable as a "fearless observer of society". Ellen clearly is a fearless observer of society, and is a hell of a lot funnier than Goldberg has ever been. Evanier was cranky that the prize has only gone to performers, but seems to have overlooked Neil Simon and Tina Fey and Steve Martin, all of whom are real writers - as opposed to writing down some version of their comedy act, while Cosby and Carlin at least did some significant writing of their own (without checking, I would guess Reiner and Goldgerg and Newhart and Tomlin have as well) -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
