The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, one of the highest honors a comedian can receive, is awarded by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and named after the author known for his legacy as a political satirist. The entire point of the award is to recognize comedians who use humor to critique political leaders. This year, it went to Bill Maher. But the story that followed had less to do with the winner and more to do with what got cut before the cameras rolled.
Comedian Whitney Cummings, who appeared at the ceremony, spoke openly on her podcast about being told to remove a joke during rehearsals. According to Cummings, Kennedy Center staff warned her that certain material could cost them their jobs.
“I was practicing my jokes and people were like, ‘Yeah, we’ll get fired if you say that,'” she said. “That is the worst thing you could hear before, as a comic.”
The joke in question was a reference to Trump, the Kennedy family, and Marilyn Monroe. Cummings dropped it before the show. A second joke, in which she referenced Trump being “caught in traffic,” was performed on the night and reported by journalists in the audience, with coverage appearing in People magazine. She was then informed that it would also be removed from the Netflix broadcast of the ceremony.
The pressure to cut the material, she says, came from the fact that Donald Trump serves as board chair of the Kennedy Center.
“It is true that their boss is Donald Trump,” Cummings said. “So they did their job.”
She also raised the possibility of legal action as a factor. “They’re like, ‘He will sue you,'” she said, referencing Trump’s history of pursuing defamation claims.
Cummings wrestled openly with the decision, noting the particular weight of the setting.
“This is the only time that you shouldn’t get censored because it is about comedians using humor to criticize our elected officials,” she said.
The situation sits uneasily with the purpose of the award itself. The Mark Twain Prize has been given to comedians like Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, Eddie Murphy, and Conan O’Brien, all of whom built careers on pointed social and political commentary. That a ceremony honoring that tradition would reportedly result in jokes about a sitting president being pulled from a major broadcast points to a tension between institutional control and the very comedy the night was meant to celebrate.
Cummings described the experience as a difficult position with no clear right answer.
“Did he win or did I win by cutting the joke?” she said. “I was kind of like, I think I won.”
