Bill Maher Is Mark Twain Prize Winner, Despite WH Denials

Bill Maher is getting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor after all, despite the Trump White House insisting just days ago that he wasn't. The Kennedy Center on Thursday named the Real Time host as the 27th recipient of its top comedy honor, confirming a report the Trump administration had previously labeled "fake news," per The Hollywood Reporter. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt and communications chief Steven Cheung had both publicly dismissed as false the initial Atlantic story naming Maher as the recipient.

An anonymous White House official now tells the Washington Post that the original story wasn't accurate "at the time of the Atlantic's reporting, but the situation changed after further conversations took place between the Trump-Kennedy Center and event organizers over the past week." Financial filings show why the award matters to the institution beyond prestige: The Mark Twain Prize brought in $5.2 million for the Kennedy Center in fiscal 2024, thanks largely to corporate sponsorships and its Netflix deal, per THR. The prize is meant to recognize figures who have shaped American culture through humor in the tradition of Mark Twain.

Maher, who has spent more than two decades at HBO after hosting Politically Incorrect on Comedy Central and ABC, has 42 Emmy nominations and one win, as an executive producer for HBO's VICE. "For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse—one politically incorrect joke at a time," says the Kennedy Center's Roma Daravi. Maher, in turn, joked that the Twain Prize is "like an Emmy, except I win," calling it "humbling" to receive something named after a writer "who's been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain."

Previous Twain honorees include Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Tina Fey, Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, Adam Sandler, Kevin Hart, and last year's recipient, Conan O'Brien. The Kennedy Center has set Maher's ceremony for June 28 in Washington, DC. The event, which the AP notes will be one of the Kennedy Center's last before closing for a two-year renovation, will air exclusively on Netflix at a later date.