The 14th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor will be presented this year to Will Ferrell. For the benefit of you folks who occasionally see things on your computer screen and think, "It can't really say that. It must be a bug in the software," I shall repeat the preceding sentence:
The 14th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor will be presented this year to Will Ferrell.
I'm not a huge fan of Will Ferrell but in fairness, I haven't seen several of the movies that his fans seem to love…so maybe there's something happening there that I just haven't noticed. The following is less about him than about a growing trend out there to think "history" is anything in reruns and that a Lifetime Achievement Award can and should go to someone whose achievements were made during the lifetime of a housefly. The annual tributes at the Paley Center for Media used to be about the grand heritage of television and honoring work that had endured the test of time. Now, it's about what's hot at this moment on the networks. Shows are saluted not necessarily because of their lasting contributions but because they're successful this week.
They say this Mark Twain Prize — and I quote — "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.'" Okay, great. No argument there.
But when you read that, don't you think it's kind of about humor that has proven timeless enough to speak to more than just the audience at the time of its creation? Isn't there something in there about being quoted a lot and becoming a part of Americana? There are many comedians who will tell you that they were inspired to get into that field because of Bill Cosby and Jonathan Winters and Richard Pryor. Are there a lot of new comedians who have been motivated by the work of (as differentiated from the paycheck of) Will Ferrell? I'm just asking.
If ten or twenty years from now, there are a lot of humorists saying that and some of them have gone from that inspiration to create their own inspiring, influentual work then great. A Mark Twain Prize for Will Ferrell, absolutely. But they've never given one to — and this is just counting people who are currently alive — Sid Caesar, Stan Freberg, Shelley Berman, Don Rickles, Mort Sahl, Robert Klein, Carol Burnett, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, David Letterman, Tim Conway, Dan Aykroyd or Jerry Lewis. Now granted, some of those folks have won the full Kennedy Center Honors so you could maybe disqualify them…although Neil Simon at least has won both. Perhaps a few were offered the award but declined it for some reason. But couldn't Will Ferrell have waited a few years while they saluted great comedians who'll soon be in no condition to appear and appreciate the plaudits?
I understand about demographics…how the folks in charge might want to snag the younger viewers. But this event is televised on PBS. I also understand how the ceremony is a fund-raiser and they need to fill the room…and I'm not saying Will Ferrell might not do that better than, say, Shelley Berman. Another major consideration in the choice is probably who'll bring in a lot of billable name guests to speak and perform and that's probably Will Ferrell more than some of those other comics. I mean, you just know that when they gave it to Jonathan Winters a few years ago, a primary reason was that someone there said, "Betcha we could get Robin Williams to show up." I get all that.
I just think it's insulting to people who do fit the definition of the award to hand it instead to whoever's hot at the moment. Last year, it was Tina Fey, by the way. Same deal. Maybe they oughta give out two each year: One to someone who's got a hit series or a couple of hit movies…and one to someone who really deserves it.