On Sunday night, Kevin Hart received the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
So that begs the question: Who should be next year’s recipient?
Before we know where we’re going, we have to know where we’ve been.
Past prizes have gone to a list of legends, including Richard Pryor, Jonathan Winters, Carl Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Newhart, Lily Tomlin, Lorne Michaels, Steve Martin, Neil Simon, Billy Crystal, George Carlin, Bill Cosby (rescinded), Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Ellen DeGeneres, Carol Burnett, Jay Leno, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, David Letterman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, Adam Sandler and Kevin Hart.
That’s right, the Kennedy Center apparently took WTOP’s advice on Stewart and Sandler after the last time we polled listeners five years ago, so which comedy icons can we humbly suggest to be honored next?
Here are 10 living comedians who deserve the prize:
10. Martin Lawrence — Kicking off our list is a hometown hero from the D.C. comedy scene. After supporting roles in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” and Eddie Murphy’s “Boomerang,” Martin Lawrence became a household name starring in the smash-hit TV sitcom “Martin” with the quotable catch phrase, “Damn, Gina!” He followed up with a string of hilarious comedy flicks, including “Life,” “Blue Streak” and the “Big Momma’s House” trilogy, not to mention teaming with Will Smith for four blockbuster installments of the “Bad Boys” action-comedy franchise.
9. Amy Schumer — After breaking through on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” Amy Schumer created the Comedy Central sketch-comedy series “Inside Amy Schumer” before starring in hilarious movies like Judd Apatow’s “Trainwreck” alongside Bill Hader, John Cena and LeBron James. She’s also co-hosted the Oscars, earned a Tony nomination for her Broadway play “Meteor Shower,” penned the memoir “The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo” and appeared on TV sitcoms like “Only Murders in the Building.” She next stars in “Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story.”
8. Melissa McCarthy — After her breakthrough role on “Gilmore Girls,” Melissa McCarthy won an Emmy for the sitcom “Mike & Molly” and an Oscar nomination for defiling a bathroom sink with diarrhea from food poisoning in the blockbuster comedy flick “Bridesmaids.” Since then, she’s become a one-woman wrecking crew of comedy and the heir apparent to Chris Farley’s pratfall brand of humor in movies like “The Heat,” “Tammy” and “The Boss,” not to mention a Golden Globe nomination for “Spy” and an Emmy win for guest starring on “Saturday Night Live.”
7. Kristen Wiig — After making her TV debut as Dr. Pat on the fake reality series “The Joe Schmo Show,” Kristen Wiig delivered an all-timer run on “Saturday Night Live” from 2005-2012 with so many memorable sketches that Lorne Michaels ranked her in his “top three or four” cast members ever. She also appeared in Judd Apatow’s “Knocked Up” before writing and starring in the hit movie “Bridesmaids” and the all-female “Ghostbusters.” Any time she shows up with Steve Carell as award-show presenters, they’re always the funniest bit of the night.
6. Steve Carell — After hilariously playing a news correspondent for Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show,” Steve Carrell delivered show-stealing supporting roles in “Anchorman” and “Bruce Almighty.” This earned him leading man status on the big screen in Judd Apatow’s “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” (“Ahhh, Kelly Clarkson!”), as well as memorable parts in “Little Miss Sunshine” and “The Way Way Back.” Still, his lasting legacy will be the U.S. remake of “The Office,” turning Michael Scott into a household name with genius deadpan delivery at Dunder Mifflin.
5. Amy Poehler — If Tina Fey received the prize in 2010, her hilarious Golden Globe co-host is just as deserving, rivaling Ricky Gervais for the most searing celebrity takedowns. The duo also collaborated on “Mean Girls” and countless sketches on “Saturday Night Live.” Still, Poehler’s lasting legacy is playing Leslie Knope on the hilarious sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” leading a star-studded cast of Nick Offerman, Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Aziz Ansari, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott and Rob Lowe. She even voiced the main character in Pixar’s “Inside Out.”
4. Chris Rock — After Dave Chappelle finally received his Mark Twain Prize, Chris Rock has to be on the shortlist of hysterical stand-up comedians who are next in line for the accolade. After his brief stint on “Saturday Night Live” in the early ’90s, Rock soon rivaled Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy for the funniest stand-up specials ever created in HBO’s “Bring the Pain,” “Bigger and Blacker” and “Never Scared,” spoofing society with fiery, imitable delivery: “Do you want a cookie?” His iron jaw during Will Smith’s Oscar slap only cements his place in TV history.
3. Jerry Seinfeld — What’s the deal with the creator of TV’s No. 1 sitcom not having a Twain Prize? Co-created by Larry David (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), “Seinfeld” gave us the legendary antics of Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer, while inventing an entirely new style of Seinfeldian comedy in a “show about nothing.” He even documented the genre’s greatest minds in “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” A year before Julia-Louis Dreyfus received her Twain Prize, Seinfeld told me on the red carpet, “I don’t know what I have to achieve in comedy to win that thing.”
2. Jim Carrey — If the prize for “American Humor” already made an exception for Canadian American Lorne Michaels, the same should go for dual citizen Jim Carrey. After playing Fire Marshall Bill on “In Living Color,” Carrey rattled off countless blockbusters in “Ace Ventura,” “The Mask,” “Dumb and Dumber,” “Liar Liar,” “The Truman Show” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” not to mention an over-the-top Grinch and Riddler. If you saw the documentary “Jim & Andy,” you’d believe he was possessed by Andy Kaufman in “Man on the Moon.”
1. Mel Brooks — Finally, the most urgent pick is 97-year-old spoof master Mel Brooks. After iconic sketches (“The 2,000 Year Old Man”) and TV series (“Get Smart”), Brooks burst onto the big screen with his Oscar-winning film “The Producers” before delivering some of Hollywood’s all-time funniest flicks with “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein,” “History of the World: Part 1,” “Spaceballs” and “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.” Alas, Brooks remains the proverbial white whale for Twain Prize creator Cappy McGarr, who said Brooks has turned it down repeatedly.
Other Living Contenders (in no particular order)
Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Martin Short, Robert Townsend, Ben Stiller, Kate McKinnon, Conan O’Brien, Wanda Sykes, Ricky Gervais, Albert Brooks, Will Smith, Ali Wong, Quinta Brunson, George Lopez, Ivan Reitman, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Dan Aykroyd, Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, Key & Peele, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, The Wayans Brothers, Sacha Baron Cohen, Judd Apatow, Bill Burr, John Mulaney, Bill Hader, Aziz Ansari, Paula Poundstone, Ted Danson, Arsenio Hall, Steve Harvey, Jamie Foxx, Molly Ringwald, Sinbad, Tim Allen, Tiffany Haddish, Chevy Chase, David Spade, Chelsea Handler, Drew Carey, Chris Tucker, Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Zach Galifianakis.
Late Legends (likely not in contention)
The Kennedy Center rarely honors posthumously, so we’ll sadly never see Robin Williams, Lucille Ball, Rodney Dangerfield, Joan Rivers, Groucho Marx, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, The Three Stooges, Abbott & Costello, Lenny Bruce, Mary Tyler Moore, Johnny Carson, Garry Shandling, Dick Gregory, George Burns, John Belushi, Redd Foxx, Harold Ramis, John Hughes, Gilda Radner, Leslie Nielsen, Jerry Lewis, Andy Kaufman, Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Bernie Mac, Don Rickles, Chris Farley or Mitch Hedberg.
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