Mark Twain once said: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
He knew what he was talking about.
Bill Maher is getting the Mark Twain Prize from the Kennedy Center after all.
Last week, The Atlantic broke that story. But then the White House denied it and called it “fake news.”
On his live to tape show on Friday, Maher didn’t say a word about it. He had plenty of time, too.
So what happened? The White House didn’t like getting scooped. So they labeled the whole thing as rubbish. Maher didn’t want to rock the boat since he knew the award would be announced at some point.
Politico broke the story this morning that Maher was indeed getting the award despite a contentious relationship with Trump. But don’t forget, Maher got a lot of flack last year for flying down to Mar-a-Lago and having dinner with Trump.
It’s hard to imagine how this all play out. Last year, the Twain award went to Conan O’Brien. He and all his guests on stage devastated Trump. Will that happen again? Will guests be advised not to to address the elephant in the room? Will Trump attend the show?
Maher, in an embargoed statement in the forthcoming Kennedy Center announcement, said: “Thank you to the Mark Twain people: I just had the award explained to me, and apparently it’s like an Emmy, except I win.”
“I’d just like to say that it is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain,” he joked.
