Tina Fey deserves it, but who else should get the Mark Twain Prize?

Monday, 15 November 2010 11:28

BY WARREN BOROSON

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Tina Fey certainly deserved it — the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, as shown on television Sunday the 14th. So quick, so clever, so surprising, so charming. And a Democrat.

Tina was the latest winner. Other women who have won the Mark Twain Prize: Whoopi Goldberg and Lily Tomlin. (I ask people: What was Whoopi Goldberg's name before she changed it? Answer: Whoopi Cohen. Actually, Johnson.) Lily Tomlin worked as a receptionist at Fact magazine when she was young — I was an editor there. Every time I passed by her desk, she made a hilariously funny comment; I was thinking of suggesting that she write comedy, but I never got around to it.

So, where's Lucille Ball? Sure, she was gone when the Mark Twain prizes began in 1998, but there should be special awards for other deserving comedians. They should be grandfathered, and grandmothered, in. Among women: Gracie Allen, Carol Brunett, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, Sarah Silverman, Ellen DeGeneres, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner.

Among men: Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Chevy Chase, Andy Kaufman, Buddy Hackett, W.C. Fields, Alan King, Abbott and Costello, Joe E. Lewis, Woody Allen, Harold Lloyd, Robin Williams, Jerry Lewis, Buster Keaton, Lenny Bruce, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, George Burns, Jerry Seinfeld.

If I were to nominate three men and three women who should be immediately honored with the Mark Twain prize, they would be Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope, and Groucho Marx.

The three women: Lucille Ball, Gracie Allen, and Gilda Radner.

If I were asked to name a fourth: Jack Benny and Carol Burnett.

If I were asked to name a fifth.... Well, why doesn't someone else propose some names?

Other past winners, besides the three women, were Richard Pryor, Jonathan Winters, Bill Cosby, Carl Reiner, Bob Newhart, Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, Neil Simon, Billy Crystal, and George Carlin.

You can see Warren Boroson in a standup comic routine on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYEJ0MhMYJ4

Comments (3)

What did she do by herself? Lucille Ball worked best with a team. The reason that the I Love Lucy television show is successful is not because of Lucille Ball but because of her husband, their co-stars and the rest of the cast. It was a team effort that worked. The team (most of which has passed away) should be honored, not Lucille Ball.

As for others, how about honoring Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Norman Lear and Matt Groening? They keep comedy alive to this day.

Imogene Coca, Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks, Red Skelton, Jimmy Durante, Will Rogers.

they have already prize to tina fey ,and i watched the special on pbs,it was coming across as part democrat convention(or meeting) and a bad awards show for a woman who does not deserve a somewhat honorable award in humor(at least not yet).i know this not her fault,but all she had to do is refused the award and that would have been it.thank you

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Tina Fey deserves it, but who else should get the Mark Twain Prize?

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