{"id":125754,"date":"2017-10-23T01:21:24","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T05:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=125754"},"modified":"2017-10-23T01:21:24","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T05:21:24","slug":"no-joke-tv-host-letterman-honoured-with-mark-twain-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/23\/no-joke-tv-host-letterman-honoured-with-mark-twain-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"No joke: TV host Letterman honoured with Mark Twain Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fellow<\/a>
Fellow entertainers gathered to honour Letterman Sunday night where he was receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. (Photo<\/a>: David Letterman\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON\u2014 David Letterman was celebrated at the Kennedy Center Sunday night for his record run on late-night TV, innovative comedy routines and for helping the nation start to heal by reassuring that it was OK to laugh again after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n

Now his career of comedy has earned him a prestigious award and a celebrity roasting.<\/p>\n

Fellow entertainers gathered to honour Letterman Sunday night where he was receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.<\/p>\n

Among those in attendance were previous recipients Steve Martin and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, who recalled a monologue he gave on his show shortly after 9-11.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou let us know it was OK to move on and OK to laugh again,\u201d Kimmel said. \u201cDave, you led the way for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kimmel jokingly blamed the election of President Donald Trump on Letterman’s retirement in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s like you went out for cigarettes one day and left us in the hands of our abusive, orange stepfather,\u201d Kimmell said.<\/p>\n

The crowd included comedians Biff Henderson, John Mulaney, and Jimmie Walker of the 1970s television series \u201cGood Times.\u201d Walker gave Letterman one of his first jobs as a joke writer in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

The 70-year-old Letterman spent 33 years on late-night TV, hosting long-running shows on NBC and then on CBS. His final broadcast on May 20, 2015, was episode No. 6028 that Letterman hosted. It shattered the record of his mentor, Johnny Carson.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, comedians Steve Martin and Martin Short honoured him by needling him about his bushy, white beard.<\/p>\n

\u201cDave has always had excellent instincts. What better time that now to choose to look like a Confederate war general,\u201d Steve Martin said.<\/p>\n

Letterman’s run on NBC in particular was hugely influential, introducing a sardonic, irony-drenched comedic style that influenced a generation.<\/p>\n

His time slot immediately following Carson’s \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d allowed Letterman to draw a huge following of young, largely college-age viewers seeking an alternative to the somewhat staid Carson model.<\/p>\n

Letterman introduced the country to fringe musical acts that might never have received an opportunity on \u201cThe Tonight Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

His humour was undeniably intelligent, but also at times surrealistic and silly. He pioneered segments called Stupid Pet Tricks and Stupid Human Tricks. He tossed watermelons and other objects off a five-story building; at one point, he wore a suit made of Velcro and jumped onto a Velcro-covered wall, sticking in place. He turned bizarre characters like Larry \u201cBud\u201d Melman into cult celebrities.<\/p>\n

Letterman started his career as a radio talk show host and TV weatherman in Indiana. In the mid-1970s he moved to Los Angeles, performing stand-up comedy and writing jokes for (at the time more famous) stand-up comic Jimmy Walker of \u201cGood Times\u201d fame. Eventually he caught the eye of \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d and Carson, performing several times on the show and becoming a regular guest host starting in 1978.<\/p>\n

NBC gave Letterman his own show following Carson; \u201cLate Night with David Letterman\u201d debuted on Feb. 1, 1982. Letterman’s first guest that night? Bill Murray, the Twain award recipient in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u2014 David Letterman was celebrated at the Kennedy Center Sunday night for his record run on late-night TV, innovative comedy …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":125760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[1974,29080],"class_list":["post-125754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-david-letterman","tag-no-joke-tv-host-letterman-honoured-with-mark-twain-prize","mauthors-ashraf-khalil","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}