Talk:Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

Comedy Mid‑importance

	Comedy portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Comedy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of comedy on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComedyWikipedia:WikiProject ComedyTemplate:WikiProject ComedyComedy articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Awards Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Awards, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of awards and prizes on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AwardsWikipedia:WikiProject AwardsTemplate:WikiProject Awardsawards articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale.

United States

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Fair use rationale for Image:MarkTwainPrizeLogo.gif[edit]

Image:MarkTwainPrizeLogo.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 16:28, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"foremost"[edit]

Says them? Says who else? Thmazing (talk) 06:16, 15 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What happened to the selection process?[edit]

What happened to the selection process that started with long-time, universally accepted greats and is now giving us somewhat popular, but less skilled comics (Ferrell, DeGeneres). I think the most recent choices are funny & skilled performers, but I don't think they are in the same league as previous winners (Winters, Tomlin, Williams, Calin, Newhart). The earliest recipients changed the nature of entertainment and/or comedy, while the last few winners are merely among the more talented comics in recent years. Perhaps I'm relying to heavily on personal opinion, but somehow I don't see the same group that picked Richard Pryor ever considering Will Ferrell or Ellen DeGeneres.

If something changed in the process, I think it would important to include in the article. At the very least, the article should include a description of the nominating process, the selection process, and whether there has been any open debate about either the process or the choices. 75.36.178.24 (talk) 02:41, 13 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There simply aren't enough worthy candidates to justify an annual award, at least not if it can't be posthumous. The result is merely a list of famous comedians. TheScotch (talk) 08:37, 26 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130730145125/http://video.pbs.org/video/2163091388 to http://video.pbs.org/video/2163091388/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 07:17, 10 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Who votes?[edit]

Who votes, exactly? Kennedy Center, Board of Directors I am guessing? Hyperbolick (talk) 23:03, 31 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, the article is missing important information (see also "What happened to the selection process?" above. Also, the Kennedy Center doesn't seem to understand, and is blurring the distinction between comedians (to whom they gave 18 of the 20 awards so far) and actual humorists like Twain. I think it would be useful to tag the article for missing information about the selection process. (That's why the article is rated Start-class.) JustinTime55 (talk) 16:46, 9 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I have reviewed all the sources available online including the Kennedy Center website, and there is NOTHING published about the process other than comments by co-founder Cappy McGarr that certain individuals had been contacted about accepting the award and declined. It looks like original research would be required to answer those questions... Mgrē@sŏn (Talk) 00:44, 11 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I've merged everything into "History"; still needs more work of course. Is there any reason to restore the section "selection process" and keep it separate? FacetsOfNonStickPans (talk) 13:50, 14 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Images[edit]

I've placed two images (no. 2,3) with this edit, just wanted to leave some comments regarding the presence of suitable substitutes.

Karl Gerhardt's 1884 bust of Twain
Venue, the Kennedy Center - There are a couple of suitable images of the Kennedy Center which could be used.
Honoree meeting President - There are currently two images over at Commons, Carol Burnett (2013) and Will Ferrell (2011).

FacetsOfNonStickPans (talk) 13:46, 14 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Recipients' Images[edit]

It can't be that difficult to find images of the recipients that are more appropriate. For example, showing Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby in their latter years is disingenuous. Images that people would recognize for the time the recipients were most famous would be far better (granted, someone like Cosby, whose humor spanned decades would be difficult to narrow down, but, I would choose one of his albums or his family show, which, despite his guilty verdict, is still being shown in syndication, just as Will Smith's show is, despite his public violence to Chris Rock; we are a strange and confused planet). Skaizun (talk) 19:22, 25 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]