Cosby Gets Twain Award

"You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty you can survive it" said Bill Cosby (brainyquote.com). Bill Cosby has always understood the power and importance of humor in daily life. This is why Bill Cosby received the Mark Twain Prize for American humor. He thinks that the Mark Twain prize is special because Twain was the quintessential America writer because he held his language and his love for words in perfect American form (hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/). He accepted the award at the Lincoln Center in Washington D.C. on October 26th.

There were numerous people that came out to see Bill Cosby accept the Mark Twain award. Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Phylicia Rashad and Malcolm-Jamal Warner all were co-hosts. The First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden the wife of Vice President Joe Biden attended the event too. There were two hours of highlights shown from Bill Cosby's long successful career that night.

There will be a tribute for Bill Cosby shown on PBS nationwide on November 4th. There will be tribute performances including standup comedy, orchestra and jazz. The performers will include Willie Nelson, and Wynton Marsalis. Equally important, Bill Cosby actually refused the award twice because he was disappointed with the profanities used in the 1998 ceremony honoring Richard Pryor. "He stated he would only accept the award if the performances were free of profanity and they had a focus on education. He stated that he did not want the foolishness of the Richard Pryor celebration repeated." (hiphopwired.com/13506)

Works Cited

27 Oct. 2009 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/billcosby131321.html

27 Oct. 2009 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DC_HUMOR_PRIZE_COSBY?SITE=TNKNN

&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

27 Oct. 2009 http://hiphopwired.com/13506/bill-cosby-to-accept-humor-award/