Trump Kennedy Center nominates Bill Maher for Mark Twain Award, weeks after meeting with President Trump
Bill Maher, who had a spat with President Trump, will receive the Mark Twain Award from the Trump Kennedy Center for the Arts.
Bill Maher wasn’t laughing when Wanda Sykes taunted him at the Golden Globes.
Sykes appeared on Vulture’s “Good One” podcast and revealed that the “Real Time” host had a private confrontation with her over a joke she made about him on stage at the Golden Globe Awards in January.
While presenting the award for Best Stand-up Comedy Performance at the ceremony, Sykes poked fun at Maher, who was nominated in the same category. “Bill Maher, you give us so much, but I could use a little less,” she joked.
Sykes said on “The Good One” that Maher objected to the joke after the show ended.
“We were waiting for the car and he was like, ‘What was that?'” Sykes recalled. “I was like, ‘You’re kidding, Bill.’ He was like, ‘Well, I mean, that wasn’t even a joke.’ I said, “Oh, no, I heard laughter.” It was clearly a joke. … I said, “You know what?” You’re doing exactly what we said in jest. This is no longer needed. Please reduce this. You live the joke! Please reduce this! he didn’t care about that. ”
Sykes added: “He was like, ‘I’m getting so many emails and people are like, ‘What was that?’ It’s a stupid joke.” When he said something stupid, I thought, “Okay, you get it now.” I thought, ‘Well, there were a bunch of texts telling you how great it was and how much they don’t like you, and that was really funny.’
Sykes also said that Marr asked her to be a guest on his podcast, Club Random, but she declined. “I was like, ‘Absolutely not,'” she said.
USA TODAY has reached out to Maher’s representatives for comment.
Sykes joked about all of the Golden Globe stand-up nominees during her presentation, but Marr was the only one who was visibly offended by her comments. The broadcast showed Maher looking unamused in the audience while Sykes made the remarks about him.
Maher ultimately lost out to Ricky Gervais, who was absent from the Globes. Sykes also jokingly thanked “God and the trans community” on his behalf, poking fun at Gervais, a well-known atheist who has come under fire for jokes about transgender people.
In a pre-recorded episode of the Club Random podcast released after the Golden Globes, Maher said she would be “shocked” if she won. Because “I’m speaking freely and this woke city… hates it.”
