Ellen DeGeneres Acceptance Speech | 2012 Mark Twain Prize

The Mark Twain Prize recognizes people who have had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th century novelist and essayist best known as Mark Twain. As a social commentator, satirist and creator of memorable characters, Samuel Clemens was a fearless observer of society, who startled and outraged many while delighting and informing many more with his uncompromising perspective of social injustice and personal folly. He revealed the great truth of humor when he said "against the assault of laughter nothing can stand."
For more information on the Mark Twain Prize, please visit: www.kennedy-ce...
The inaugural Mark Twain Prize was presented to Richard Pryor during the first annual Kennedy Center Celebration of American Humor, October 20, 1998. The event was created by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Bob Kaminsky, Peter Kaminsky, Mark Krantz, and John Schreiber and is televised annually. The Kennedy Center is grateful to Cappy McGarr for his steadfast support of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor since its inception. Previous recipients of the Mark Twain include Richard Pryor (1998), Jonathan Winters (1999), Carl Reiner (2000), Whoopi Goldberg (2001), Bob Newhart (2002), Lily Tomlin (2003), Lorne Michaels (2004), Steve Martin (2005), Neil Simon (2006), Billy Crystal (2007), George Carlin (2008), Bill Cosby (2009, rescinded in 2018) Tina Fey (2010), Will Ferrell (2011), Ellen DeGeneres (2012), Carol Burnett (2013) Jay Leno (2014), Eddie Murphy (2015), Bill Murray (2016), David Letterman (2017), and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (2018).
#TwainPrize #PBSTwain
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[@RonGee]

Thank you for posting these older clips as well.

[@andrewyang1993]

I'm so happy that Miley Cyrus finally won this prize.

[@NameLess-wv6fe]

Justin you deserve it

[@JosephCecilSmith]

💚♥️ Ellen !‼️💚💙💜♥️💟 ♥️Gorgeously Lovely!‼️💚♥️ 🌎♥️💜💙💚💛🧡❤️♥️🌍

[@JosephCecilSmith]

♥️12:34pm!‼️💚 🌎♥️💜💙💚💛🧡❤️♥️🌍 Ellen DeGeneres !!‼️💚💜♥️

[@insibika3739]

How does Ellen win this prize before eddy Murphy am I missing something

[@hegyitaho]

how does she win at all?

[@natyinthehouse]

Somehow Tina Fey won two years before her. She deserves to win now, but I was wondering how she won the award only a few years after she played Sarah Palin. How did Will Ferrell win before Eddie Murphy? They are both SNL alumni with successful comedic film careers. Grab a list of winners of this prize and you will find less deserving people than Ellen.

[@insibika3739]

@@natyinthehouse man but I will give a pass Tina because even in her speech while receiving the award she made a joke that she didn't deserve to win

[@raulgama2528]

Genius

[@enfantbenibasilia4497]

Love you Ellen. You are the BEST ❤️

[@WilliamFHenry]

I just had visions of the Walton's; is that wrong?

[@declancairns2083]

This aged badly

[@bossfan49]

No it didn't. It's still funny and clever.

[@ZabljakLand]

Justin beaver finally made it

[@koalachina]

This was the Ellen I loved. I still love Ellen, waiting for her to find herself.

[@fezzik7619]

Wtf are you talking about? Find herself? She’s 64 years old. If she hasn’t “found herself” by now she should give up looking.

[@koalachina]

@@fezzik7619 It is life long journey. And a lot of people never live out themselves. Some people found it but lost again. Is that a strange idea for you?

[@fezzik7619]

@@koalachina if you’re talking about autonomy no one should ever truly achieve that because then what else is there to strive for after that? Humans should always endeavor to evolve throughout the course of their brief biological life as they only get one and there is nothing beyond death just as there was nothing before birth. The term “finding yourself” though seems to indicate that one hasn’t yet found a single indicator as to the content of his or her character. Life experience brings people to at least a sense of self-perception that they know who they are by the fourth decade of life. I hope that sufficiently answers your reductive and condescending question that failed to disparage me the way you intended it to in such a solipsistic manner.

[@koalachina]

@@fezzik7619 Sorry if you find my tone condescending. It was in response to your cursing word that came from nowhere. But thank you for further communication. I found Ellen charming and fun to watch years ago. She got lost in fame and money and I hope she can get back to her essence and find herself again. She might or might not, I don't know. There are things that went wrong and she should be accountable for. However, I don't buy into the snowballing effect of painting her as a super villain or dissecting some harmless jokes she made into nastiness.

[@user-zu5sp7wx2g]

@@fezzik7619 So you start off by saying 'wtf are you talking about' and she hurt your feelings? You found her condescending for asking that mild question? You might have a lot more in common with Ellen than you think. It would be in your best interest to believe Esther Xie's views on life.

[@amarsink1302]

👏👏👏👏👏🌏🌏🌏

[@MakeSomeNoisePlaylists]

most honest person ever 💜👍🏾🏆🌹

[@ronwade5646]

Carrol Burnette should have been before this!

[@lainy8742]

I like Ellen, she’s funny. I like that she wasn’t reading a speech.

[@Axel-ll2jp]

She should have really thanked her wife portia more

[@robertmartinez9084]

No

[@robertmartinez9084]

Your ellen

[@bossfan49]

That was the old Ellen....no social agenda, no politics.... just funny.

[@swesleyc7]

My times have changed. Celebrity generates the largest contingent of virtue signalling people of our society today.

[@bethonna]

bossfan49 These days no one can avoid being political. It’s now required. America is on life support. Taking a back seat is not an option.

[@johnsonken96]

This was two years ago. It's not old.

[@bossfan49]

@@johnsonken96 I know. I didn't mean the footage was old. I meant the Ellen we see here is more like her old self.

[@raisingbarssince1978]

Because times are changing, how can you be quiet with all the bullsh..that is going on in the paranoid United States...damn your country was sexy in the 80s and 90s....but now it's all Trump and fake news...what happend America your ass used to be beautiful

[@vinnikodiak4779]

Um um um a a a um

[@mysterion3912]

Ehhhh, ehhhhh,...... eehhhhh

[@roberthoule9693]

Ellen the Degenerate. I won't let my children watch her...

[@katesleuth1156]

Do you let them watch Trump?

[@roberthoule9693]

@@katesleuth1156 The US is thriving under his hetro-sexual, moral Christian leadership! Of course I let my children watch him... and listen to him when he speaks.

[@katesleuth1156]

robert houle You can’t fix stupid.

[@roberthoule9693]

@@katesleuth1156 There is no light (also known as hope) in darkness (also known as ignorance).

[@katesleuth1156]

robert houle You do know that I’m referring to you as the ignorant person. Pretty easy to spot. Racist, homophobe and clueless about economics. To state that the US is thriving under Trump says it all. I might suggest you do some reading on the bills that Trump has passed that affect people like you.

[@insibika3739]

How does Ellen win this prize before eddy Murphy am I missing something

[@elisemiller13]

Mugabi I'd agree with you except Eddie Murphy got it in 2015~

[@insibika3739]

@@elisemiller13 I know but are you telling they give the prize in no particular order

[@maragathm]

Even jerry doesn’t have this award yet

[@ankitmishra5242]

Maybe he declined earlier