Whitney Cummings performed a comedy set at Bill Maher’s Mark Twain Award Ceremony at the Kennedy Center on June 28th. But her final joke won’t be seen on the Netflix broadcast of the event, which will be streamed on July 21, according to the manga.
Cummings said in early July that one of her jokes about Donald Trump was cut after she played it in rehearsal. However, on the July 18 episode of her podcast Good for You, she revealed that another joke targeting the president who was actually on set would be edited out of the Netflix broadcast. (The joke, “Donald Trump couldn’t come tonight, got caught up in sex-related traffic,” is a nod to the president’s former relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.)
“It remained there, but then they said they wanted to remove it,” Cummings said, without specifying who “they” were. A Netflix spokesperson told Variety: “While it is our preference not to cut jokes from the set, the Kennedy Center has the contractual right to do so.” (Cummings also posted on X: “It was very obvious that Netflix didn’t cut anything from my Mark Twain prize set. Netflix has always supported comedies and comics. Stop spreading rumors, you weirdos.”)
Ms Cummings added on the podcast that the staff at the venue were “amazing” and “didn’t want to silence anyone”. “It’s true that their boss is Donald Trump, and they did their job,” she said.
She made a joke about “sex traffic” on stage, which had already been leaked online after the ceremony. Her response when asked to remove it from television broadcasts was, “It’s already out there. Who cares?”
“They’re like, ‘He’s going to sue you,'” Cummings said of Trump. I didn’t buy it at first, but then I remembered that President Trump filed a lawsuit against Maher in 2013 after he joked that Trump was “the offspring of a mother who had sex with an orangutan.”
Cummings thought it was ironic that she would be censored at the Mark Twain Award ceremony. The award is “an award for comedians who use humor to criticize elected officials.” According to the Kennedy Center’s website, the award (previously given to George Carlin, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy and Jon Stewart) recognizes people who share a “fearless” observation and “uncompromising” perspective on society.
“We now know for certain that when someone is offended by something, they are guilty of it,” Cummings said of Trump. “I think it’s a little weird that you can’t make a joke out of it.”
Cummings made another joke about Trump that appeared on air about how the president is influencing Kennedy Center programs. “Enjoy the white ‘Hamilton’, available for three months this fall,” she joked.
“I don’t have a problem with jokes that imply he’s a racist,” Cummings said on the podcast.
“Bill Maher: Kennedy Center Mark Twain Award for American Humor” is available to stream on Netflix.
