The PBS broadcast of the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize on October
30 was a festival of tributes to Ellen DeGeneres – which is fine, since
she is quite talented comedically. But it wasn’t so much a tribute for
the comedy as it was for her pioneering work promoting homosexuality.
For laughs, consult top producer Cappy McGarr, who insisted Ellen
wasn’t picked for political reasons: “The Kennedy Center is apolitical.
We have had so many people who have their own brand and type of humor.
We don’t pick winners because of any advocacy they do. It is all about
funny and a funny life.”
DeGeneres certainly has earned her shelf full of People’s Choice
Awards. But in the Obama years, the Twain Prize has shifted unmistakably
toward liberal politicking. In 2010, this gang chose 40-year-old Tina
Fey for this lifetime-achievement honor, and she laid into conservatives
from the stage. "I want to thank everyone involved with the Kennedy
Center, or, as it will soon be known, the Tea Party Bowling Alley and
Rifle Range.”
Fey was so militantly left-wing that PBS censored (oh the irony) her
nastiest stuff. “The success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good
for all women -- except, of course, those who will end up, you know,
like, paying for their own rape kit and stuff," Fey said. "But for
everybody else, it's a win-win -- Unless you're a gay woman who wants to
marry your partner of 20 years - whatever. But for most women, the
success of conservative women is good for all of us -- unless you
believe in evolution.”
In 2012, the same tilt happened. Witness the Latino comedian John
Leguizamo. “How about that, people? A gay woman on PBS with public money
and the Kennedys, huh? It’s like the Tea Party’s worst nightmare, being
chased by a binder full of smart women into an event like this, with a
guy like me on stage who looks illegal!”
This
year’s show was a one-sided tribute to the gay agenda, and like your
typical PBS show, no conservative point of view was anywhere in sight.
The program’s emcee, Jimmy Kimmel, began: “In 1998, I mustered the
courage to come out of the closet despite the fact that I’m not gay.
That’s how inspiring this woman is...She’s one of the most inspiring
people I’ve ever met.”
Then came her fellow Hollywood homosexuals. Jane Lynch: “I’m pretty
darn sure I could not have the career I have, that I could not live as
openly as I’ve lived, if it hadn’t been for you. You really took one for
the team back then in the 1990s...you are also a sterling example of
how to be a force for compassion, good, and understanding in the world
and you are my idol.”
Sean Hayes: “You are a hero to me and to countless others. You have
changed America. You have changed the world. We didn’t have a voice ‘til
there was you. We didn’t have visibility ‘til there was you. And quite
simply, we didn’t have the level of hope that we have now ‘til there was
you.”
Lily Tomlin picked up on the Mark Twain theme: “Ellen this honor so
befits you, so becomes you. Like Huck, you are a folk hero, too. And
like Huck, who had the courage to confront the code of convention
[racism], rather than betray a friend, you, Ellen, had the same courage
to confront convention and not betray yourself or your sense of destiny,
and the world would never be the same.”
Jason Mraz picked up his guitar and sang an Ellen tribute song. On PBS,
Ellen is a sacred cow. The rapid-fire lyrics included “You got a
wingspan spanning the globe,” and “You’re a wise old owl when the cats
meow” and “If this were India, then you’d be a sacred cow /And I’d bow
down to you, so grateful to the gods for making you.” (Have you ever
read more stupid lyrics?)
In accepting the prize, DeGeneres joked “I realize now with all the gay
presenters and a lot of you tonight, this could have been on Bravo.”
Then she added, “Thanks to everyone at PBS. I am so happy to be a part
of your final season.”
On the red carpet for this event, DeGeneres told Politico she was concerned about Romney winning the election. “If you’re a woman, you should be very, very scared of that, for many reasons,” she said. “And obviously as a gay person he doesn’t believe in me having the same rights, so of course I’m not happy about that.” DeGeneres added that “as a woman who wants to have the choice to do what she wants to do with her own body,” she’s especially concerned about Obama losing. “I am certainly hoping our president stays put.”
I'm sure that's precisely in line with the "apolitical" poobahs at PBS and the Kennedy Center.