Did CNN censor America’s top comics?

“Thanks to the woke police, in 2023, Mark Twain would never win the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.” This David Spade joke isn’t exactly L-O-L funny — it sounds more like something a crotchety senior citizen would growl at the TV about those wokey hokey cancel culture snowflakes. But nonetheless, people, particularly comics should feel able to speak freely.

But sadly, there’s some truth to Spade’s gag, which he delivered on March 19 as part of his remarks at the awarding of the 2023 Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Comedy to his longtime collaborator Adam Sandler.

It’s 2023 and that means that certain ideas are viewed as unfit for wider consumption. Certain books can’t be read, at least not without a total rewrite from “sensitivity readers,” and jokes can’t be funny. The Mark Twain Prize ceremony was broadcast by CNN, who opted to cut some of the comedians’ jokes — including that one from Spade — if they criticized liberal figures or wokeness.

Everyone from Spade and Chris Rock to Luis Guzman and Rob Schneider came to present Sandler with the award, and according to Page Six, many of the comics were “excited” backstage at the prospect of having their lines broadcast on CNN (previously PBS had shown the ceremony). The comedians were understandably pissed when they learned half their material had been slashed. 

Among the parts cut: Rock delivered a joke about how “romantic” it was that Donald Trump allegedly paid Stormy Daniels hush money to avoid his wife finding out about their affair. He also told the crowd that having the authorities arrest Trump would only make him more popular.

Dana Carvey did a Donald Trump impersonation and made jokes about former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was in attendance. 

CNN told Page Six that the jokes were just cut for time, so that the live show could be slashed by an hour to fit into its broadcast slot — but apparently the comedians aren’t so sure. Meanwhile, reps for the Kennedy Center claimed, “The Kennedy Center and our own producers from [production company] Done+Dusted are the sole decision-makers for what is included in both the live show and the final broadcast — not CNN.”

Cockburn wonders if the edits could be traced back to CNN’s new CEO, Chris Licht, who took the helm late last year. Licht’s mission has been to salvage the CNN brand and get audiences to think of it as a nonpartisan international news network once again, rather than the anti-Trump, anti-Republican channel it morphed into under previous head Jeff Zucker. Cutting the Trump gags would serve that purpose — while cutting the jokes about progressives and wokeness would pacify the pre-existing CNN audience, who loved the Zucker era and have been leaving in droves in the months since.

Either way, Cockburn is miffed to be denied another chance to have a good old laugh at CNN…