Thank you for your post, Mr. Layne.  
I know who Ellen DeGeneres is, of course, but have not seen her perform, nor do I watch her TV show, although I have caught snippets from time to time. I was not impressed by the very little I had seen of her.  I was skeptical about her as a choice for the prize, but refrained from judging someone about whom I knew next-to-nothing.  
By your presenting a different opinion of Ellen Degeneres from that of others on this forum, I am more comfortable with the choice the committee made.
Carol Peiffer

========== 
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“Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in commonas human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us.” -Sargent Shriver

> Date: Fri, 2 Nov 2012 10:44:33 -0700
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: The 15th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is . . .
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> 	My wife chided me for not pronouncing her name correctly, =93It=92s
> DeGeneres, not Dee-Jen-Heiress.=94  But I think I=92ve got it right now,
> and am in love with her humor.
> For the first time in the 15 year history of the Mark Twain Prize for
> American Humor I was able to watch the 90-minute event as it aired on
> PBS.  In thanking PBS Ellen teased, =93I=92m so glad to be a part of your
> farewell season.=94  Even Oscar the Grouch had to guffaw.
> Finally, this year for the first time, the Mark Twain Prize goes to a
> humorist instead of a comedian.  We've had hundreds of comedians in
> this great land of ours but very few humorists, Ben Franklin, Twain
> (portrayed today by Hal Holbrook), Will Rogers, Garrison Keillor...and
> the difference between a comedian and a humorist is ever so vast.
> The comedian's job is to make us laugh, and laughter is good for us,
> it=92s like massage on the inside, cuts down on the doctor bills, keeps
> us from souring.  But the comedian oftentimes bestows this favor upon
> us at the expense of somebody else, or at the expense of decency, and
> leaves feeling guilty for laughing at pejorative humor.
> President Taft once said, "Mark Twain never wrote a line that a father
> could not read to his daughter."  Yet George Carlin, a previous winner
> of the Twain Prize, was famous for his "Seven Dirty Words You Can
> Never Say on Television."
> The humorist's job is merely to show us the good natured side of the
> truth.  The humorist is not looking for a laugh, the humorist is
> looking for a nod of acknowledgement or perhaps the hint of a smile.
> Twain reminds us that =93Laughter without a tinge of philosophy is but a
> sneeze of humor.  Genuine humor is replete with wisdom.  Humor must
> not professedly teach, and it must not professedly preach, but it must
> do both if it would live forever =96which is thirty years.=94
> As she took the stage to accept the prize, Ellen lamented the fact
> that she had to follow so many funny people, and how she had hoped to
> follow Ken Burns, thus making light of a truism that Sam illuminated
> so long ago.  =93Set a diamond upon a pall of black if you'd have it
> glisten.=94
> She went on to say, =93I have not read Twain, but then he has not seen
> my HBO special.=94  To wit an admirer of both responded, =93It would be
> impossible to give the faintest idea of her talk on paper.  Written or
> spoken by another it would lose half its points of value.  We can only
> congratulate those who heard her and pity those who did not.=94
> Lilly Tomlin stole my heart when she called Ellen, =93Our Huckleberry
> Friend.=94  Ellen, like Huck, stuck by her friend to confront society
> and challenge conventional thinking, conventional notions.
> Twain railed against human foibles and humbuggery, yes, but he did it
> with a scalpel, not a switch-blade.  Twain's discriminating
> irreverence was drawn not from the warrior's quiver, but from the
> artist's pallet.  He would not kick a humbug in the shin, but would
> place a bench strategically in his path so that he might bark his own
> shin.
> It=92s one thing to have a sense of humor, it is something more to have
> a humorous outlook on life.  Ellen DeGeneres has a health-giving
> outlook on life, and is a humorist of the blood royal.  To my mind she
> is the very first to truly deserve the Mark Twain Prize for American
> Humor.  We might go another generation to find another of her rank, or
> perhaps another generation for her to find us...
> McAvoy
> 
> McAvoy Layne
> ghostoftwain.org
> Chautauqua-Central.org
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> PO Box 4522
> Incline Village, NV 89450
> 775-833-1835
> 
> Diligently train your ideals upward toward a summit where you will find you=
> r
> chiefest pleasure in conduct, which while contenting you, will be sure to
> confer benefits upon your neighbor and the community. -Mark Twain