Hal Bush wrote:
> To reiterate my earlier comments, based on the description of the award,
> Steve Martin, Bob Newhart, Richard Pryor, and the others make perfect
sense.
> Who is funnier than those guys?   Writing is not given short shrift, by
the
> way.  According to the wesbite it is given no shrift at all.  And it is no
t
> a posthumous award, like the Nobels, so forget about Groucho.

   The site doesn't say that the award can't be given posthumously.  Or
did I miss something?  Your wording also seems to imply that Nobels are
only given posthumously, which of course is not the case at all.

> Who are the funniest Americans right now?  Well, you all can name your
> own favorites, but besides Martin, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Jerry
> Seinfeld, and George Carlin come to mind pretty quickly.  I expect
> they will all win it in the future--which is fine by me.

   If an award for being funny is the intent, my list would certainly be
different.  ;)  It reminds me of a quote by Enrico Fermi when asked what
characteristics Nobel-Prize-winning physicists have in common.  He
thought for a long time, and replied, "I cannot think of a single one,
not even intelligence."

Alan Eliasen