The Kennedy Center couldn’t take a joke, at least not a couple about it unofficial leader, President Donald Trump, according to comedian Whitney Cummings.
Cummings, who performed at the center for the 27th Mark Twain Prize for American Humor honoring Bill Maher on June 28th, revealed that two jokes about Trump were cut from her standup routine — one completely nixed during rehearsal and another that she made on stage but will be cut from the Netflix broadcast of the event, which hits the streaming platform on July 21st.
The Kennedy Center has been under the shadow of Trump and his followers since December when he installed loyalist in leadership roles at the venue.
On her Good for You podcast, the comedian recalled rehearsing her set when she came to a joke about Trump. “I was practicing my jokes and people were like, ‘We’ll get fired if you say that.’” Cummings said. “That is the worst thing you can hear.” Cummings noted that she tried to find a compromise at the rehearsals, offering to cut other jokes, but eventually decided to scratch the jab because she was concerned about people losing their jobs at the Kennedy Center.
The comedian couldn’t hold back though, expressing “I feel the need to just say (the joke)” on her podcast. She then told the joke that was dropped at the rehearsal.
“For Trump to put his name on the Kennedy Center this is even petty for him. But Trump has always hated John F. Kennedy because the Kennedys had Marilyn Monroe k—– before he could grab her by the p—-.”
Cummings did get at least one Trump joke in at the Kennedy Center performance. She recalled the wisecrack on her podcast, telling listeners that from the stage she had joked, “Trump couldn’t make it tonight. He got caught in sex traffic.”
That joke had already been reported by a journalist in the audience at the Mark Twain Prize.
But as revealed on her latest podcast episode, Cummings said she recently found out the broadcast of her performance is cutting the joke out even though it had already been widely reported. The comedian explained that she was “presented with a tricky conundrum” about editing out the joke from the broadcast. “I don’t know if I did the right thing or not,” she said.
It was very clear to her that people would lose their jobs if the joke wasn’t taken out of the broadcast or Trump could sue her, she said. Cummings said she usually wouldn’t care about a joke being cut from a broadcast, but “This is the Mark Twain prize. This is the only time you shouldn’t get censored because it is about comedians using humor to criticize our elected officials.”
“I was in this jam,” she said on the podcast. She felt like she needed “to fight for this joke because it’s the Mark Twain prize, and this is the time I feel I have to, but also I don’t want anyone losing their jobs.”
“I just want to be clear that the people who work there did their jobs well and protected their boss,” she said. “They protected the president of the United States from me destroying his reputation.”
“I can’t believe I had the audacity to ruin his pristine name” with her bit on the stage, she said.
Now, that’s a joke.
