Latest Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Stories

Comedian Bill Cosby has been named the next recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the Kennedy Center announced Wednesday. The 71-year-old performer is perhaps best-known for The Cosby Show, his classic 1980s sit-com about a close-knit, upper-middle-class black family living in Brooklyn, N.Y. The stand-up comedian, writer and social activist's other TV credits include The Electric Company, I Spy and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. "After bathing us, dressing us in fresh...

By Susan Wloszczyna WASHINGTON -- How does one best celebrate George Carlin, the world-class funnyman who never stopped being relevant and whose influence can be felt in the observational humor of Jerry Seinfeld, the political putdowns of Bill Maher and the barrier-breaking raunch of Judd Apatow? Tears? A few. Applause? Definitely. Laughter? Always the best medicine. Protesters with "God Hates Carlin" signs? Yes, they were two blocks away, but the avowed atheist would have...