Thanks to the generous Chicago Cubs, Bill Murray was able to attend his own Mark Twain Prize ceremony at the Kennedy Center this weekend. "I'm glad they won last night so I could be here this evening," Murray joked to a crowd of admirers Sunday, the New York Timesreported. "If they hadn't won last night I would have had to have been there, because, honestly, I do not trust the media to report the story."
Murray was met with praise from legendary collaborators and famous friends including David Letterman, Emma Stone, Steve Martin, Jimmy Kimmel, and more. "You and I were as close as two people can be, considering one of them is you," Martin told the audience in a video testimonial. "Bill Murray could shove you over the side of the Hoover Dam, and you'd be like, 'Hey, Bill Murray!'" Kimmel joked.
Murray briefly pushed the humor aside to make special mention of his brother, fellow actor Brian Doyle-Murray. "My brother had more guts than anyone I ever knew, and the only reason I'm here tonight is because of the guts of my brother Brian," Murray said, according toEntertainment Weekly. "He's been waiting a long time to hear that."
Eddie Murphy received the Twain prize last year, hitting headlines with his brief impression of prior recipient Bill Cosby. "Bill has one of these," Murphy said when accepting the award. "Did you all make him give it back?" Previous winners of the Twain Prize include Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, George Carlin, and Ellen DeGeneres.
