Why Give the Mark Twain Award to Tina Fey Now?

Tina Fey is a wonderful, funny comedian and comedy writer who is one of the best talents working in the industry today. She was the head writer and a performer on "Saturday Night Live," wrote and acted in movies like "Mean Girls" and "Baby Mama," and her sitcom "30 Rock" has been winning Emmys by the boatload. Nobody contests that she's had impact on the American culture, especially during the last election cycle with her spot-on lampooning of former governor Sarah Palin. But that said, I'm not sure how she managed to win the The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, a Kennedy Center honor usually seen as a lifetime achievement award for American comedians. Fey follows such comedy luminaries as Bill Cosby, who won in 2009 and George Carlin, who was honored posthumously in 2008. At age forty, she's the youngest winner literally by decades.

To be fair, there is nothing that requires the Kennedy Center Honors to only be given out once a comedian reaches sixty and if the organization wants to start spotlighting more contemporary contributions to comedy, that's their prerogative. There's a perfectly good argument to be made that it's better to honor Fey now, at the height of her career rather than twenty years down the road when her star might have faded. Also Fey has already given us a solid decade of good work and her comedy polymath skills have already helped her conquer both the film and television worlds. As the most powerful female comedian in the entertainment landscape today, and one of the last who can really get a project rolling on the basis of her name alone, acknowledging her success is perfectly justifiable. It's a bold and daring choice for the Kennedy Center Honors, and helps them to shed their stuffy image of being a cloistered, PBS award show of interest to our grandparents only.

But - and you knew there was going to be a but - it was bizarre to see recent "Saturday Night Live" performers and the cast of "30 Rock" on the stage of the Kennedy Center, paying tribute to Tina Fey in a fashion usually reserved for only the most esteemed and beloved artists of our times, whose impact had been felt over generations. Mel Brooks was in that same spot only last year, being serenaded by Matthew Broderick and a chorus of Broadway performers with a touching rendition of "Til Him" from "The Producers." The year before that, a pack of New York policemen and firefighters belted the 70s anthem of adolescent discontent, "Baba O'Reilly," for Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey of The Who. While I think that Tina Fey is in the same league as the other comedians who have received the Mark Twain Award, there's the nagging feeling that others are being passed over who are due for the recognition.

Scanning over the list of past honorees, some omissions can be explained away by noting that many artists received the full Kennedy Center Honors instead of the Mark Twain Award, like Carol Burnett and Barbara Streisand, though there are a few like Neil Simon and Bill Cosby who have gotten both. There are also some who have declined them. Cosby, according to Wikipedia, said no to the Mark Twain Award twice. Maybe that's why veteran comedy names like Woody Allen, Eddie Murphy, and Elaine May aren't there. Maybe that's why Fey's contemporaries like Jon Stewart and Tracey Ullman aren't there. I'll give the Kennedy Center the benefit of the doubt, but there's no denying that Tina Fey sticks out on the list of recipients. She's done enough in the last decade that she's certainly going to be well-remembered in the years ahead, but at the moment you have to wonder what the hurry is to canonize her.

The award ceremony itself, which aired last night, suggests that the clincher was the Sarah Palin impression that Fey performed several times on "Saturday Night Live." The entire sketch where the character was debuted played in its entirety during the program, with great pomp and circumstance. While I found the impression one of the highlights of the 2008 election media frenzy, and understand its importance as one of the rare recent cultural touchstones that everyone is familiar with, it hasn't solidified for me as a truly classic piece of television yet. It's too soon. There's no element of nostalgia or reflection on the past that I associate with appreciating the greats.

I like that the Kennedy Center wants to be more current and relevant, but this seems like swinging too far in the other direction. Giving Tina Fey the Mark Twain Award almost seems anticipatory, like President Obama getting the Nobel Peace. I'm sure both will make good on their potential, but I feel better with the benefit of a little more hindsight.