Photo Courtesy of New York Post / Twitter
Comedian Chris Rock stole the show at the Mark Twain Prize while honoring the recipient, actor and comedian Adam Sandler. He joked about the Donald Trump arrest controversy, claiming it would only “make him more popular.”
While we won’t see the moment until Sunday, the Daily Mail reported that Rock took the stage at the Kennedy Center to honor his friend who won the prize in American humor. He informed the audience that he would talk about his friend Sandler but had to ask the crowd, containing elected officials like Nancy Pelosi, a burning question.
“Are you guys really going to arrest Trump?”
He continued, “Do you know this is only going to make him more popular. It’s like arresting Tupac. He’s just gonna sell more records. Are you stupid?”
The crowd erupted in laughter, and Rock continued, bringing up the lawsuit the former president has regarding his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, who Trump allegedly had paid off to keep his wife, Melania, from finding out — $130,000 in hush money he reportedly sent his former lawyer Michael Cohen to give to Daniels.
“That’s romantic,” Rock remarked. “We’ve all been cheated on. Don’t you wish that the person that cheated on you paid off somebody so you wouldn’t find out?”
The Madagascar actor joked about President Joe Biden’s age in his speech, saying, “Trump was so bad as a president, he was so bad that Joe Biden had to burst off a monument. Biden was dead for 16 years.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul, were in the audience. Rock directed his attention to Paul, saying he “got it” and knew how the comedian felt.
Rock compared actor Will Smith attacking him at the Oscars to Paul Pelosi getting assaulted with a hammer by a home intruder.
“Just me and you, Paul,” he joked.
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The Mark Twain Prize will air on CNN on March 26, 2023, at 8 p.m. ET.