Ferrell given Mark Twain Prize

WASHINGTON – Will Ferrell, who refined his impersonation of President George W. Bush on “Saturday Night Live” and later took his presidential act to Broadway, was awarded the nation’s top humor prize Sunday night.

The TV star went on to make movies and co-found the website FunnyorDie.com, which won him the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Conan O’Brien, Jack Black, Matthew Broderick, Ben Stiller and the rock band Green Day performed Sunday in Ferrell’s honor, joined by Molly Shannon, Tim Meadows and Andy Samberg from Ferrell’s “SNL” days.

The show will be broadcast Oct. 31 on PBS.

When he was given the prize, a bronze bust of Twain, Ferrell promptly dropped it on stage and tried to pick up the pieces. He joked that he had turned the prize down 13 times before but decided to accept this time because of the prize money (there’s not any) and to be watched on PBS “by hundreds of people across this country.”