Winters Recognized For Humor

He's worn a dress, hatched from a giant egg and changed the face of American comedy with nonstop improvisation.

Now funnyman Jonathan Winters is wondering how to handle his latest achievement - receiving a bust of Mark Twain as an award for his contribution to American humor.

"I thought the head would be bigger," Winters said.

Winters accepted the award Wednesday night at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after being honored by performances from fellow comedians.

"Winters once parked in a handicap parking space and a woman said, 'Hey, you're not handicapped,' and he replied, 'Madam, can you see inside my mind?'" comedian Robin Williams recalled.

Having broken out of a massive egg shell on the 1970s television series Mork and Mindy, Winters went on to play Williams' full-grown, extraterrestrial child.

During production of the show, Winters would often digress into hour-long sessions of improvisation, Williams said.

"They had to leave an extra forty-five minutes for him to get from his car to the set because he'll perform for anybody," Williams said before the event.

Fellow comics including Steve Allen, Sid Caesar and Richard Belzer took turns providing the entertainment as Winters became the second winner of the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain prize for American humor. Richard Pryor received last year's award.

Winters, 73, entered the comedy scene in the 1950s and introduced a rapid-fire, stream-of-conciousness humor that influenced generations of comedians.

"He is the most unique, transformative, revelatory figure of all of comedy," Belzer said before the event. "When I first saw him on television I was astounded how he didn't tell conventional jokes."

Comic Eugene Levy, who recently starred in the movie American Pie, said Winters was "god to me, a comic icon."

"I doubt there would have been an SCTV, a Saturday Night Live or an In Living Color without Jonathan Winters," Levy said.

Allen, who had Winters as a frequent guest on the original Tonight Show, called him a compulsive comedian who couldn't help but make people laugh.

The best way to handle him was to "turn him on and let him go," Allen said.

The tribute, which cable network Comedy Central will televise in January, featured clips from Winters' early days on the Jack Paar Show and his role in the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Winters once impersonated an old lady selling garbage bags, and has had many characters obsessed with eggs.

With such an endless supply of bizarre personalities, Williams said Winters should run for president.

"He isn't just everyman, he literally is every man," Williams said.

Winters joked he could be a candidate, calling himself "the only threat to Warren Beatty."