Whitney Cummings performed a comedy set at Bill Maher’s Mark Twain Prize ceremony, which took place on June 28 at the Kennedy Center. But according to the comic, her closing joke won’t be seen in the Netflix broadcast of the event, which streams on July 21.
Cummings said earlier in July that one of her jokes about Donald Trump was cut after she performed it in rehearsal. But on a July 18 episode of her “Good for You” podcast, she revealed that another joke targeting the president, which did make it into her set, will be edited out of the Netflix broadcast. (“Donald Trump couldn’t make it tonight. He got caught in sex traffic,” goes the joke, which nods to the president’s former association with Jeffrey Epstein.)
“It stayed in, and then they said we would like to cut it out,” Cummings said, without clarifying who “they” are. A Netflix spokesperson tells Variety, “While it’s our preference not to cut jokes from anyone’s set, The Kennedy Center has the contractual right to do so.” (Cummings also posted on X, “I was super clear that Netflix did not cut anything from my Mark Twain prize set. Netflix always supports comedy and comics. Quit spreading rumors ya weirdos.”)
Cummings added on her podcast that the venue staffers are “amazing” and “don’t want to silence anyone.” “It is true that their boss is Donald Trump, so they did their job,” she said.
