Bill Maher tells Trump to 'stop being funny' at Mark Twain Prize ceremony

Bill Maher urged U.S. President Donald Trump to "stop being funny" as he accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday.

Taking to the stage to accept the annual comedy prize at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., the Real Time with Bill Maher host told the centre's chairman and his other critics that he'll stop mocking them when they stop giving him new material.

"Now the president, when he is in attack mode, never fails to say I am part of the lunatic left," Maher said, reports Deadline. "Okay, he's not wrong that there is one. I'm just not part of it, and I'm sure there is a lunatic right. And when either side gets mad at me because I put them in jokes, jokes that work, my message to them is simple: You want to not get mocked? Stop being funny."

"When they are ridiculous, they do work, and when people laugh, you're caught," he continued. "Laughter is involuntary. It's people's inescapable truth detector, whether they want to believe it or not."

Earlier this year, when editors at The Atlantic reported that Maher would receive the prize, a White House spokesperson declared that it would not happen. However, the outspoken Trump critic was ultimately confirmed as the recipient soon after.

Trump did not attend the ceremony, but comedian and impersonator Matt Friend pretended to be the president as he joined Maher on stage for a bit.

Demanding he receive the award instead, Friend as Trump declared, "I get so many more laughs than this guy."

During the ceremony, which will stream on Netflix on 21 July, Maher was honoured with tributes from figures such as Arianna Huffington, Jay Leno, Whitney Cummings and Woody Harrelson, while John Mellencamp closed the show with a performance.

Previous Mark Twain honourees include Conan O'Brien, Dave Chappelle, Will Ferrell, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin, Tina Fey, Ellen DeGeneres, among others.