SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Mel Brooks has pranked President Barack Obama in his home, the White House.
Brooks, 90, was awarded the 2015 National Medal of Arts Thursday “for a lifetime of making the world laugh,” the White House said in a statement. He’s one of the few entertainers to have earned an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy.
After Obama placed the medal around the legendary comedian’s neck, Brooks pretended to pull down the president’s pants.
The moment caused many in the audience to laugh and applaud.
Pres. Obama awards the 2015 National Medal of Arts to Mel Brooks "for a lifetime of making the world laugh." https://t.co/bGsVe1NLg6
— ABC News (@ABC) September 22, 2016
At the end of the ceremony, Obama quipped that “Mel Brooks kind of set the tone for this thing,” adding that normally it’s “been a much more staid affair.”
Among the other honorees this year were music producer and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, choreographer Ralph Lemon, playwright and actor Luis Valdez, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut and actor Morgan Freeman, who was not in attendance.
Obama joked that Freeman “undoubtedly is off playing a black president again. He never lets me have my moment.”
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