Wednesday night, I was watching the New York (Evil) Yankees playing the Philadelphia Phillies, hoping that somehow the (Evil) Yankees would lose.

When the (Evil) Yankees went up 4-1, I decided I would pass on watching any more baseball and started flipping through the channels. That’s when I discovered the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony on PBS. This year’s recipient of the Mark Twain award was Congress creature Joe Wilson. Ha. I joke.

No, this year the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor went to Bill Cosby. I love Bill Cosby, and I honestly couldn’t understand why it took folks this long to give the award to him. But I wasn’t about to quibble.

I was a kid when Bill Cosby’s album “To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With” came out. I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever heard. By that time, I already had heard most of Bill’s classic bits like “Noah,” “Toss of the Coin” and “Hoof and Mouth.” As far as I was concerned, Bill was the funniest person on Earth. At the time, I was going to St. Xavier’s Catholic School, and I had a friend in my class named Rod Mays. Rod, perhaps because he was black, loved Bill Cosby even more than I did. Rod had pretty much all of Bill’s routines memorized and would break one out at a moment’s notice.

When the TV show “I Spy” came on, it quickly became my favorite. Because of Robert Culp and Bill Cosby, every kid I knew started wearing Levi’s and Windbreakers. Later, Bill starred in a TV show in which he played a high school gym coach. The show didn’t last very long, but it was very funny. I still remember one scene in which Bill was out jogging and got stopped by a police officer. When the police officer approached Bill, he stopped jogging and said, “How fast was I going”?

I thought that was very funny.

Years later, when I was going to Emporia State University, I was riding my bike to the Pizza Hut where I worked when I got stopped by a police officer. When the officer approached me, I said, “How fast was I going?”

The police officer didn’t think I was very funny.

I once saw a TV interview with Bill. The person doing the interview asked Bill if he ever worried about bombing on stage. Bill said he didn’t.

“I have been doing this long enough to know that if the audience doesn’t laugh, it’s their fault, not mine,” is what Bill said.

I thought that was the most honest and confident thing I had ever heard someone say. I did stand-up comedy for a while. Wait, that’s not true. I did stand-up. Whether the stand-up I did was actual comedy was open for debate. Doing stand-up is tough work. For someone to say he doesn’t worry anymore about bombing was, to me, amazing.

They showed a lot of clips of Bill doing stand-up. They showed a clip of Bill doing the “Noah” bit on Jack Parr’s show. The first thing I noticed in the clip was how young Bill looked. The second thing I noticed was that nobody does comedy bits like “Noah” anymore. I think that’s sort of sad.

They also played a clip from “The Dick Cavett Show.” Jack Benny was on the show with Bill. When Bill started telling a story about trying to play the drums with a jazz band, Jack at first looked at Bill as if he was crazy. Two minutes into Bill’s story, Jack was on the floor, laughing hysterically.

That’s right. Bill Cosby made Jack Benny fall to the floor. How strong is that?

A few years ago, Bill did a show in Eureka Springs, Ark. My wife and I went to the show. I don’t think I have ever laughed harder or longer. And the thing is, Bill really didn’t do many routines. Mainly what he did was talk to the audience. And make us laugh. A lot.