Packed into the New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom were comedy stars Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, and well, that crazy guy from Two and a Half Men.
It wasn’t all sweetness and light, of course. Jon Stewart, presenting an award, ripped the show for being so new no one knew what exactly what was going on.
“We’re gonna say, ‘Remember that year that there was that Comedy Awards? Yeah, that was weird,” he said.
But weirdness gave way to star power when Bill Murray emerged as the night’s first big surprise guest, receiving big standing ovation. Murray was on hand to present “The Johnny Carson Award” to David Letterman, calling him “the most important person in late night.” They hung the original multi-colored Tonight Show curtain on stage for this presentation and showed a funny montage of Letterman stunts through the years. (We noticed there was no mention nor appearance by Jay Leno all evening and it appeared to be pretty intentional. Just sayin’.)