"Funniest Comedian MAYA RUDOLPH vs MARK RUSSELL"

Maya Khabira Rudolph (born July 27, 1972) is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She first gained prominence in the 1990s as a member of the alternative rock band The Rentals, then joined the Groundlings improv troupe later in the decade. In 2000, she became a cast member on Saturday Night Live, then played supporting roles in films such as 50 First Dates (2004), A Prairie Home Companion (2006), and Idiocracy (2006). After leaving Saturday Night Live in 2007, Rudolph appeared in films including Grown Ups (2010), Bridesmaids (2011), Grown Ups 2 (2013), Inherent Vice (2014), Sisters (2015), CHiPs (2017), Life of the Party (2018), and Wine Country (2019). Her voice acting includes the animated films Shrek the Third (2007), Big Hero 6 (2014), The Angry Birds Movie (2016), The Emoji Movie (2017), The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), The Willoughbys (2020), and Luca (2021). Rudolph starred as Ava Alexander in the NBC sitcom Up All Night (2011–2012), and co-hosted the variety series Maya & Marty (2016) with Martin Short. She voiced various characters in the Netflix animated sitcom Big Mouth (2017–present), which won her a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Fox animated sitcom Bless the Harts (2019–present). She appeared in the NBC fantasy comedy series The Good Place (2018–2020), for which she received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. For her portrayal of United States senator and vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series. She continued to reprise the role throughout 2020 while Harris campaigned for and was elected Vice President.

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Mark Russell (born August 23, 1932) is an American political satirist and comedian. He is best known for his series of semimonthly comedy specials on PBS television between 1975 and 2004. His routines were a mix of political stand-up humor covering current events and musical parodies in which he accompanied himself on his trademark American flag-themed piano. Beginning in the early 1960s, he was a regular entertainer at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. and did his first PBS show in 1975. From 1979 to 1984, he was a correspondent on the NBC reality TV show, Real People. Russell's song parodies use melodies from old standards with new humorous lyrics pertinent to the subject matter. For example, in 1990, following the execution of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, Russell did a parody song on his show to the tune of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". ("Pardon me, boys / Are you the cats who shot Ceauşescu?") Russell himself admits that most of his jokes and songs are very topical and have "a shelf life shorter than cottage cheese". Russell's humor is known for skewering Democrats and Republicans as well as third party, independent politicians and other prominent political (and sometimes nonpolitical) figures. Russell has often been asked the question "Do you have any writers?" His standard response is "Oh, yes. I have 535 writers: One hundred in the Senate and 435 in the House of Representatives!" When asked if his views on current events are too caustic, Russell replies, "I follow the old newsman's adage. As they say, 'I don't make the news. I just report it.' And in my case, I don't even make the jokes. I just report them as they masquerade as news." For several years, on the Sunday before Labor Day, Russell made annual appearances on Meet the Press, which was hosted from 1991 to 2008 by Tim Russert, also a Canisius High graduate.

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