American Humor Studies Association

The Charlie Awards are the highest honor given by the American Humor Studies Association
and are given for lifetime achievement in service to the AHSA and research in American humor.

Past recipients include:

Hamlin Hill

Henry Nash Smith

Louis J. Budd, 1992:

Louis J. Budd was awarded the Charlie on May 30, 1992 at the American Literature Association's third annual meeting in San Diego. Then Executive Director of the AHSA David E.E. Sloane, himself a graduate student of Professor Budd's at Duke University in the 1960s, presented the award.

The citation of merit singled out Budd's significant lifetime contribution to the study of American humor, his kindly and sympathetic teaching of students, and his gentlemanly treatment of colleagues. His citation also praised "his persistent widening of the range of discussion of humor through his analysis of social and political aspects of humor" (most clearly seen in his book Mark Twain: Social Philosopher in 1962) and of biographical and historical aspects in popular culture (as seen in Our Mark Twain: The Making of His Public Personality in 1983), among a vast array of works approaching humor, folklore, language, literary aesthetics, and Mark Twain studies. In these works, he "throws the light on the broadest social environment surrounding the making and social intentions of humor in America."

In accepting the award, Professor Budd referred to his appreciation of the honor in special terms because of his own childhood memories of listening to the original live Chaplin radio shows and his long-standing appreciation of the goals of the AHSA.

Jack Rosenbalm, 1993:

Jack Rosenbalm was awarded the prized "Charlie" on December 29, 1992 at the MLA meeting in New York. He has served the AHSA in a number of capacities - as Managing Editor of Studies in American Humor (since its inception in 1976), Editor of Studies in American Humor, and Secretary-Treasurer of AHSA, spanning over 2 decades. Such a distinguished record of service stretching over much of Jack's professional lifetime endows us with a special appreciation.

M. Thomas Inge, 1996:

M. Thomas Inge was one of the founding members of the American Humor Studies Association in 1974 and began its first newsletter with Larry Mintz, American Humor, An Interdisciplinary Newsletter, giving it its distinctly interdisciplinary flavor. He is widely known for his research in southwestern humor, Sut Lovingood, and Mark Twain, and for his wide-ranging, comprehensive, and thoughtful work on graphic humor and cartoons, which takes him frequently into the realm of popular culture studies and comic books. Recent books on Ollie Harrington have brought out the life of a superb African-American political cartoonist. Still in the bloom of his career as an American humor scholar, Tom Inge leads us by the example of his professionalism, his kindness and good humor, and his humanity - a model scholar in precept and example. Tom received his Charlie on May 30, 1996.

Joseph Alvarez, 1999

Michael Kiskis, 1999

David Sloane, 2003

Karen Kilcup, 2005

Cameron Nickels, 2005