AceShowbiz -

Jay Leno has been awarded with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The comedian was feted in a ceremony which took place on Sunday, October 19 at the Kennedy Center in Washington. He joins previous honorees which include Carol Burnett, Ellen DeGeneres, Will Ferrell and Bill Cosby.

Jimmy Fallon, Jerry Seinfeld and Wanda Sykes were among stars who shared some words about the comedian. "He showed me the way of what I wanted to be - to let your inner crankiness out. That can make good comedy. Entertaining complaining is a lot of what stand-up comedy is about," Seinfeld said on the red carpet, as reported by the Washington Post.

"There's no one more deserving to get this wonderful award obviously than Jay. No one - except and I really don't want to sound bitter here - except maybe me? I mean come on," he later added in front of the audience.

According to The Associated Press, Chelsea Handler and Sykes spoke highly of the comedian at the event, saying that he gave them wider exposure. "When I first heard that Jay was getting this Mark Twain Prize tonight, which is a huge honor, I found out it was for humor, and I was a little bit confused. I wasn't sure what the connection was," Handler said.

Sykes, meanwhile, shared her story when she was on the plane to Washington. "On the plane, I sneezed twice, and everybody gave me the stink eye. This Ebola stuff is getting a little out of hand. It's a little scary. I'm going back to just black. I'm not African anything," she said.

Garth Brooks, Kevin Eubanks, Seth Meyers, J.B. Smoove, Kristin Chenoweth and Ross Mathews were also among the audience. "Jay showed everybody how important the monologue is," Meyers said of the former host of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno".