Adam Sandler's funny friends celebrate his Mark Twain Prize for American Humor: 'He's just so real and unaffected'

Friends and long-time collaborators of Adam Sandler joined forces at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, honoring the funnyman and Happy Madison Productions honcho for his contributions to comedy with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

"He's a great person, he's been so good to so many people," Judd Apatow told EW of his former roommate and long-time collaborator at the ceremony. "He's given so many breaks, and been a consistent friend, who has been there for so many people for so long."

Sandler is a unique figure in entertainment, as it is nearly impossible to characterize his ongoing success as an entertainer and moviemaker without referencing his close-kit creative family. Many of Sandler's business partners and costars have worked with the former Saturday Night Live cast member for decades.

OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP/Getty Adam Sandler receives the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

Apatow, who directed Sandler in 2009's Funny People, credited the Sandman's longevity to a vast body of work. "His output is enormous, the amount of movies that people love. The albums that he's made, he's touring the country playing hockey arenas. He's endlessly creative and loves it so much that it leads him to making a lot of things."

Over the years, Apatow has published books detailing his interviews with comedy legends like Steve Allen, Garry Shandling, Harold Ramis and John Candy. When asked about where Sandler fits on that pantheon of iconic entertainers, he shares that Sandler "loved Rodney Dangerfield, that's someone he looked up to. We were all Eddie Murphy and Bill Murray fans… [now] he's our Eddie Murphy, he's our Marx Brothers." And evoking the late, great Walter Matthau – who shuffled between comedy and drama over the course of his career – he views Sandler similarly. "He's also kind of our Jack Nicholson now."

Kevin Mazur/WireImage Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler at the Los Angeles premiere of 'Funny People' on July 20, 2009

Sandler's friend and frequent costar Rob Schneider recalled meeting during their early stand-up comedy days. "There was a place, I call it the End of the Improv Empire — like the Roman Empire — a Hilton out in the Valley where they would throw the young comedians like me and him," he said ahead of Sunday's honors. "He was telling jokes and the only two people laughing were me and him. Laughing at his own jokes. I took him out for a beer that night and said, 'You're going to be huge and I'm never wrong.'"

Over the past several decades, comedian Robert Smigel has worked with Sandler across a variety of different mediums. Beyond co-writing star vehicles like You Don't Mess With the Zohan, and directing him in The Week Of alongside Chris Rock, Smigel has also acted with Sandler in movies from Billy Madison to Punch-Drunk Love. But like many of the best humble origin stories, Smigel and Sandler first crossed paths at 30 Rock. Reflecting back, Smigel remembers: "I got to watch him audition, I was a co-producer on Saturday Night Live and we were scouting talent in Chicago. We discovered Chris Farley the day-before at Second City. Then at the Improv that night Chris Rock, Sandler and several other comedians performed… [Adam] was very quiet and had a very odd delivery and it struck me as very funny and original, but I didn't know that he could be a sketch performer from that. He had enough of an original quality that Lorne Michaels wanted to hire him as a writer and see how he would do as a performer. It took about a year for him to hit."

Smigel offers that the secret to Sandler's onscreen success has been: "He's genuine and he's pure. That's always been the difference with Adam. Obviously, he's a brilliant writer, a brilliant comedian. That's a huge percentage of it. But he is what you see on a movie screen. I don't know that anyone else from SNL has ever connected with audiences quite the way Adam has because he's just so real and unaffected. That's the same reason like Paul Thomas Anderson and Noah Baumbach and actors like Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino have singled him out from that group as somebody who brings a genuineness and natural quality that they do not see in a lot of people. That's made him turn into a fantastic actor as well."

It has been a surprisingly diverse career trajectory for the comedian initially known for silly voices and songs. The turning point was the brilliant, Altman-esque Punch-Drunk Love. Sandler's seminal collaboration with PT Anderson turned 20 at the end of last year. Reflecting on the movie's legacy today, costar Luis Guzmán recalls: "It was the first time I worked with Adam. Seeing someone of his stature at that time being taken out of his element, to work on a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, he delivered very well. I remember the first time I saw Punch-Drunk Love, after five minutes of watching that movie I totally forgot it was Adam Sandler. I'm looking at this guy Barry Eagan like 'Oh wow, this guy has a story.' For someone to be able to do that, that's artistry. He brought it."

OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP/Getty Luis Guzman arrives for Adam Sandler's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor ceremony

Since 1998, the Mark Twain Prize has recognized individuals who have had an impact on American society in ways reminiscent of the 19th-century writer Samuel Clemens, best known as Mark Twain. Previous recipients of the Mark Twain Prize include Richard Pryor, Carl Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Newhart, Lily Tomlin, Lorne Michaels, Steve Martin, Neil Simon, Billy Crystal, George Carlin, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

The 24th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor honoring Adam Sandler will air on CNN Sunday, March 26 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

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