After the smoke cleared in the voting for the ‘Damn Those Conservatives to Hell Award’ at Media Research Center’s 2016 Gala, frequent Notable Quotables subject and MSNBC host Chris Matthews emerged as the winner for a vicious smear after the New Hampshire primary on “troll-like” Ted Cruz for living “below the level of human life.”

Following the presentation of the quotes by the indefatigable Weekly Standard senior writer Stephen Hayes and the voting concluded, former Congressman and Club for Growth president David McIntosh took to the stage to accept the award on behalf of Matthews as well as discuss the media’s devout hatred of conservatives (whereas the right simply laughs at liberals).

The quote in question by Matthews came on February 10 on Morning Joe when he had this to say about Cruz: “The thing about – there’s a troll-like quality to Cruz. He operates below the level of human life.”

>> Find out who won "Quote of the Year" at MRC Gala 2016 Featuring the Dishonor Awards here <<

Matthews’s arguably pulled a upset in the vote by Gala attendees as he beat out both CNN host and serial plagiarizer Fareed Zakaria and The Intercept founder Jeremy Scahill.

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Zakaria’s diatribe on his March 6 Fareed Zakaria GPS show blasted Republicans for having “fed the country” negative thoughts about the future and only encouraged the worst elements of humanity.

“Republicans have fed the country ideas about decline, betrayal, and treason. They have encouraged the forces of anti-intellectualism, obstructionism, and populism. They have flirted with bigotry and racism. Trump merely chose to unashamedly embrace all of it,” Zakaria whined.

The other runner-up went to Scahill for his claim on May 13's Real Time with Bill Maher over on HBO that Trump’s rise to prominence was akin to Hitler in Germany during the lead-up to World War II: “Let me be clear here, I believe that what we’re seeing with Trump has whiffs of how Hitler rose to power, because of the popularizing of all of these things.”

Ex-MSNBC journalist Melissa Harris-Perry won the "Quote of the Year." For more on that, go here.

The always angry Chris Matthews won the “Damn Those Conservatives to Hell Award.” For more on that, click here.

Legendary singer and columnist Charlie Daniels won the annual “William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence.” For more on that, go here.

MSNBC’s Joy Reid earned the “Hail Hillary Award” for insisting that, maybe, the Founding Fathers could live up to the Democrat’s greatness. See here for more.

In a well deserved moved, Bill Maher was deemed the “Celebrity Dumbass” of 2016. Go here for more.

For all the noteworthy moments from the Gala, go here.