Conan O’Brien accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday with a not-so-subtle broadside in opposition to President Donald Trump, whose takeover of the Kennedy Center, which awarded the prize, has shaken the humanities world.
A number of comedians together with David Letterman, Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman and Stephen Colbert celebrated O’Brien for comedian greatness whereas ribbing the Trump administration and placing a highlight on the famend arts facility that’s now overseen by Trump allies.
But it was O’Brien, the longtime late-night tv host and comedy author, who aimed his feedback most immediately on the Republican president with out utilizing his title.
“Twain hated bullies,” O’Brien mentioned. “He punched up, not down. And he deeply, deeply empathized with the weak.”
O’Brien described the award’s namesake as “allergic to hypocrisy” and suspicious of populism and imperialism. “He loved America but knew it was deeply flawed,” O’Brien mentioned.
Trump, who got here into workplace in January, has spent the final two months implementing a lot of the populist agenda that helped him get elected final yr whereas advocating for U.S. annexation of Canada and Greenland, firing federal employees, and deporting migrants who have been within the United States illegally.
The present was the primary signature occasion on the Kennedy Center since Trump introduced he would grow to be chairman of the establishment, pushing out billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein.
Trump dismissed board members appointed by former President Joe Biden and put in officers loyal to him. He handed management reins for the power to Richard Grenell, a detailed ally and former ambassador to Germany who’s serving as envoy for particular missions in Trump’s present administration.
The new board, which incorporates White House chief of workers Susie Wiles and Usha Vance, spouse of Vice President JD Vance, fired its former president, Deborah Rutter. Trump visited the middle final week and declared it in “tremendous disrepair.”
O’Brien thanked Rubenstein and Rutter in his remarks, drawing loud applause from the viewers.
“When he accepted the Mark Twain Prize, this was a very different place,” Colbert mentioned from the Kennedy Center stage. “Today they announced two board members: Bashar al-Assad and Skeletor,” Colbert quipped, referring to the previous president of Syria and a cartoon villain.
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Other comedians joked that this could be the final Mark Twain Prize awarded by the Center. John Mulaney cracked that the power, which is seen as a memorial to slain former President John F. Kennedy, could be renamed after Roy Cohn, a political fixer identified for his function in Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist scare campaigns of the Fifties, and a lawyer for Trump in his early years in enterprise.
Along with the annual Kennedy Center Honors in December, the Mark Twain Prize is among the premier occasions on the famend arts establishment. Trump didn’t attend the occasion on Sunday and didn’t attend any of the Honors performances throughout his first time period.
O’Brien hosted the Oscars earlier this month and is slated to come back again within the emcee function subsequent yr. He was the host of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” on NBC and “Conan” on TBS. He is a former author for “Saturday Night Live.”
“You are a genius, my friend,” comic and actor Will Ferrell mentioned from the stage. “You’re an absolute giant in the world of comedy,” mentioned actor and comic Tracy Morgan.
O’Brien advised reporters earlier than the present that he wished to undergo with the occasion to assist Kennedy Center employees. “Our country has been through many different sea changes, and my thought is I will be here specifically to honor Mark Twain and the people that this award stands for,” he mentioned.
Previous winners of the Mark Twain Prize embrace Kevin Hart, Sandler, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Carol Burnett.
Sunday’s present can be accessible for viewing on Netflix on May 4.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.