Conan O'Brien and the 2025 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
I've just now seen this show (first streamed on Netflix May 4). I've never been a Conan fan, but this was truly a special presentation.
In February, a Trump-appointed board “unanimously” elected the president to be chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — a move that replaced billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein and also ousted the org’s longtime president Deborah Rutter after she served for 11 years. Shonda Rhimes and musician Ben Folds then resigned from their positions at the organization, and many prominent artists canceled planned Kennedy Center events, including Issa Rae and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Additionally, productions determined to not match the president’s ideologies were soon enough canceled.
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Conan O’Brien, the 2025 recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, said Thursday that he was not sure that he would attend the March 23 ceremony held at the Kennedy Center due to the ongoing turmoil caused by President Donald Trump’s takeover of the arts organization earlier this year. But there was a good reason why he ultimately decided to.
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“First of all, we were brought in under the old regime, and the people who brought me in are no longer there, but I thought we should honor their decision.”
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“The young people that have been working at the Kennedy Center for years were delighted that we came. They don’t know what their future is. I got to talk to a lot of them,” O’Brien said. “I had a great deal of empathy for what’s happening there.”
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“It really made it feel like this is — and without being pompous, it just felt like this is not a normal event,” O’Brien continued. “Something, and we all need to be on our toes and kind of be funny, but also bring some optimism, maybe.”
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“There’s a lot of uncertainty, and we’ve heard that a person or two that I spoke to that night have lost their jobs since, and this just happened,” O’Brien concluded. “And so you can feel sometimes shallow when you’re trying to give encouragement to people who are in that situation, but I did want it to be a positive experience.”
. Will Ferrell joked he’s been busy shutting down the Department of Education, while recurring Conan character the Interrupter credentialed himself as a cabinet secretary overseeing the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Colbert suggested Bashar al-Assad and Skeletor were also in the administration. And Sarah Silverman said she missed the days when O'Brien was “America’s only orange a--hole.” Direct references to the president were mostly avoided but the presenters were, in the words of David Letterman the “most entertaining gathering of the resistance.”
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After being introduced by Letterman in a true moment of late night TV history, O'Brien made a moving case for comedy in the Trump era, and enunciated a thoughtful and pointed perspective on Mark Twain’s resonance in today’s world.
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Twain, noted O'Brien, hated bullies and populism and always punched up, attacking American self-importance. Again, while Trump was not the direct target, O'Brien's point was not lost. Previously, some people wondered whether it was appropriate for the comedian to even participate in the awards, given the pressures around the Kennedy Center. This speech was a necessary answer to that. It was brilliant and struck the exact right tone.
After introducing himself, John Mulaney said, "It's an honor to be here at the Kennedy Center or, as it will be known next week, 'the Roy Cohn Pavilion for Big, Strong Men Who Love Cats,'" a reference to Donald Trump's association with the notoriously ruthless lawyer Roy Cohn and his recent comment that he'd like to see Cats come to the Kennedy Center.
It's such a shame that Trump took control of the Kennedy Center. I don't imagine there'll be much of anything joyful happening there.
In the wake of Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, several artists, including the producers of “Hamilton” and actress and writer Issa Rae, announced they were canceling appearances at the venue.
Others have chosen to perform while making their sentiments known from the stage. Leftist comic W. Kamau Bell directly addressed the controversy in his performance just days after the shake-up. Earlier this month, cellist Erin Murphy Snedecor ended her set with a performance of the Woody Guthrie protest anthem “All You Fascists Bound to Lose.”
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Trump has spoken about wanting to book more Broadway shows there and floated the idea of granting Kennedy Center Honors status to actor Sylvester Stallone and singer-songwriter Paul Anka.
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