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.

[...]

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.

[...]

“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.”

[...]

“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.”

[...]

“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.”

[...]

“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.”

  The Wrap

. 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.”

[...]

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.

[...]

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.

  Entertainment

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.

  NPR

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.”

[...]

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.

  AP News

It's Sunday

It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory with stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener.

It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety’s sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came—next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams—visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender!

Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation:

God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest, Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!

Then came the “long” prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory—

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher’s side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, “Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord and God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!”

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside—which the startled minister did—and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

“I come from the Throne—bearing a message from Almighty God!” The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. “He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import—that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of—except he pause and think. “God’s servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two—one uttered, and the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this—keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon your neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain on your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse on some neighbor’s crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

“You have heard your servant’s prayer—the uttered part of it. I am commissioned by God to put into words the other part of it—that part which the pastor—and also you in your hearts—fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard the words ‘Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!’ That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory—must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

“Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth into battle—be Thou near them! With them—in spirit—we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended in the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames in summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it—

For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimmage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!

We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(After a pause.) “Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits.”

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

It's Sunday

Excerpts from Mark Twain's Letters from Earth"

From Satan's Letter III

The best minds will tell you that when a man has begotten a child he is morally bound to tenderly care for it, protect it from hurt, shield it from disease, clothe it, feed it, bear with its waywardness, lay no hand upon it save in kindness and for its own good, and never in any case inflict upon it a wanton cruelty. God's treatment of his earthly children, every day and every night, is the exact opposite of all that, yet those best minds warmly justify these crimes, condone them, excuse them, and indignantly refuse to regard them as crimes at all, when he commits them.

[...]

God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden, and eventually assassinated them. All for disobeying a command which he had no right to utter. But he did not stop there, as you will see. He has one code of morals for himself, and quite another for his children. He requires his children to deal justly -- and gently -- with offenders, and forgive them seventy-and-seven times; whereas he deals neither justly nor gently with anyone, and he did not forgive the ignorant and thoughtless first pair of juveniles even their first small offense and say, "You may go free this time, and I will give you another chance."

On the contrary! He elected to punish their children, all through the ages to the end of time, for a trifling offense committed by others before they were born.

[...]

You would not suppose that this kind of Being gets many compliments. Undeceive yourself: the world calls him the All-Just, the All-Righteous, the All-Good, the All-Merciful, the All-Forgiving, the All-Truthful, the All-Loving, the Source of All Morality. These sarcasms are uttered daily, all over the world. But not as conscious sarcasms. No, they are meant seriously: they are uttered without a smile.

From Satan's letter X

The two Testaments are interesting, each in its own way. The Old one gives us a picture of these people's Deity as he was before he got religion, the other one gives us a picture of him as he appeared afterward. The Old Testament is interested mainly in blood and sensuality. The New one in Salvation. Salvation by fire.

The first time the Deity came down to earth, he brought life and death; when he came the second time, he brought hell.

Life was not a valuable gift, but death was. Life was a feverdream made up of joys embittered by sorrows, pleasure poisoned by pain, a dream that was a nightmare-confusion of spasmodic and fleeting delights, ecstasies, exultations, happinesses, interspersed with long-drawn miseries, griefs, perils, horrors, disappointments, defeats, humiliations, and despairs -- the heaviest curse devisable by divine ingenuity; but death was sweet, death was gentle, death was kind; death healed the bruised spirit and the broken heart, and gave them rest and forgetfulness; death was man's best friend; when man could endure life no longer, death came and set him free.

In time, the Deity perceived that death was a mistake; a mistake, in that it was insufficient; insufficient, for the reason that while it was an admirable agent for the inflicting of misery upon the survivor, it allowed the dead person himself to escape from all further persecution in the blessed refuge of the grave. This was not satisfactory. A way must be conceived to pursue the dead beyond the tomb.

The Deity pondered this matter during four thousand years unsuccessfully, but as soon as he came down to earth and became a Christian his mind cleared and he knew what to do. He invented hell, and proclaimed it.

[...]

It does not appear that he ever stopped to reflect that he was to blame when a man went wrong, inasmuch as the man was merely acting in accordance with the disposition he had afflicted him with. No, he punished the man, instead of punishing himself.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

This is a good day for Mark Twain quotes

Here are some of my favorites:


Look at the tyranny of party--at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty--a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes--and which turns voters into chattles, slaves, rabbits, and all the while their masters, and they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the fantastic contradiction.

Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination.

Don't tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish. 

I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey.

Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War. He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. ... And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for 'the universal brotherhood of man'-- with his mouth.

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.

In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination.

There are many humorous things in the world: among them the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.

The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.

Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul.

To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals.

One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.

Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.

Heaven is by favor; if it were by merit your dog would go in and you would stay out.

The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it.

The citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth's political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal; he is a traitor.

Sometimes too much to drink is barely enough.

The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who can't.

In statesmanship get the formalities right, never mind about the moralities.

Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains.

Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain't so.

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.

Man is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven.

No matter how healthy a man's morals may be when he enters the White House, he comes out again with a pock-marked soul.

The older we grow the greater becomes our wonder at how much ignorance one can contain without bursting one's clothes.

Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.