WASHINGTON — Conan O'Brien takes home the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour on Sunday (March 23) with a not-so-subtle broadside against President Donald Trump, whose takeover of the Kennedy Centre, which awarded the prize, has shaken the arts world.
But it was O'Brien, the longtime late-night television host and comedy writer, who aimed his comments most directly at the Republican president without using his name.
"Twain hated bullies," O'Brien said. "He punched up, not down. And he deeply, deeply empathised 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 said.
Trump, who came into office in January, has spent the last two months implementing much of the populist agenda that helped him get elected last year while advocating for US annexation of Canada and Greenland, firing federal workers, and deporting migrants who were in the United States illegally.
The show was the first signature event at the Kennedy Centre since Trump announced he would become chairman of the institution, pushing out billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein.
Trump dismissed board members appointed by former President Joe Biden and installed officials loyal to him. He handed leadership reins for the facility to Richard Grenell, a close ally and former ambassador to Germany who is serving as envoy for special missions in Trump's current administration.
The new board, which includes White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance, fired its former president, Deborah Rutter. Trump visited the centre last week and declared it in "tremendous disrepair."
O'Brien thanked Rubenstein and Rutter in his remarks, drawing loud applause from the audience.
"When he accepted the Mark Twain Prize, this was a very different place," Colbert said from the Kennedy Centre stage. "Today they announced two board members: Bashar al-Assad and Skeletor," Colbert quipped, referring to the former president of Syria and a cartoon villain.
Other comedians joked that this would be the last Mark Twain Prize awarded by the Centre. John Mulaney cracked that the facility, which is seen as a memorial to slain former President John F. Kennedy, would be renamed after Roy Cohn, a political fixer known for his role in Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist scare campaigns of the 1950s, and a lawyer for Trump in his early years in business.
Along with the annual Kennedy Centre Honours in December, the Mark Twain Prize is one of the premier events at the renowned arts institution. Trump did not attend the event on Sunday and did not attend any of the Honours performances during his first term.
O'Brien hosted the Oscars earlier this month and is slated to come back in the emcee role next year. 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 writer for Saturday Night Live.
"You are a genius, my friend," comedian and actor Will Ferrell said from the stage. "You're an absolute giant in the world of comedy," said actor and comedian Tracy Morgan.
O'Brien told reporters before the show that he wanted to go through with the event to support Kennedy Centre workers. "Our country has been through many different sea changes, and my thought is I will be here specifically to honour Mark Twain and the people that this award stands for," he said.
Previous winners of the Mark Twain Prize include Kevin Hart, Sandler, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Carol Burnett.
Sunday's show will be available for viewing on Netflix on May 4.
Source: Reuters
