{"id":10325,"date":"2025-03-24T19:26:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T11:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=10325"},"modified":"2025-03-24T19:26:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T11:26:40","slug":"stars-take-on-trump-without-naming-him-at-kennedy-center-event-honoring-conan-obrien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=10325","title":{"rendered":"Stars take on Trump \u2014 without naming him \u2014 at Kennedy Center event honoring Conan O\u2019Brien"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It was a night of comedy following a heavy dose of drama at the Kennedy Center, as performers honoring Conan O\u2019Brien at the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor lined up to rebuke President Trump\u2019s overhaul of the performing arts institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prestigious comedy award ceremony on Sunday in Washington, D.C. marked the first major star-studded event at the Kennedy Center following Trump\u2019s unprecedented shakeup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, Trump announced he would remove multiple members of the Kennedy Center\u2019s board and named himself as its chairman. He later described the Kennedy Center as being too \u201cwoke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Brien had been named the 26th recipient of the Mark Twain Prize in January, weeks before Trump\u2019s upheaval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the red carpet ahead of the ceremony \u2014 which will stream on Netflix starting May 4 \u2014 O\u2019Brien spoke publicly about Trump\u2019s move for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When ITK asked for his reaction to the news that Trump would serve as chair, the 61-year-old former TV late-night host quipped, \u201cIt sounds like it\u2019s a big priority. I think it\u2019s his priority right now, is the Kennedy Center, and only he knows his priorities best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DC Bureau: Education Department Dismantling<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot going on in the world but probably taking control of the Kennedy Centers should be at the top of the list,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a personal decision what everybody wants to do, but my decision was that there\u2019s a lot of people that work here at the Kennedy Center who have been here for a very long time,\u201d O\u2019Brien told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey work hard to promote the arts, and so I want to be here in that spirit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only a handful of performers appeared on the red carpet for the event, which is typically flooded with entertainers. But plenty of Hollywood stars \u2014 and some of Trump\u2019s most vocal critics \u2014 touched down in the nation\u2019s capital to celebrate O\u2019Brien and mock the president\u2019s takeover of the Kennedy Center, without mentioning him by name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really miss the days when you were America\u2019s only orange a\u2014\u2014,\u201d comedian Sarah Silverman said to the red-haired \u201cConan O\u2019Brien Needs a Friend\u201d podcast host.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLate Show\u201d host Stephen Colbert, who skewers Trump regularly on his CBS show, chowed down on chicken wings as he did a sketch spoofing O\u2019Brien\u2019s \u201cHot Ones\u201d episode that went viral last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn light of the new leadership at the Kennedy Center, all of these are right wings,\u201d Colbert cracked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When O\u2019Brien originally accepted the Mark Twain Prize, Colbert told the audience, the Kennedy Center was \u201ca very different place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, they announced two board members: [former Syrian president] Bashar al-Assad and Skeletor,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to be here at the Kennedy Center, or as it will be known next week, the \u2018Roy Cohn Pavilion for Big, Strong Men Who Love Cats,\u2019\u201d comedian John Mulaney said, in a reference to Trump\u2019s former attorney and mentor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a video message lauding O\u2019Brien, Martin Short jested, \u201cThere is no more fitting recipient getting the last-ever Twain Prize here at the Robert F. Kennedy Center,\u201d inserting the name of the Health and Human Services Secretary instead of the 35th president for whom the \u201cliving memorial\u201d is named.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he presented O\u2019Brien with the night\u2019s honor, former \u201cLate Show\u201d host David Letterman said, \u201cI\u2019m not a historian, but I believe that history will show this will be the most entertaining gathering of the resistance ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the biggest applause of the night occurred during O\u2019Brien\u2019s acceptance speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA special thanks to all the beautiful people who have worked here at the Kennedy Center for years and who are worried about what the future might bring,\u201d he said to a standing ovation. Loud applause could also be heard when O\u2019Brien praised former Kennedy Center board chair David Rubenstein and its former president, Deborah Rutter, whose contracts were terminated after Trump\u2019s takeover<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Brien, who rarely gets political with his comedy, struck a sometimes serious tone as he lauded the Mark Twain Prize\u2019s namesake: \u201cFirst and foremost, Twain hated bullies\u2026 He punched up, not down, and he deeply, deeply empathized with the weak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwain was suspicious of populism, jingoism, imperialism, the money-obsessed mania of the Gilded Age, and any expression of mindless American might or self-importance,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbove all, Twain was a patriot in the best sense of the word. He loved America, but knew it was deeply flawed. Twain wrote, \u2018Patriotism is supporting your country all of the time, and your government when it deserves it.’\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of you might be thinking, what does this have to do with comedy? It has everything to do with comedy. Everything!\u201d O\u2019Brien exclaimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComedy that I have loved all my life: Comedy that is self-critical, deflating and dedicated to the proposition that we are all flawed, absurd and wallowing in the mud together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we celebrate Twain, truly seeing him for who he was, we acknowledge our commonality and we move just a little closer together,\u201d O\u2019Brien told the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the impassioned speech, O\u2019Brien \u2014 surrounded by a group of dancing Twain look-alikes \u2014 picked up a guitar to play a song alongside Adam Sandler: Neil Young\u2019s 1989 hit, \u201cRockin\u2019 in the Free World.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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