{"id":658541,"date":"2025-03-24T09:25:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T06:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/conan-obrien-accepts-mark-twain-prize-for-humor-while-acknowledging-the-kennedy-centers-uncertain-future\/"},"modified":"2025-03-24T09:25:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T06:25:11","slug":"conan-obrien-accepts-mark-twain-prize-for-humor-while-acknowledging-the-kennedy-centers-uncertain-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/conan-obrien-accepts-mark-twain-prize-for-humor-while-acknowledging-the-kennedy-centers-uncertain-future\/","title":{"rendered":"#Conan O\u2019Brien Accepts Mark Twain Prize for Humor While Acknowledging the Kennedy Center\u2019s Uncertain Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tOn a night when half a dozen people made jokes about this being the last-ever Mark Twain Prize, Conan O\u2019Brien made sure the ceremony at the\u00a0John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts\u00a0ended on a high note.<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Brien accepted the\u00a0award for lifetime achievement in comedy\u00a0Sunday night while acknowledging the backstage turmoil that hangs over the future of the cultural center in Washington.<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Brien, 61, was named the 26th recipient of the Mark Twain Prize in mid-January, about three weeks before President Donald Trump\u00a0upended the Kennedy Center\u00a0by ousting longtime president Deborah Rutter and board chairman David Rubenstein. Trump dismissed the board of trustees and replaced them with loyalists, who then elected him as chairman.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Sunday, O\u2019Brien specifically thanked Rubenstein and Rutter \u2014 drawing an extended round of app<\/a>lause \u2014 and also Kennedy Center staffers who, he said, were \u201cworried about what the future might bring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe said the example of Mark Twain\u2019s own life and career was particularly resonant at this moment in American history.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTwain hated bullies. \u2026 He punched up, not down, and he deeply empathized with the weak,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cTwain loved America, but he knew it was deeply flawed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA Mark Twain impersonator then emerged from the audience. After a back-and-forth debate with O\u2019Brien, he joined him on stage and the pair slow danced for a while. They were then joined by a dozen more Twain impersonators and previous Twain Prize recipient Adam Sandler for a raucous rendition of Neil Young\u2019s \u201cRockin\u2019 in the Free World.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat musical ending capped off a night when the uncertain fate of the Kennedy Center itself was woven through the multiple tributes and testimonials to O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think it would be insane not to address the elephant in the room,\u201d comic Nikki Glaser said on the red carpet before the ceremony. \u201cIt\u2019s in the air tonight. This night is about Conan, but it can be both.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce the festivities began, Stephen Colbert joked that the Kennedy Center had announced two new board members: Bashar Assad, the ousted president of Syria, and Skeletor, a fictional supervillain.<\/p>\n

\n\tJohn Mulaney quipped that the entire building would soon be renamed \u201cthe Roy Cohn Pavilion\u201d after one of Trump\u2019s mentors. And Sarah Silverman made multiple Trump jokes that were too vulgar to print.<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump, in announcing the Kennedy Center changes, posted on social media<\/a> that those who were dismissed \u201cdo not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHow that vision takes shape remains to be seen, but Trump has spoken about wanting to book more Broadway shows there and floated the idea of granting\u00a0Kennedy Center Honors\u00a0status to actor Sylvester Stallone and singer-songwriter Paul Anka.<\/p>\n

\n\tInto this maelstrom stepped O\u2019Brien, whose comedic persona has never been particularly political. The comic has always tended more toward goofiness and self-deprecation. But he has also leaned into sensitive societal issues at times. In 2011, O\u2019Brien officiated a gay wedding live on his show, overseeing the marriage of his longtime costume designer Scott Cronick and his partner David Gorshein.<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Brien vaulted into the spotlight from near-total obscurity in 1993 when he was chosen to replace David Letterman as host of Late Night<\/em> despite no significant on-camera experience. The former Harvard Lampoon editor had spent the previous years as a writer for\u00a0Saturday Night Live<\/em>\u00a0and The Simpsons<\/em>, appearing on camera only as an occasional background extra in SNL<\/em> skits.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe went on to host Late Night <\/em>for 16 years, longer than any other host. O\u2019Brien was later tapped to replace Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show<\/em>, but that experiment ended in public failure. After seven months of declining ratings, NBC executives brought Leno back for a new show that would bump The Tonight Show<\/em> back. O\u2019Brien refused to accept the move,\u00a0leading to a public spat<\/a>\u00a0that ended with a multimillion-dollar payout for O\u2019Brien and his staff to exit the network in early 2010.<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Brien went on to host another talk show on the cable station TBS, while launching successful podcasts and travel<\/a> shows. He is currently on a late-career elder statesman hot streak. His travel series<\/a>,\u00a0Conan O\u2019Brien Must Go,<\/em>\u00a0drew popular and critical acclaim, with a second season coming. His recent gig hosting the Academy Awards was so well received that the producers announced they are\u00a0bringing him back next year.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the wake of Trump\u2019s takeover of the Kennedy Center, several artists, including the producers of Hamilton<\/em> and actress-writer Issa Rae, announced they were canceling appearances at the venue.<\/p>\n

\n\tOthers 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\u00a0\u201cAll You Fascists Bound to Lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOther comedians who have received the lifetime achievement award include both Letterman and Leno, along with George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett, Bill Murray and Dave Chappelle.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ceremony will be streamed on Netflix on May 4.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On a night when half a dozen people made jokes about this being the last-ever Mark Twain Prize, Conan O\u2019Brien made sure the ceremony at the\u00a0John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts\u00a0ended on a high note. O\u2019Brien accepted the\u00a0award for lifetime achievement in comedy\u00a0Sunday night while acknowledging the backstage turmoil that hangs over the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":658542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2206580359.jpg?crop=0px%2C34px%2C1789px%2C1003px&resize=1440%2C810","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[16212,4941,89401,141568,32681],"class_list":["post-658541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-conan-obrien","tag-donald-trump","tag-kennedy-center","tag-mark-twain-prize","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}