As he presented the Mark Twain Prize to Conan O’Brien at the end of a ceremony at the Kennedy Center this evening, David Letterman said to the audience, “I’m not a historian, but I believe that history will show, in history for all time, this will have been the most entertaining gathering of the resistance, ever.”
Letterman was speaking to what was like an act of resistance, given that Donald Trump how controls the Kennedy Center, after ousting the president, firing board members to ensure loyalty and ensuring that he himself would be the chairman of the arts institution.
Throughout the evening, comedians tossed in quips at the situation in their comic roasting and heartfelt tributes to O’Brien.
Stephen Colbert: “This is a very different place. Today they announced two board members, Bashar-al-Assad and Skeletor.”
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John Mulaney: “Welcome to the Kennedy Center, or as it will be known next week, the Roy Cohn Pavilion for big strong men.”
Sarah Silverman: “I just really miss the days when you were America’s only orange asshole.”
There were a number of jokes about this being the final Mark Twain Prize, given some of the night’s humor at the expense of the president. Other jokes tended to mock O’Brien’s skin complexion, his offbeat humor, his roller coaster of a career, and Jay Leno.
The event was the first major fete since Trump took over the venue, but O’Brien was selected by the previous regime, then led by its chairman, David Rubenstein and president, Deborah Rutter, both ousted by Trump. When he mentioned their names, he got a big ovation, before he quipped, “Honestly, I don’t know why they are not here tonight. I lost Wifi in January …”
He got laughs. Then he thanked those who have worked at the Kennedy Center “for years, and who are worried about what the future might bring. My eternal thanks for their selfless devotion to the arts.”
His comment drew a long, sustained ovation.
In his acceptance, O’Brien also spoke of Twain, someone who “punched up, not down, and he deeply, deeply empathized with the weak.” The implied comparison was to the current moment.
“Twain was allergic to hypocrisy and he loathed racism,” O’Brien noted.
He added, “Twain was suspicious of populism, jingoism, imperialism, the money excess of the Gilded Age and any expression of mindless American might or self-importance. Above all, Twain was a patriot in the best sense of the word. He loved America but knew it was deeply flawed. Twain wrote, ‘Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
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