Comics Skewer Donald Trump’s Kennedy Center Takeover As Conan O’Brien Accepts Its Mark Twain Prize

deadline.com:

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.” 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.