US TV host Conan O’Brien decries ‘bullies’ while receiving Mark Twain Prize
American comedian praises Twain’s criticism of bullies in apparent jab at Trump
Conan O’Brien accepted the Mark Twain Prize for American Humour on Sunday 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.
A host of comedians including David Letterman, Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman and Stephen Colbert celebrated O’Brien for comic greatness while ribbing the Trump administration and putting a spotlight on the renowned arts facility that is now overseen by Trump allies.
But it was O’Brien, the long-time 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.
