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At the Kennedy Center, Not Even Trump Can Overshadow Conan
David Letterman, Adam Sandler, and more honored the legendary comedian. The Masturbating Bear was there too.
After the lights went down in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on March 23 to signal the beginning of the Mark Twain Prize ceremony, an announcer on the PA system explained that the Kennedy Center — recently taken over by President Donald J. Trump, who stacked the board of directors with Trump loyalists who voted him in as board president — has become an arts venue more reflective of “American values.” “This vaunted stage will now showcase distinguished, elegant, and revered entertainment that we, as a nation, can be proud of,” the announcer said, at which time a bear wearing a diaper walked onstage and began to jerk himself off to the tune of the classical composition “Sabre Dance.” That should cover it, yes?” — it certainly seemed to be a guiding principle of an evening in which the assembled lineup of comedians acknowledged the Republican elephants in the room without letting the political commentary overshadow the main reason everyone was there: to revel in the intelligent-yet-relentlessly-silly lunacy that O’Brien has unleashed on television as an SNL and Simpsons writer as well as celebrate his place as one of the greatest late-night-talk-show hosts of all time over the past 30-plus years. But as he jammed while surrounded by a dozen dancing Mark Twains, including SNL vet Will Forte, the joyful noise invited everyone, for a moment, to do the same thing O’Brien urged us to do when he signed off as Tonight Show host 15 years ago: not to be cynical.
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