Conan O'Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor | movie | 2025 | Official Clip - video Dailymotion

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Comedy's biggest stars gather to toast and celebrate late-night legend Conan O'Brien as he accepts the Mark Twain Prize  | dG1fWXI4cVBLVG84eUE

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00:00This honor feels very different to me. I think accepting an award named after Mark Twain is a responsibility.

00:08One cannot invoke Twain without understanding who he was and what he stood for.

00:16Now, don't be distracted by the white suit and the cigar and the riverboat.

00:20Twain is alive, vibrant, and vitally relevant today.

00:24Yes, he is America's greatest humorist, but his enduring power springs from his core principles.

00:34Principles that shaped his comedy and made him one of our greatest Americans.

00:40First and foremost, Twain hated bullies.

00:44He populated his works with abusers such as Huck Finn's alcoholic father, Tom Driscoll in Puddinand Wilson,

00:49and he made his readers passionately hate those characters.

00:52He punched up, not down, and he deeply, deeply empathized with the weak.

01:00Twain was allergic to hypocrisy, and he loathed racism.

01:12Twain wrote,

01:13There are many humorous things in the world, among them the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.

01:19Twain empathized with the powerless in America, former slaves struggling in Reconstruction,

01:25immigrant Chinese laborers in California, and European Jews fleeing anti-Semitism.

01:30Twain's remedy for ignorance about the world around us was to travel at a time when travel was very long and very difficult.

01:39Twain circled the globe, and he wrote,

01:41Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.

01:51Twain...

01:52Twain was suspicious of populism, jingoism, imperialism, the money-obsessed mania of the Gilded Age,

02:05and any expression of mindless American might or self-importance.

02:09Above all, Twain was a patriot in the best sense of the word.

02:13He loved America, but knew it was deeply flawed.

02:18Twain wrote,

02:19Patriotism is supporting your country all of the time, and your government when it deserves it.

02:25Now...

02:27Some of you...

02:34Some of you might be thinking, what does this have to do with comedy?

02:38It has everything to do with comedy.

02:43Everything.

02:45The comedy...

02:47I have loved all my life.

02:50Comedy that is self-critical, deflating, and dedicated to the proposition

02:54that we are all flawed, absurd, and wallowing in the mud together.

03:00Twain is funny and important today

03:02because his comedy is a hilarious celebration of our fears, our ineptitude,

03:08and the glorious mess of being human.

03:12When we celebrate Twain, truly,

03:16see him for who he was,

03:18we acknowledge our commonality,

03:20and we move just a little closer together.

03:24So I accept this award

03:26in the spirit of humility,

03:31stupidity, inanity,

03:33irrelevance, fear,

03:34self-doubt,

03:36and profound, unceasing silliness.

03:40I thank you.

03:41It's the honor of a lifetime.

03:42Thank you so much.

Conan O'Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor | movie | 2025 | Official Clip

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