Conan O’Brien will receive Mark Twain Prize at Kennedy Center on Sunday

The show celebrating the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor the most coveted award in comedy is all about comedians loving on other comedians. Jerry Seinfeld paid tribute to Julia Louis-Dreyfus when she won. Chris Rock lovingly embarrassed Kevin Hart. And when Adam Sandler was honored, his friend and this year’s recipient Conan O’Brien declared, “Good god in heaven, Kennedy Center, what have you done? No award has screwed up this badly since a MacArthur Genius Award was given to Vin Diesel.” (For the record, Diesel has not actually won a MacArthur Fellowship.)

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., where the annual event takes place, has been in upheaval. President Trump rid the Kennedy Center’s board of its Democratic appointees. He ousted both board chair David Rubenstein and president Deborah Rutter and then became chair himself. In response, artists have canceled gigs.

Comedians, clowns and fools have always poked fun at the powerful. So will Trump’s conquest be fodder for jokes at this year’s Mark Twain Prize?

If the past is prologue, it could happen.

When Jon Stewart accepted his award in 2022, he talked about the rise in authoritarianism around the world.

Stewart said that authoritarians threaten comedy and other artforms and that democracy is “fragile and precious and the way to guard against it isn’t to change how audiences think. It’s to change how leaders lead.”

When Dave Chappelle received his award in 2019, he talked about how standup is a uniquely American genre, partly because of the First Amendment.

In 2017, David Letterman ended his acceptance speech with a quote from Mark Twain: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”

The Mark Twain Prize is taping on Sunday, but won’t be streamed on Netflix until a future, undisclosed date. In the meantime, the Kennedy Center is keeping the cast of Conan O’Brien’s Twain Prize a secret. Yet, the event has long been a bellwether for where comedy is on any given year. Will the comedians performing come out and address the moment? Or will they keep the focus squarely on O’Brien’s career? Either way, Washington could use a laugh right now.

Jennifer Vanasco edited the digital story.