There are very few people in the world with a resume like Conan O’Brien. The former late-night show host has written for “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons,” hosted “Late Night,” “The Tonight Show,” his self-titled show on TBS, and has a highly rated podcast. He is one of the most prominent and beloved voices in comedy over the last 30 years and now he’ll have another accolade to add to his growing list. O’Brien is set to receive the 2025 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
It’s fitting for O’Brien to receive this award given he started his career in Hollywood as a writer. Mark Twain is widely considered to be one of the greatest American humorists of all time. Of course, in Twain’s time, writing was really the only mass market medium for humor to be shared. Twain had a way of writing about the absurd in present Americana and did so with the kind of satire and wit that we see traces of today in talents like Conan.
The award is presented by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and is given to those “individuals who have had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th-century novelist and essayist Samuel Clemens, best known as Mark Twain.” The award was first issued in 1998 to the late, great, Richard Pryor. Other recipients include Conan’s former boss Lorne Michaels in 2004, and fellow late-night hosts Jay Leno and David Letterman in 2014 and 2017, respectively. Last year’s winner was Kevin Hart.
It’s particularly wonderful to see Conan taking home this award considering everything else that has been going on in his life. Even though his late-night hosting duties ended in 2021, his “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” podcast has been remarkably successful and his Max show, “Conan O’Brien Must Go” was renewed for a second season. He’ll also be hosting the Academy Awards on March 2nd. In the midst of all this, he was hit by the loss of both of his parents who passed only days apart from each other in December of 2024.
Conan hasn’t lost his sense of humor. He responded to the announcement by saying, “I am honored to be the first winner of the Mark Twain Prize recognized not for humor, but for my work as a riverboat pilot.”
Indeed, you are Conan. Indeed, you are.
