Netflix has just dropped its Mark Twain Prize special for Conan O’Brien. There were no press links in advance and this is why: the 90 minute show is a brutal and brilliant roast of Donald Trump.
Since Conan accepted the prize before Trump announced he was taking over the Kennedy Center there was speculation this special would be heavily edited. It’s very well edited, but no one holds back eviscerating Trump and is administration. One comic says it’s probably “the last Mark Twain prize.” David Letterman invokes “the resistance.”
There’s a Murderer’s Row of A list comics starting Robert Smigel and his Triumph the Insult Dog, the night’s narrator. Then John Mulaney has a blistering opening, calling the Kennedy Center “the Roy Cohen Pavilion for Big Strong, Men Who Love ‘Cats’.” Immediately we know where we’re going.
Some of the more vicious comments come from Sarah Silverman, who jokes she liked it when Conan was “America’s only orange asshole.” She adds that “The guy who took over loves grabbing pussy.”
Silverman, the sweetest dirty comic ever, is outdone in the mildly filthy department by Adam Sander, has unprintable things to say about Conan’s freckled anatomy.
The only way out of this when Trump hears about it today is to say he “let” O’Brien and co have one last rodeo. But that’s not going to work. This special is a rare moment to let everyone who’s endured the last 100 days finally blow off steam and feel like a weight has been lifted.
The rest of the all-Star cast also includes David Letterman, Stephen Colbert, Conan sidekick Andy Richter, Bill Burr, Tracy Morgan, Kumail Nanjiani, plus Paul Rudd, and Fred Armisen sending up Conan’s matriculation at Harvard, Trump’s sworn enemy. Nikki Glaser, who’s having quite a year, introduces an O’Brien character, The Interrupter, who’s revealed as a member of the Trump cabinet (spoiler not here).
And don’t worry, the whole show starts with something Trump will secretly love but claim to hate, the Masturbating Bear. (The Bear dances around the stage vividly.)
I’d been asking people involved in the production if any censoring of material was going on backstage. It doesn’t seem like it, although maybe one day we’ll see the outtakes. Netflix has been brave (yes, I said it) in letting this rip, the result will be Emmy nominations and maybe some wins. Stay til the end for a terrific musical finale featuring O’Brien on electric guitar playing a song Trump tried to coop during his campaigns.
PS Leave the closed captions on. One of the comics mangles a word, but the caption writer interpreted it as “Dissension.” And they say there no coincidences!
