Nikki Glaser was one of the few celebrities to walk the red carpet at this year’s Mark Twain Prize — certainly not because of the honoree, but perhaps because of the “elephant in the room.”
Glaser said that she expected the evening would focus on honoree Conan O’Brien, but that there may be a few “rebellious” figures who joke about the situation.
She told reporters that she does think twice now before doing political jokes — including those at Trump.
“Like, you just are scared that you’re gonna get doxxed and death threats or who knows where this leads, like, detained. Honestly that’s not even like a joke. It’s like a real fear. So it’s unfortunate that that’s true, but I’m not gonna lie and say I don’t think about that sometimes and go, ‘Oh, god. Can I just say, I hope they all know, I can be up on the gallows and say I was just joking. I’m a comedian.’ I hope that that’s a defense.”
The event was the first major fete since Donald Trump took control of the Kennedy Center. Trump fired board members selected by Joe Biden, ousted the president and ensured that he would become chairman. During a visit to the institution, Trump made clear that he would oversee not just programming and the physical look of the venue, but who is selected for the Kennedy Center Honors, even suggesting that he himself may be named host.
O’Brien was selected before the president’s purge, and it raises the question of just who would be in the running next year, given the scarcity of well-known Trump-supporting comedians and just how much humor satirists have mined in the past decade at his expense.
O’Brien told reporters that it is not his show so he has no control over what his friends and colleagues will say.
“Well, I don’t have any say of what any of my friends are doing,” he said.
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