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Quite a Mashup: Lincoln, Conan O'Brien and Mark Twain

Writer's picture: edepstein1edepstein1

By Edward Epstein

Washington, D.C.

Friday, January 17, 2025


Lincoln devotee and longtime late-night TV talk show host Conan O'Brien is the 26th recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor; it was announced Thursday.


The award has been given annually since 1998 by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington to honor individuals for significant contributions to American humor. O'Brien, 61, is undoubtedly the first one of those recipients who cites Abraham Lincoln as a personal hero and inspiration.


Throughout his career as a comedy writer, TV host and podcaster, O'Brien has been upfront in talking about his adulation for Lincoln. In 2005, he told Time magazine: "If there was a fire in my house, I'd get my wife and child out and then I'd run back in and get a Lincoln signature that I own -- a pardon that he signed. I think I look at it every day."


And he is out front in saying that he learned a lot about writing from Lincoln -- be concise and don't use fancy words.


O'Brien says that Lincoln's writing is not really of the mid-19th century, which may be why his writing means so much to many people today. "I though his writing was actually kind of modernist and of our times rather than of his time," O'Brien said in an appearance at his alma mater Harvard University, where he was president of the Harvard Lampoon humor magazine.


O'Brien, a native of Brookline, Mass., went on to write for such TV hits as "The Simpsons" and "Saturday Night Live" and then hosted NBC's "Late Night" TV show from 1993 to 2009. He then briefly hosted "The Tonight Show" before leaving NBC amid bitterness involving fellow NBC host Jay Leno and NBC brass. From there, O'Brien was on late night at TBS for 11 years, until 2021.


He is still busy hosting the podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” and has done the travel shows “Conan Without Borders” and “Conan Must Go.”


On March 2, he is scheduled to host the annual Academy Awards telecast.

He'll receive the Twain Prize on March 23 in the Kennedy Center's main hall on an evening in which a long list of comedians will roast and pay tribute to O'Brien.


Photo courtesy of National Park Service.

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