Nikki Glaser Shared The Real Reason Why She's Hesitant To Do Political Comedy Under The Trump Administration
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Last night, Conan O'Brien was awarded the prestigious Mark Twain Prize For American Humor — but you might have missed it since there weren't many celebrities walking the red carpet. And given the controversy surrounding the John F. Kennedy Center of Performing Arts in the past couple of months, this wasn't much of a surprise.
Earlier this year, President Trump announced that he'd be taking over the board of the Kennedy Center as chairman and that he planned to dismiss many key figures in the venue's administration. After he followed through, a number of celebrities spoke out in protest, including Shonda Rhimes and Issa Rae.
Trump now serves as chairman for the venue, and the Guardian reports that the red carpet outside the venue for events is opposite a series of 'all mounted with gold-framed photos of Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and the vice-president and second lady, JD Vance and Usha Vance.' And at last night's award ceremony, many celebrities were absent.
One in attendance was Nikki Glaser, who you'll probably remember as the host of the Golden Globes earlier this year when she delivered a fantastic performance that had everyone wondering why we've never had a solo female Globes host before. But despite her run at the Globes showing us that she truly takes no prisoners, last night Nikki revealed that there certainly are people that she'll be thinking twice about before poking fun — for extremely good reason.
Speaking to reporters at the Kennedy Center, Nikki shared that she's hesitant to make jokes about Trump under his administration for fear that she could end up in serious trouble. '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 a real fear,' she said.
'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's a defense,' she added.
Despite Nikki's concerns, there were moments last night when comedians honoring Conan took the time to dig at the President and the center's new administration. Sarah Silverman included a jibe in her speech addressed to Conan, saying, 'I just really miss the days when you were America's only orange asshole,' before referencing Trump's graphic comments about women's genitalia, saying, 'The guy who took over loves grabbing pussy.'
Other comedians that made fun of Trump last night included John Mulaney, who congratulated Conan on 'receiving the 26th and final Mark Twain prize,' as well as Will Ferrell ('I'm supposed to be shutting down the Department of Education') and Stephen Colbert, to no one's surprise. Stephen, in a segment of the ceremony that involved chicken wings, said, 'In light of the new leadership of the Kennedy Center, all of these are right wings, and a couple of them are truly insane.'
And Conan's predecessor, David Letterman, summed it all up well when he said, 'I'm not a historian, but I believe that history will show in the history for all time, this will have been the most entertaining gathering of the resistance, ever.'
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