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Heres how OBrien accepted his prize while addressing the moment.
A fuller recap of the event can be readhere.
The ceremony will stream on Netflix starting May 4.
I need to put this in context so you will understand.
The year is 1987, and Im living in Los Angeles.
Im only two years out of college, and Im unemployed.
I remember it feels like a steel door has come down.
I have no idea what is going to become of me.
Two weeks later this is true I go to take a job at Wilsons House of Suede and Leather.
I live in a $380-a-month apartment.
I drive an old Plymouth Valiant that I bought from some surfing drug dealers in Santa Monica.
And my supposed career in comedy feels, at best, tenuous.
All I know for sure is that I am very, very scared.
I would have stared at that angel in utter shock and said, Wait a minute.
David Letterman is stillalive?
Forty years from now?
Hes 20 years older than me!
God, how does he look?
The angel would say, Hes got a beard.
Id say, Is it trim and fashionable?
The angel would say, No!
Its really white and crazy-long.
Imagine if Dostoevsky was panhandling for gold in the Yukon.
[OBrien turns to Letterman, seated in a box adjacent to the stage.]
What are you doing, man?
They would have absolutely loved this.
To my beautiful and talented wife, Liza.
To my patient and perpetually unimpressed children, Neve and Beckett.
They honestly dont get it, and theyre not wrong.
I want to thank this band Max Weinberg and the rest of the band.
I will never recover from this.
It is what my people call a mitzvah.
My people borrow stuff we like.
Honestly, I dont know why they arent here tonight.
I lost Wi-Fi in January.
I assume theyre in traffic.
My eternal thanks for their selfless devotion to the arts.
But then it takes forever.
So I had an idea to thank everyone as quickly as possible.
It came in cereal!
lets be honest, it can seem trivial.
This honor feels very different to me.
I think accepting an award named after Mark Twain is a responsibility.
One cannot invoke Twain without understanding who he was and what he stood for.
Now, dont be distracted by the white suit and the cigar and the riverboat.
Twain is alive, vibrant, and vitally relevant today.
First and foremost, Twain hated bullies.
He punched up, not down, and he deeply, deeply empathized with the weak.
Twain was allergic to hypocrisy, and he loathed racism.
Above all, Twain was a patriot in the best sense of the word.
He loved America but knew it was deeply flawed.
Twain wrote, Patriotism is supporting your country all of the time and your government when it deserves it.
Its the honor of a lifetime.
