Part of President Barack Obama’s current LA fundraising tour found him accepting an award Wednesday from a Holocaust organization founded by Steven Spielberg.
The event stuck plenty of appropriately somber notes, but the gala kicked off with a jokes a-plenty courtesy of late night talker Conan O’Brien.
Even the guest of honor took some ribbing.
Whoever Steven [Spielberg] suckered to tell jokes at this event is a true idiot,” he said in his opening remarks. The late-night host teased Obama about the traffic gridlock his visit caused. “You left Washington six hours ago, but I left Burbank seven hours ago.” But O’Brien got one of the night’s biggest laughs when he mentioned Spielberg’s efforts to record Holocaust survivors and other victims of genocide. O’Brien said the filmmaker “was recording evidence of intolerance long before Donald Sterling’s girlfriend.” Obama was seen laughing at the remark.
Obama was on hand to accept the Shoah Foundation’s Ambassador of Humanity Award. In addition to O’Brien’s comedy set, Bruce Springsteen entertained the 1,300-strong crowd with an acoustic set including the song The Promised Land.