The organizers of the 2025 Breakthrough Prize have come under fire for cutting out Seth Rogen’s sarcastic comments about Donald Trump on the official broadcast. The Neighbors actor made the jab when he was called to present the Special Breakthrough prize in Physics alongside Edward Norton.
Norton began his speech showering praises on Mark Zuckerberg, Yuri Milner and Sergey Brin for underwriting the award. He was, however, interrupted by Rogen who roasted a former attendee, Elon Musk, for supporting Trump. He said, “It’s amazing that others [who have been] in this room underwrote electing a man, who in the last week, single-handedly destroyed all of American science.”
The Pineapple Express star continued with a jest at the administration that has cut down federal science funding. “It’s amazing how much good science you can destroy with $320m and RFK Jr, very fast,” quipped the writer. His co-presenter, who appeared uncomfortable, replied, “light applause.”
However, the broadcast was edited to look like Norton’s “light applause” comment was referring to his entrance with Rogen. A member of the audience told The Hollywood Reporter of another joke which didn’t make it to the stream.
According to the witness, the actor made an illustration for the concept of symmetry using the metaphor of a wheel. He said that the “wheel could either roll left or right” and added that the crowd would “roll right.”
Seth Rogen Has Been Vocal In His Opposition Of Donald Trump
After the broadcast went live, netizens wasted no time in calling out the organizers of the award. One user commented, “I would boycott this award show, but I never heard about it before so I’ll just carry on.”
A second critic lashed out, “‘Free speech warriors’ of tech cutting criticism of them and Trump’s administration says everything about how full of s**t these people have always been.”
A third comment read, “Constant censorship everywhere,” while a fourth commenter praised the writer for his activism.
Amid the backlash from angry fans, the award organizers defended cutting off Rogen’s part, saying the edits were made to meet the required run time.
Rogen’s sarcastic remark towards the president is unsurprising, as he has not shied away from criticizing Trump. Two months after the election, the actor gave his opinion on how the Republican won the elections, likening it to doing drugs.
The actor said in an interview, “People get sick of f–cking hippies doing acid and f–cking their on their lawns, and they are like ‘let’s f–cking clean up these streets a bit.”
He continued, “And then people get sick of seeing f-cking dorks cleaning up the streets and they go back the other way.”
Rogen has always maintained that Trump has no good plans for the country and he clearly has no plans to change his mind.
