Seth Rogen's jokes about Trump are CUT from science award show coverage
Comedian Seth Rogen's jokes about US president Donald Trump have been cut out of the broadcast of one of the most prestigious science awards shows in the world.
The Pineapple Express actor and writer was presenting an award at this month's Breakthrough prize ceremony, a heavily-funded awards programme that aims to recognise 'outstanding scientific achievements'.
The programme, which describes itself as the 'Oscars of science', was co-founded by many of the world's biggest tech founders including Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Rogen reportedly cracked some harsh jokes at the US president's expense as he and actor Edward Norton presented a special prize in fundamental physics to Gerardus 't Hooft.
According to the Hollywood Reporter he addressed the audience, which included Brin and Zuckerberg as well as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, 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.'
He added: 'It's amazing how much good science you can destroy with $320m and RFK Jr, very fast.'
But the jokes were not included in the 'full' YouTube upload of the ceremony.
Breakthrough told the Hollywood Reporter: 'This year's ceremony lasted longer than the prior few years, and several edits were made in order to meet the originally planned run time.'
Seth Rogen (pictured, left) was presenting an award at this month's Breakthrough prize ceremony alongside Edward Norton (pictured, right)
Comedian Seth Rogen's jokes about US president Donald Trump (pictured) have been cut out of the broadcast of one of the most prestigious science awards shows in the world
Rogen's joke appeared to take aim at how quickly Silicon Valley founders cosied up to Trump after he won the White House.
Zuckerberg, Bezos and Altman donated $1million (£760,000) each to Trump's inauguration committee after he was elected.
Since taking office, his administration has completely upended the scientific and academic world.
Mass firings and the freezing of billions earmarked for universities and scientific agencies have left researchers terrified.
Last month, nearly 2,000 of the world's most prominent academics signed an open letter warning the world of the 'danger' of Trump's attacks on science itself.
The letter read: 'We see real danger in this moment. We hold diverse political beliefs, but we are united as researchers in wanting to protect independent scientific inquiry.
'We are sending this SOS to sound a clear warning: the nation's scientific enterprise is being decimated.'
And Trump's appointment of Robert Kennedy Jr., a notorious vaccine sceptic, has left epidemiologists worried that the US will soon be unable to deal with another outbreak of a pandemic.
Following the firing of thousands of national park employees under Donald Trump's administration, park scientists are now being pulled from their research duties to clean hundreds of campground bathrooms.
In February, Trump terminated thousands of national park and forest management employees in a maneuver by Elon Musk's DOGE to slim the government and root out fraud, waste and abuse - a decision met with heavy scrutiny
Acting Superintendent Stephanie Burkhart's office requested that the park's division chiefs designate staff members to clean 10 campground restroom facilities in an uncovered internal email
In California, Yosemite National Park is bracing for its busiest season of the year amid a custodial staff shortage - and bathroom duty has now fallen on the park's scientists, rangers, IT workers and even its leadership team
Roughly 1,000 newly hired National Park Service (NPS) employees and about 3,400 US Forest Service workers were fired in February, sparking concerns that the administration's actions could harm the country's most sacred natural lands.
In California, Yosemite National Park is bracing for its busiest season of the year amid a custodial staff shortage - the result of the president's delay in hiring seasonal workers across the nation's beloved parks.
With staff stretched thin, bathroom clean-up duty has now fallen to an unlikely group - the park's scientists, rangers, IT workers and even its leadership team.
'When our manager first notified us that we were assigned this new duty, I was somewhat outraged,' one employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told SFGate.
'We are already understaffed, mainly due to the hiring freeze caused by the new administration, and now more work unrelated to our job description is being piled on top of us?'
The National Park Service (NPS) regularly hires between 7,000-8,000 seasonal employees, but these roles will be exempt from Trump's federal hiring freeze, which he enacted on day one of his second administration.
National park advocates have argued the job cuts paired with the hiring freeze could lead to trash piling up, facilities falling into disrepair and long wait times for park entries and reservations.
