Big Tech Censors Seth Rogen’s Anti-Trump Joke to Stay on MAGA’s Good Side

Turns out free speech has limits—especially when it makes Zuckerberg’s friends uncomfortable.

It turns out even a science awards show can’t handle the scientific method of telling the truth, especially when that truth makes the billionaires in the room squirm.

On April 5, during the 2025 Breakthrough Prize ceremony—Silicon Valley’s annual cosplay gala where tech bros pretend they didn’t spend the last decade wrecking democracy—Seth Rogen did what Seth Rogen does best: he told the uncomfortable truth. Then the people behind the event did what Silicon Valley does best: they deleted it.

The Breakthrough Prize is often called the “Oscars of Science.” Which makes sense, because both involve shiny trophies, millionaires pretending they’re revolutionaries, and now…strategic editing.

The night was hosted by James Corden and stacked with star power. Rogen co-presented the Special Breakthrough Prize in Physics with Edward Norton. And as Norton began politely praising the “visionary donors” in the audience—folks like Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, and Yuri Milner—Rogen took the opportunity to remind the room of what they’d really been funding.

And it wasn’t particle physics.

SETH ROGEN: “And 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.”
(audible shift in the room)
SETH ROGEN: “It’s amazing how much good science you can destroy with $320 million and RFK Jr., very fast.”

The room went quiet. A few polite laughs. And then came Edward Norton, trying to break the tension:

NORTON: “I’d say that’s a smattering.”
ROGEN: “That was a smattering.”

It was awkward, uncomfortable, and totally honest, which is probably why it never made it to the public.

Because if you go watch the “full” Breakthrough Prize stream on YouTube?

That whole exchange—the Trump jab, the RFK Jr. burn, the room freezing up—is gone.

But here’s the kicker: they left in Norton’s “smattering” line. Just repurposed it.

That’s right. They cut the joke but kept the awkward punchline—reframed as if it had nothing to do with Trump.

That’s not just editing. That’s laundering the moment for optics.

And it wasn’t the only thing trimmed. Later, Rogen made a physics analogy involving a wheel that could roll either left or right, then quipped that the crowd would probably “roll right.” That line? Gone. The video skips straight to Norton’s scripted response: “But that would break the symmetry.”

Instead of owning the moment, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation claimed it was due to the runtime. “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.”

Uh-huh. Because the first thing to go in a time crunch is always the unscripted political joke that makes your billionaire donors look bad.

Now, this isn’t Rogen’s first time torching the room. He went off at the Emmys in 2021 over COVID protocols. He got bleeped at the Golden Globes for roasting Ryan Gosling. So if you're shocked he dropped a truth bomb onstage, you weren’t paying attention.

But this moment mattered more. Because when Rogen called out the tech elite for propping up the very administration gutting science—and that gets erased—that’s not about hurt feelings. That’s about power.

This wasn’t just about Seth Rogen. It was about censorship in a tux. About how billionaires and pro-Trump elites love “free speech” right up until someone uses it to challenge their power. About how a night dedicated to truth couldn’t handle a few unscripted ones.

Because when the people funding the facts are also the ones editing the footage—truth stops being a principle, and starts becoming a PR strategy.