Sad. The students at UCLA were trying to get new Los Angeles resident Conan O'Brien to give the commencement speech at their upcoming graduation, but he said "no." I think they were on the right track with a comedian (especially one who has done well with this in the past) instead of an actor, like their earlier choice of James Franco.
This got me thinking of my fantasy graduation ceremony, which would feature a Jon Stewart speech. Do you remember his amazingly hilarious speech to the class of 2004 at the College of William and Mary? Here's a snippet:
Today is the day you enter into the real world, and I should give you a few pointers on what it is. It’s actually not that different from the environment here. The biggest difference is you will now be paying for things, and the real world is not surrounded by three-foot brick wall. And the real world is not a restoration. If you see people in the real world making bricks out of straw and water, those people are not colonial re-enactors — they are poor. Help them. And in the real world, there is not as much candle lighting. I don't really know what it is about this campus and candle lighting, but I wish it would stop. We only have so much wax, people.
See? Comedians make good graduation speakers. Who would you have wanted at yours?
Temperley London
Stephen Colbert
1i would love to have either jon stewart or steven colbert
2Well, I think my class would really have taken anyone last year seeing as both Bill Clinton and Ariana Huffington both canceled on us at the last minute. So we ended up having a wholly unprepared peer give us our commencement address. Lame. That said, I would have loved Colbert!
3I think the consensus is gonna be for stewart or colbert and I must agree.
4I would have loved Chris Rock, even though we never get anybody like that, being such a small school.
5Stewart or Colbert. For sure.
6i go to UCLA and i'm very glad they didn't have Franco--i'm not graduating this year, but i definitely do not think he is qualified to speak...hey makes a lot of money, yes, but being famous doesn't mean you inspire others to pursue their dreams, etc. i would LOVE to have ellen degeneres or colbert... would most definitely be amazing.
7I graduated this year and I had Jimmy Fallon as a speaker at mine(Saint Rose). I thought he was pretty entertaining, who knew he was a computer science major before decided to do comedy.
8I had Walter Cronkite who basically told us that we were graduating into a world that was going straight to sh*t. My brother/husband (not the same person, they just graduated together) had Bill Keller at theirs and I loved the speech.
9i graduated from atuyvesant h.s. in nyc in 2006, and our class asked jon stewart to speak, but he shot us down. so we had conan o'brien instead. he was highlarious!
10Conan O'Brien, Seth MacFarlane, Robin Williams or John Stewart. I could not choose.
11Cr*p, forgot to list Stephen Colbert.
12Right away my brain said Jon Stewart, so I agree Buzz!
Bill Mahar would be cool too, as would Seth McFarlane.
13John Kerry spoke at my graduation. While a comedian would be entertaining enough, I think an actor would be fine too... Jodie Foster, for example, who exemplifies higher learning.
14Jon Stewart
15Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert or Seth MacFarlane!
16In the future of course, I've got a few good years before I get to that level
17louis ck!
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