All Posts Tagged With: "commencement"
Comedians address the class of 2011
Conan O’Brien, Amy Poehler and Snooki draw big audiences
Photo courtesy of sayhellotojessica on Flickr
American universities are hiring comedians to give commencement speeches — and it’s getting them noticed by hundreds of thousands of people. Amy Poehler, of Saturday Night Live and Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo fame, gave last month’s final address at Harvard University. ”I’m truly delighted to be here at Harvard,” she joked. “I graduated at Boston College, which some call the Harvard of Boston.”
Harvard is likely delighted by the 450,000 views that a recording of her speech has received on YouTube. That’s the type of publicity that lesser colleges can only dream of getting.
But not all comical commencement speeches go as well. Some parents of students at Rutgers University were angry when they learned that Snooki, known for her drunken antics on the TV show Jersey Shore, was paid $32,000 for her hour-long “study hard but party harder” message.
Dartmouth University will live stream its commencement ceremony on YouTube next week. That will be delivered by an even bigger star than Snooki or Poehler — Conan O’Brien himself.
Updated: Read the highlights of Conan’s speech and find a link to the video here.
The things he could teach our kids
Kim Jong Il could give a heck of a graduation speech. So could our dear leader.
We are in the last days of the season for commencement speeches, the annual rite in which famous and successful people urge graduating students to follow their hearts, live their dreams, change the world, hug everyone, floss daily, be nice to kitty-cats and, oops, sorry we went and broke the global economy just as you were preparing to look for work. Enjoy destitution!
The truth is that graduates don’t need to be bombarded with well-meaning but dubious expressions of optimism: that’s what wedding vows are for. What they need is practical advice they can actually use in their lives—real wisdom based on real experience, preferably stated by those who know the taste of disappointment. (Note: the “taste of disappointment” can be acquired through one’s own personal failures or by licking the poster for the movie Wolverine.)
Take Kim Jong Il, for instance. An unorthodox choice as commencement speaker? Sure. But really, who’s more qualified to extol the virtues of perseverance? Here’s a guy whose dreams literally crashed into the sea and detonated in a feeble puff of weapons-grade futility. But did that stop him from perpetuating national famine, strife and authoritarian menace in his pursuit of the means for inflicting upon the earth a raging nuclear hellfire? Not a chance. If Hollywood executives had that kind of resolve and determination, we’d have four or five terrible Hulk movies by now, instead of just the two.
Here at home, I can’t imagine Brian Mulroney received too many invitations to speak this spring, and even fewer that met his minimum gratuity. But think of all he’d have to offer. The former prime minister could talk about the hazards of hubris and the perils of demanding a public inquiry into yourself. He could talk about all that, but being Mulroney he’d probably speak on the topic of “Can Anyone Here Break a $1,000 Bill?”
Or what about the current occupant of 24 Sussex Drive? Stephen Harper has experienced his share of dismay and defeat, and that’s just with a hairbrush. The man has wisdom to impart. Of course, the Prime Minister is busy managing the recession we can’t be having right now because we didn’t already have it before, so I took the liberty of writing the uplifting conclusion to his commencement address:
“Graduates, as you look to the future, I urge you to remember that no matter the scope of the problems you face, no matter the magnitude of the challenges you confront, there is always a way to triumph. Stand tall and remember: courage, honesty, integrity—these are for wusses. A much better solution is negative advertising.
“Over the years, I’ve found that my own chronic shortcomings are best addressed not by personal improvement or sacrifice, both of which can be a real pain, but by emphasizing or even inventing the flaws of others.
Obama at Notre Dame causes controversy
More than 350,000 sign petition asking university to rescind invitation
A campaign by outraged Roman Catholics to keep U.S. President Barack Obama from delivering the commencement address at Notre Dame shows that the gulf between the church and backers of abortion rights remains deep.
Yet the effort to get the school to rescind its invitation to Obama also highlights a political disconnect between the conservative Catholic hierarchy and millions of U.S. Catholic voters.
Since the White House announced in March that Obama had accepted Notre Dame’s invitation to speak May 17, more than 353,000 people have signed an online petition demanding that the university take back the offer. The Cardinal Newman Society, an advocacy group for Catholic colleges that circulated the position, said the invitation violated a 2004 bishops’ mandate that stated, “The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honour those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.”
Catholic activists and bishops have been outspoken in their criticism of Obama. By comparison, they had only occasional disagreements with President George W. Bush, primarily over the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which the Vatican condemned but many conservative Catholics supported.
They cite his support for abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research, and his repeal of a policy that denied federal dollars to international relief organizations that provide abortions or abortion-related information. They remain angry with Obama’s support for legislation that would prohibit state and local governments from interfering with a woman’s right to obtain an abortion.
Obama also has been criticized by Catholics and other opponents of legal abortion for telling Pastor Rick Warren at a campaign forum last summer that the question of when life begins was “above my pay grade.”
Yet polling and other evidence shows that Catholic voters have a largely positive view of the president, closely tracking other national polling. Obama’s standing is more evidence that U.S. Catholics don’t always follow the church hierarchy, whether on issues such as abortion and contraception or political preferences. Also, the president’s community service background and his opposition to the Iraq war appeal to some Catholics.
As a candidate, Obama worked hard to woo Catholic voters. He chose an observant Catholic, Joe Biden, as his running mate, and Biden campaigned hard for the ticket in states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, which have large Catholic communities. But Biden also supports abortion rights, putting him at odds with the bishops and many conservative Catholics.
Obama is also widely popular among Hispanics, a fast-growing growing Catholic population in the U.S.
