Will Ferrell's advice to students
July 13, 2003 1:53 PM   Subscribe

Will Ferrell's Harvard commencement speech quotes from the greatest -- "I believe it was Shakespeare who said it best when he said, 'Look yonder into the darkness for knowledge onto which I say go onto that which thou possess into thy night for thee have come with only a single sword and vanquished thee into darkness.'" - Some Sunday humor for MeFolk.
posted by Civil_Disobedient (21 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Conan O'Brien's class day speech from a few years ago. Thanks, C_D.
posted by Frank Grimes at 2:00 PM on July 13, 2003


Heh... good stuff. Sure beats Kurt Vonnegut's speech from a few years back.
posted by gwint at 2:13 PM on July 13, 2003


Anyone have any audio links?
posted by bkdelong at 2:46 PM on July 13, 2003


The Realvideo stream (starts at about the 1 hour, 30 minute mark).
posted by waxpancake at 3:29 PM on July 13, 2003


It's brilliant, but the Conan one remains my all time favorite. "Must get more laughs than seminal wage-price theoretician"
posted by jonson at 3:36 PM on July 13, 2003


Conan wins this vote. Especially the ultra-subtle bit:

"I even took a job entertaining at a seven year-old's birthday party. "

ROFL!!! Ferrell was funny too, though not as relevent, and I just wonder WTF invited him.
posted by billsaysthis at 3:50 PM on July 13, 2003


That speech sucks. It sucks hard.

Give me Brodsky's In Praise of Boredom (Dartmouth commencement, 1989, and nowhere to be found in English on this forsaken interweb thing) over this anytime.
posted by azazello at 3:54 PM on July 13, 2003


Not funny. F minus.
posted by Mo Nickels at 4:15 PM on July 13, 2003


The Ferrell speech is much funnier if you hear it as opposed to reading it, as one of his primary gifts is his delivery. The Conan speech was very funny, as is to be expected.
posted by GriffX at 4:26 PM on July 13, 2003


The Ferrell speech is much funnier if you hear it as opposed to reading it

In fact, it's funniest if you're in the audience hearing it as it's being delivered, rather than in a recording. In other words, you have to actually be graduating from Harvard to really get it. In yet other words still, if you don't get it it's because you didn't graduate from Harvard, dumbass. He didn't write it for the likes of you. Now get back to the parts counter, that guy needs a set of brake pads chop chop.
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:52 PM on July 13, 2003


the sunscreen speech that gwint linked was actually used by the assistant principal at my high school graduation. The year following, it was put to music and was played on the radio constantly. It was hilarious and he must have felt pretty stupid.

At least I hope he did.

and hey. I thought Ferrell's speech was funny if you had his voice say it in your head... or something like that.
posted by ODiV at 7:27 PM on July 13, 2003


It was funny in a way but I wish Ferrell had included something meaningful. I kept waiting for him to come across with a real piece of goods, and was disappointed when he didn't.
posted by orange swan at 7:57 PM on July 13, 2003


Hmm . . . I read the Ferrell speech first and it was hilarious as I acted it out with the little virtual Will Ferrell in my brain, but then I watched the Real Video and it was slow, awkward, and painful. I guess Will Ferrell is now an obsolete model . . . though I think we all kind of new that.
posted by dgaicun at 11:27 PM on July 13, 2003


Loved it.

My thumb is clearly on the pulse of American Humor.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 3:12 AM on July 14, 2003


Thanks -- enjoyed them both, especially Conan, which is funny and meaningful at the same time.
posted by onlyconnect at 7:57 AM on July 14, 2003


Holden Karnofsky's speech (right before Ferrel @ 1:21) is good as well.
posted by Hankins at 8:59 AM on July 14, 2003


Liked Will's, but the Conan speech slays me every time.

You see, in those days, I was 6 feet 4 inches tall and I weighed 150 pounds. True. Recently, I had some structural engineers run those numbers into a computer model, and according to the computer, I collapsed in 1987, killing hundreds in Taiwan.
posted by jragon at 12:58 PM on July 14, 2003


Conan: great. Ferrell: dull.
posted by widdershins at 1:33 PM on July 14, 2003


That Conan speech has always been a favorite of mine.
posted by jcruelty at 1:44 PM on July 14, 2003


Does a clip of the Conan speech exist?
posted by snoopie at 8:33 AM on July 15, 2003


That's what I thought too, Orange Swan. Will is holding out his secret insights of the world from the graduates and all of us. I think it's because he "never even got a call back from Admissions."

Blame Havard!
posted by john at 10:29 AM on July 15, 2003


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