Conan O’Brien addresses Harvard College Class of 2020
Comedian and late-night talk-show host Conan O’Brien ’85 addressed the Harvard College Class of ’20 Thursday as part of an afternoon of virtual ceremonies that captured the joy, poignancy, and humor of the day. Acknowledging the less-than-ideal scenario of celebrating via Zoom until an in-person Commencement is safe, O’Brien hammed it up, opening with archival footage of cheering crowds, stunt-flying fighter jets, blasting cannons, and a water-saluting tugboat celebrating his speech. “As you sit here today, or stand, or microwave a burrito, or ride a Peloton, or recline uncomfortably in your childhood bed, or mine Bitcoin, or Google ‘Who is Conan O’Brien?,’ you are witnessing many firsts in today’s ceremony,” O’Brien said in a message recorded as he stood, attired in T-shirt, shorts, and Birkenstocks, before a podium on his sunny backyard lawn. A history and literature concentrator and two-time president of The Lampoon, O’Brien thanked Harvard for his honorary degree in “bosonic...