Conan O’Brien to deliver Commencement address
By Emily Baer, The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Web Update
Correction appended
Comedian and talk show host Conan O’Brien will deliver the Class of 2011 Commencement address on June 12, College President Jim Yong Kim said in an interview with The Dartmouth Editorial Board.
O’Brien, who hosted NBC’s Late Night from 1993 to 2009, currently hosts his self-titled show on TBS weeknights. O’Brien was infamously ousted from his position on NBC’s The Tonight Show in January 2010, just months after succeeding Jay Leno as host in June 2009. O’Brien left the network, which was owned by General Electric at the time, with a settlement of $32.5 million, according to The New York Times.
Kim is a former student of O’Brien’s father, Harvard University infectious disease professor Thomas O’Brien, who currently works at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Thomas O’Brien did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
“I just got [Conan O’Brien’s] phone number from his dad and I called him and I said, ‘Conan, would you like to do this?’” Kim said. “And he said that he’d refused every time before, but he feels like now he’s got a lot to say.”
Although College Trustee Jeffrey Immelt ’78 is the chief executive officer of GE, Kim said that O’Brien and Immelt are on good terms.
“You know that Conan had some conflict with NBC and its owner General Electric, but he and [Immelt] are still good friends,” Kim said. “No problem there.”
O’Brien will “hopefully” arrive on campus the Saturday prior to graduation to meet with students, Kim said.
Kim said he hopes that the presence of O’Brien’s parents, who will also attend the address, will ensure that O’Brien delivers a funny but appropriate speech.
“I worry, but that’s why I talked to his father today,” Kim joked. “His father and mother are coming up, they’re going to spend the weekend with us, and so my hope is that with his father and mother in the audience he’s going to do something really funny and not too over the top.”
Stephen Henry Lewis, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations and former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS to Africa, spoke during the Class of 2010 Commencement. This year’s Commencement will be “less serious” than last year’s, Kim said. "The campus will like him, right? He's still current?" Kim asked the Editorial Board. Conan O’Brien, who attended Harvard as an undergraduate, delivered a speech for Harvard’s Class of 2000 graduation.
“He did Class Day for Harvard in 2000 and it’s just a riot,” Kim said, citing a YouTube video of O’Brien’s speech. “The audience is laughing the whole time.”
In his address to the Harvard Class of 2000, O’Brien focused on the idea that even with a Harvard degree, it is permissible to make mistakes.
“I left the cocoon of Harvard, I left the cocoon of Saturday Night Live, I left the cocoon of The Simpsons,” O’Brien said. “And each time it was bruising and tumultuous. And yet, every failure was freeing, and today I’m as nostalgic for the bad as I am for the good.”
O’Brien graduated from Harvard in 1985 with a degree in American history. He edited The Harvard Lampoon, Harvard’s humor magazine, as an undergraduate and later established his presence in the television industry by writing for Saturday Night Live in 1988. SNL was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in 1989 before O’Brien left the show to write for The Simpsons in 1991, according to The New York Times.
"The question is, what are we going to do next year now?" Kim said.
The print version of this article ran with the headline "Conan O’Brien will address Class of 2011."
The original article stated that GE owns NBC, when in fact it currently owns 49 percent of the NBC Universal company, according to The New York Times. At the time of O'Brien's settlement, GE fully owned NBC Universal. Comcast purchased NBC from GE in January 2011.
Wow. Are YOU kidding me? You people seriously think Conan O'Brien is an anti-Semitist just because he made an Anne Frank joke? How many of you have ever done that? These comments are political correctness at its most laughable and ridiculous extremes. Grow a stomach and some common sense; good heavens, everybody makes insensitive jokes, that doesn’t mean they support the Holocaust.
By William D. Bishop on May 5 | 1:55 pm
In summary: way to go, President Kim. Now just don’t give us ‘12s another former NDP chair who spends the whole speech singing your praises.
By William D. Bishop on May 5 | 2:05 pm
I think most graduating seniors would kill to have someone as funny and interesting as Conan O'Brien speak at their commencements. Don’t wallow in this partisan oversensitivity; it’s not becoming. We all say things we regret on occasion; we just have the benefit of not saying them in proximity to a documentary film crew — it doesn’t mean we mean them.
Here’s the relevant Q & A from Conan’s interview with the NYT:
Q. Do you regret some of the things you’re seen saying in the film when you’re at your most stressed out? Like when you’re at Bonnaroo and you’re told it will be over soon, and you answer, “That’s what they said to Anne Frank“?
A. Wow. Yeah. I’m not trying to make light of that situation, obviously. I’m very intense, and I get very down about myself and my show, and it’s the flip side of performing. When I finally get out there, my cerebral side of me and the worrying side of me and the Catholic side of me just turns off and I just go. What you’re seeing is almost physics there, there’s a buildup of pressure, and then there’s the release. That’s been maybe the biggest misconception about me over the years, is that, oh, he’s such an easygoing guy, and anyone knows that I’m not. I’ve been working with the same people for close to 20 years now, and they’re more than welcome to find me ridiculous, which I think they do.
He seems really anti-Semitic to me. </sarcasm>
By Jewish + a Sense of Humor on May 5 | 3:12 pm
There are some people who just cannot stop complaining about every small news item that comes up at Dartmouth. First off, O'Brien is not anti-semetic. I would’ve hoped that people who have a Dartmouth education could figure out the difference between bigotry and a joke gone wrong. To offended ‘11, you’re graduating: grow up. To disgruntled alum, I’m pretty sure if Kim had consulted the student body, he would’ve received pretty positive reviews of O'Brien as most of the comments here suggest. And to Are you kidding me, Kim is an educator, not a politician. Frankly he has no business commenting on political issues, no matter how uncontroversial, and I’m glad he at least realizes that.
Anyway, to all the naysayers out there: get over yourselves. Congratulate the ‘11s and move on with your lives.
By Brian Giunta on May 5 | 3:15 pm
I hope Conan brings the bear with him to finally release him back into the wild where that incessant self-pleasurer belongs!
By Bob on May 5 | 4:48 pm
I thunk it’s time to see Jim Kim’s birth certificate.
By Donald on May 5 | 5:53 pm
Wow, my original comment started up quite a debate, but I stand firm in calling for President Kim to rescind his invitation to Conan O'Brien. Conan’s “apology” does not provide me with any closure, since his defense of the “buildup of pressure, and then there’s the release” just shows Conan’s true colors. Blaming anti-Semitic comments on a buildup of pressure is hardly an apology. If anyone has actually read about the documentary, “Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop” it shows O'Brien snapping at his wife, assistant, and Jack McBrayer from 30Rock. Simply put, Conan O'Brien does not embody Dartmouth values. And I’m afraid Jim Kim does not either.
By Matthew on May 5 | 7:29 pm
Dartmouth: Lighten UP. If you had our 09 speaker, you’d learn to appreciate.
D ‘09
By Anonymous on May 5 | 8:29 pm
Beats having to listen to Hank Paulson pat himself on the back.
By 07 on May 6 | 9:29 am
Dartmouth should not invite anyone from the Obama administration if Conan is replaced. Giving Osama the code name Geronimo? How un-PC.
By Offended one on May 6 | 9:33 am
who’s conan o'brien?
By … on May 6 | 10:46 am
Okay…this anti-Semitic debate is absolutely ridiculous. Conan is not anti-Semitic. It seems evident to me that the article was clearly trying to sensationalize parts of the documentary. As highly educated students, I’m surprised some of you are quick to condemn a person without any critical thought or further research into the matter. How many of you actually watched the documentary? How many of you read other articles or listened to people who actually watched the doc? His Ann Frank joke may have been in poor taste, but in no way was he stating that he has a hatred for Jews. In the documentary, he actually takes a fan to task for stating an anti-Semitic remark. Jeff Ross, Conan’s long-time executive producer and good friend who also went on the tour, happens to be Jewish. I mean, come on people…
By Eleni on May 6 | 6:12 pm
Eleni, just because Conan told a fan to stop making anti-Semitic remarks does not mean he is not anti-Semitic himself. That’s like saying because Hitler stopped one Nazi from killing one person, he was not anti-Semitic. Looks like you are the one jumping to conclusions… I am extremely offended and if you don’t think he’s anti-Semitic that is fine. There are MANY other speakers we could have who have never made such awful remarks. Not to mention the fact that Conan is a failure who couldn’t get an audience on NBC! An anti-Semitic, failure who is well past his prime to inspire the class of 2011… congratulations Jim Kim, you’ve done it again!
By Matthew on May 7 | 11:32 pm
Jim Kim continues his crusade against diversity by choosing a white male to speak at Commencement yet again. Is Kim living in the same world as the rest of us? There are many more diverse speakers who have actually achieved success and who don’t make minorities feel uncomfortable. I won’t be giving to this school this year, that’s all I know.
By Ned ‘78 on May 8 | 2:09 am
If Conan doesn’t do the address because a bunch of naive alumni can’t recognize the difference between legitimate anti-semitism and humor, then I will skip graduation.
By Anon on May 8 | 10:51 pm