When I first started out as a journalist, I covered tons of graduation ceremonies. The speeches were riddled with clichés about following your passions. Few stood out.
Jerry Seinfeld’s recent speech to Duke graduates (in which it was said dozens of protestors walked out) was both funny and serious.
He spoke about how privilege, if you have it, is not a terrible thing. “I grew up a Jewish boy from New York,” he told the crowd. “That is a privilege if you want to be a comedian.”
He implored the students not to care about getting rich, saying that it’s better to care more about having a cool job than getting rich.
While many know that Seinfeld has hundreds of millions of dollars, he said it wasn’t always like that and he used to eat bread and peanut butter before he became a star. I wish he had mentioned how close his show came to not ever getting made.
Seinfeld gave an anti-cliché, speech, the antithesis of almost every other which tells people to follow their dreams or passions.
“To hell with passion,” he said. “Find something you can do. That would be great.”
Another quip: “Fascination is way better than passion – it’s not so sweaty.”
While some things have changed since Seinfeld, now 70, was of college age, some have not. There is still a great fear of taking risks when it comes to making music, writing a play, auditioning for an acting role, or deciding to take a trip somewhere exotic.
“Just swing the bat and pray is not a bad approach to a lot of things,” he said.
Seinfeld visited Israel in December, knowing there would be backlash from going, and in an Esquire interview said his Magen David that he wears is important to him as a connection to Israel, though his commencement speech didn’t mention Israel.
He also took a fair shot at Artificial Intelligence, saying ChatGPT’s slogan should be “You Just Can’t Do It” – mocking Nike’s slogan of “Just Do It.”
Perhaps his best bit of classic observational humor is that “we’re embarrassed about things we should be proud of and proud of things we should be embarrassed about.” He didn’t need to give many examples, as they are self-evident. One need only look at the outfits at the Eurovision competition and see that some were way more embarrassing than his character’s puffy shirt. He also said it was okay to be slightly uncomfortable due to humor and told the graduates never to lose their sense of humor because they will need it in life.
In an election year, he didn’t say a word about voting. The idea that failure is okay and that it’s about the effort may ring hollow with the students who watched his show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. I think they believed he owns all the cars – he doesn’t.
Seinfeld has enough money and doesn’t need to do interviews, or do any more films, though he recently released Unfrosted about the battle between Post and Kellogg’s regarding the invention of Pop-Tarts. He didn’t need to speak at any graduation. But he loves performances. He loves speaking to crowds. It’s in his blood. He looks good for 70 and is as sharp as ever.
I’m sure many of the students have seen a Seinfeld episode, though it is doubtful they have seen every one. It was feared the show would not make it because it was “too Jewish.” Contrary to what many in pop culture think, it was not a show about nothing – it was about the observations that a comedian and his friends make about the things that bother them in New York City. And his speech was certainly not about nothing. It was about the idea that every person in the world is born with advantages and disadvantages and that hard work is crucial and will result in good things.
Seinfeld, one of the top five shows of all time, ended while I was in college at Binghamton University. I watched the finale, sad that it had ended. In the final episode, the characters are in jail.
I’ve been at graduations where speakers told students not to have kids before marriage, told them they should make as much money as possible, or told them things that were simply not true. College students often know when someone is not being honest with them. I’m sure they appreciated some truth from one of the funniest men of all time.
But the real beauty of Seinfeld’s speech is that he conveyed the message that it is okay to be honest and not live in fear of having to be politically correct. The professors behind him could be seen laughing, yet only a few jokes got big laughs from the students. So honest was Seinfeld, he told the crowd he knew many of them did not care about what he was saying.
It made me think about life. Do you ever really know if someone cares about what you are saying? It is rare for someone to give a speech with that much authenticity. There has been much criticism of Gen Z; some may be fair and some unfair.
Seinfeld could have told the grads that he turned down $100 million from NBC because he felt the show had run its course and did not need an additional season. But that likely would have made him seem too unreliable.
Besides seeing him in shows at the Beacon Theater, I saw him in an interview with Brian Williams at a synagogue more than a year ago, and he said we should not live our lives taking things for granted. This is one of the greatest and hardest lessons to learn. When healthy, we think we will be healthy forever. When we make a good amount of money, we think that will be the norm. Seinfeld came to tell the graduates that unpredictability should be embraced as long as one has the foundation of hard work.
As good as his speech was, there will certainly be many who will only think about how to make the most money with the least effort. But such is life.
