Former Comedy Central star and future host of CBS’ The Late Show Stephen Colbert was the commencement speaker at Wake Forest University’s graduation ceremony over the weekend. And, as expected, his advice was as funny as it was wise.
“Try to make the world good according to your standards. It won’t be easy. Get ready for my generation to tell you everything that can’t be done — like ending racial tension, or getting money out of politics, or lowering the world’s carbon emissions. And we should know they can’t be done, after all, we’re the ones who didn’t do them.
Your job, pro humanitate, is to prove us wrong — because if you don’t prove us wrong, then forget everything I’ve been saying and instead I’d like to leave you with a bit of wisdom I picked up from a documentary I saw this weekend: Mad Max Fury Road. All you young people really need to succeed in the future is a reliable source of fuel and fanatical cadre of psychopathic motorcycle killers. May you ride eternal, shiny and chrome.”
Watch the full speech, posted by CBS News.
