Comedian and television host Conan O’Brien entertained Harvard University graduates at their commencement Thursday, mixing offbeat humor and political jokes with more reflective commentary about empathy and humility at a time when the Ivy League school is in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.
O’Brien, who graduated from Harvard in 1985 and led The Harvard Lampoon humor magazine, quipped that the university had produced “more Nobel laureates or white-collar criminals” than any other in the country. “So whether you choose good or evil, know that you are among the very best.”
While he joked about “Justice Department spies” being in attendance, he also defended international students — which the Trump administration has attempted to block Harvard from hosting — and criticized what he described as a broader erosion of compassion in American public life.
“Our current leadership in Washington believes that empathy is a weakness,” O’Brien said.
He returns to campus during one of the most fraught periods in Harvard’s recent history. The school faces mounting legal and financial pressure from President Donald Trump ‘s administration, which sued the school in March over accusations its leadership failed to address antisemitism on campus.
Months earlier, a judge sided with Harvard in another lawsuit and ordered the administration to reverse billions of dollars in funding cuts. Harvard says it was being illegally penalized for refusing to adopt the Trump administration’s views.
O’Brien joked that he too was suing the university over everything from uncomfortable dorm furniture to his “less-than-spectacular undergraduate sex life,” claims he said had “more merit than those filed by the president of the United States.”
Reflecting on how his Harvard background shaped the way people perceived him early in his comedy career, he urged grads not to let Harvard define them.
“Maybe my wish for you is not that Harvard becomes the last thing people know about you,” O’Brien said, “but instead that Harvard become the least important thing people know about you.”
Student speaker Andrew O’Donohue, who completed a doctorate studying democratic institutions and judicial independence, described how federal funding tied to his research was wiped out by Trump administration cuts before Harvard stepped in.
“When students self-censor, when professors fear being punished, when scientists worry that research funding is allocated based on politics,” O’Donohue said, “our universities will not produce the next great artist, doctor, scientist, educator, lawyer, entrepreneur, public servant, or innovator.”
Recent Harvard commencements have grown much more political.
Last year, students cheered speakers who defended diversity and international students in the face of Trump administration attacks. The year before was marked by walkouts and chants of “Free Palestine” after weeks of campus protests over the war in Gaza.
This year, graduate workers who are on strike picketed in Harvard Yard, blaring vuvuzela horns, drums and cowbells whenever an administrator spoke. More than 4,000 grad workers want higher pay, stronger protections and an independent process for harassment and discrimination complaints, among other issues. Dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators silently held signs condemning the university’s “Complicity in Palestinian Genocide.”
Associated Press writer Leah Willingham in Boston contributed.
