Conan's 2000 commencement speech offers comfort and humor to young Harvard graduates

Harvard awarded Mark Zuckerberg an honorary degree in 2017

Mark Zuckerberg received an honorary degree from Harvard when he returned to the university to give a commencement speech. In his speech, he talked about wealth, racial inequality, political instability, and creating a sense of purpose.

David Foster Wallace's iconic commencement speech

David Foster Wallace’s remarkable 2005 commencement speech, This is Water, is a timeless trove of wisdom for living a meaningful life. Here is a full transcript along with audio.

The story behind Conan O'Brien's most celebrated 'Simpsons' episode

"Marge vs. the Monorail," an episode from the show's fourth season, is widely considered not only one of the best 'Simpsons' episodes, but one of the best sitcom episodes in general. In this detailed history of it for The Ringer, writer Conan O'Brien, then a 28-year-old fresh off leaving "Saturday Night Live," explains how "The Music Man," disaster movies, and a strange billboard inspired the script.

Difficulty of getting into every Ivy League school

Harvard graduates have the highest average starting salary in the country at $91,700. But getting to graduation at any Ivy League school like Harvard is no easy feat. This visual breaks down exactly how difficult getting into an Ivy League school is, from Yale to Cornell, including average admission rates, median SAT scores, and more. See the graphic here.

Baz Luhrmann's 'Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)' is based on a fake graduation speech

The 1997 song, which was a chart-topping hit in Australia and appeared on the Billboard "Hot 100" in the US, is based on a fake commencement speech written by Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich. For a time, many people erroneously believed Kurt Vonnegut gave the speech at MIT's graduation ceremony.

Stanford’s ‘How to Start a Startup’ series

Stanford’s archive of lectures about creating a startup includes advice from Y Combinator notables such as former YC president and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and YC Cofounder Paul Graham.

Winning a Steve Martin look-alike contest led Bill Nye to pursue comedy

Doing impressions helped Nye realize he enjoyed making people laugh, and he pursued stand-up and comedy writing gigs while working at Boeing after college. On October 3, 1986, he left his engineering job to pursue a full-time career in the entertainment industry.

Terrible performance art: an insider's perspective

David Sedaris may be known for his writing now, but when he was in college, he thought his future was in the art world. Specifically, the performance art world. In this episode of NPR’s This American Life, Sedaris shares a selection of moments from his career as an artist, each more embarrassing than the last. The kicker? Being heckled from the audience—by his own father.

'I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.'

-Comedian George Burns (1896-1996)

Experts suggest memorable toasts tell stories

According to Riaz Meghji, a Canadian media personality, unsuccessful toasts are riddled with inside jokes and stock phrases. Great toasts, he says, tell an emotional story that commemorates the occasion.

Bob Hope's radio shows brought stand-up to the masses

Bob Hope’s 1930s variety shows featured comedic monologues. Unlike the tightly scripted and evergreen sets of vaudeville, Hope’s monologues leaned into topical and political humor, sometimes to the disapproval of his network.

'Adults ask questions as a child does. When you stop wondering, you might as well put your rocker on the front porch and call it a day.'

- Comedian and late night host Johnny Carson (1925–2005)

The MBA has been the most popular graduate degree in America since 2010

Referring to MBA programs as “corporate America’s breeding ground,” comedian Dan Toomey recently interviewed experts on MBAs like Adam Grant, as well as MBA students themselves, to get a better idea of why the degree is so popular. Warning: profane language and content.

A collection of Prince's hilarious encounters with comedians

Charlie Murphy's story about Prince on "Chappelle's Show" became an oft-quoted touchstone in the 2000s, but it's not the only funny story a comedian has about the Purple One. This article collects some of the best from Conan O'Brien, David Alan Grier, and, yes, Charlie Murphy.

The remarkable journey of 'Jeopardy'-winner Harvey Silikovitz

Harvey Silikovitz first auditioned for to play on "Jeopardy" in 2001. Twenty-four years later, Silikovitz got the rare chance to appear on the show and won a whopping $23,600 cash prize. Read his journey to see how the attorney went from initially hating the game show to becoming a "Jeopardy" champion.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

With his dry wit, Stephen Hawking warns of AI dangers and explains imaginary time

In this comedic interview with John Oliver, Stephen Hawking discusses his groundbreaking work in theoretical physics, his views on AI, and Oliver's chances of dating Charlize Theron in the multiverse—all with his trademark voice and humorous tone.

A Harvard professor argues that impostor syndrome can be a good sign

Specifically, Arthur C. Brooks has argued that self-doubt is usually evidence of healthy humility—not incompetence—and a clear contrast to the overconfidence of people who actually are impostors in their careers.

Michaels doesn’t care when people say ‘SNL’ was funnier when they were younger

"Generally when people talk about the best cast I think, 'Well, that's when they were in high school,'" Michaels told "Today" in 2015. "Because in high school you have the least amount of power you're ever gonna have. ... Staying up with friends later on a Saturday is great, and people attach to a cast."

A research lab in Colorado believes comedy is based on ‘benign-violation’

The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Humor Research Lab (which has the decidedly funny abbreviation “HURL”) posits that comedy thrives on relatively harmless violations of dignity or norms.

When the reclusive Thomas Pynchon won the National Book Award, he sent a stand-up comedian to receive the honor

Pynchon's novel "Gravity's Rainbow" won the National Book Award in 1974 (sharing the distinction with Isaac Bashevis Singer's "A Crown of Feathers"), but the writer, who was seldom seen in public, sent the comic "Professor" Irwin Corey in his place. You can read the ridiculously satirical speech, which would be at home in one of Pynchon's novels, in full by clicking through below.

Watch Grace Hopper's appearance on the 'Late Show with David Letterman'

During this comedic interview, Hopper describes her 43.5 years in the Navy, an anecdote about when President Reagan promoted her, and provides a visual aid to explain the transmission of information at the nanosecond scale via electricity.

Follow 5 attendees at Comic-Con 2010

This heartfelt documentary tracks five underdogs—from an Air Force artist and a cosplay designer, to a marriage‑proposal hopeful—revealing how Comic‑Con’s chaos, camaraderie, and celebrity encounters become transformative milestones on their quests for creative, personal, and emotional breakthroughs.

Whitman led a Lincoln lecture late in life

Whitman toured several cities with “The Death of Lincoln,” a lecture series about the slain president that sought to establish him as a crucial figured in American history. The talks attracted famous figures, including Mark Twain and General William Tecumseh Sherman.

King's books are now taught by college professors

Stephen King’s horror, fantasy, and science fiction were once considered lowbrow and unworthy of serious academic study. That's changed over the last 50 years, with King courses and symposiums taking place at universities around the world.

Who gets thanked the most in Oscar speeches?

This resource analyzes nearly 2,000 Oscar acceptance speeches. It shows the average number of words spoken, the themes discussed, and how these trends have changed over the years. Scroll through the results and see if Harvey Weinstein was thanked more often than God in past years.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.