Pay-me-a-ton cashes in on cliches

[Deus Irae]

Neither -- and I don't appreciate being addressed as if I were a complete idiot, thanks very much.

But you don't seem to know what you're talking about in this case. Sorry, but that's just the truth. Again, I'm not an Oprah fan, but her life history and success make her an excellent example of someone you want talking at your school.

 

[Jangles]

Celeb charges ridiculous amount of money for a lame speech.

This isn't newsworthy

Kudos to Peyton for being able to command a price like that

 

[Mike the Brit]

But you don't seem to know what you're talking about in this case. Sorry, but that's just the truth. Again, I'm not an Oprah fan, but her life history and success make her an excellent example of someone you want talking at your school.

The day that I seek to establish that I know what I'm talking about to the satisfaction of a self-appointed internet tough guy is the day I throw my computer out of the window. Please go and find someone else to troll.

 

[PP2]

Doing a commencement speech is a lot of work, and it's full of pressure - you don't want to mess up the "big day" for thousands of families. So I'll give the speakers that much...

You very clearly haven't heard very many commencement speeches. There are and always have been plenty of screwed up speeches that were flat out disasters, and not just because of the pressure.

If the student body is dumb enough to get a D-list celebrity for their grand send-off, that's what they're going to get.

 

[Deus Irae]

The day that I seek to establish that I know what I'm talking about to the satisfaction of a self-appointed internet tough guy is the day I throw my computer out of the window. Please go and find someone else to troll.

I'm not trolling you. You're the one trying to act like a tough guy.

I'm disagreeing with something you wrote, because I think it's wrong. Celebrities and politicians are frequent speakers at universities, and neither group is brought in (as a general rule) because of tremendous intellectual achievements. In the specific case of Oprah, we're talking about a woman who came from poverty, suffered abuse as a child (allegedly molested by 3 men, beginning when she was age 9), got pregnant as a teen only to have her child die in infancy, found a way to get back to school and go to college, was a beauty queen, got into drugs, led a promiscuous lifestyle, and finally got (at least enough of) her act together and became the first black female billionaire. She's made it as an actress, a talk show host, a producer, and more. She was also the only black billionaire, from 2004-2006.

 

[borg]

Graduation is your final memory of college....so I guess schools believe it is important to make that memory lasting. Some cabinet member spoke at my graduation...don't remember his name or what he said....so my last real memory at college was trying to burn a Volkswagon Bug in a bon fire at 4 AM the night before graduation......and the police arrived and said...knock it off. Imagine that. The Cops said....You have 12 hours left here, go to bed.....the fire truck arrived, put the fire out...and we passed out.
Memories
My Point: I'll take a Moe Howard or a Ali G over Under Secretary Samantha Socialist anytime. Maybe grads at Mass. schools would prefer a commie speaker though??

 

[50-yard-line]

It sounds like you think public universities shouldn't have to pay the going rate for a speaker whereas private universities (also non-profit, by the way) should.

If you don't want to pay the market price, then don't buy the product. In this case, the product wasn't worth anywhere near the market price but that's another story.

No, I believe that paying back is part of being successful. Harvard has a billion dollar endowment. Salem State, UMass, etc., not so much. Celebrities taking a hundred grand from a public university just doesn't sit right with me. These schools are subsidized - they aren't the choice of the rich kids whose parents will build a library or drop $50k donations into their buckets.

You can't compare the two. Non-profit is a funny word. Professors at public colleges don't make a ton of money at all, but professors at a place like Harvard can pull in mid-six figures.

I just think that it's a good thing to donate a day of your life to a public university - or take the fee and donate it back to the school. A guy like Peyton has enough money so that he, his kids and grandkids will never have to work a day of their lives (I hope he doesn't do that to them, but if he wanted to, he could), and he can pretty much have anything and everything he wants. A hundred k is a rounding error on his portfolio, a bad day in the stock market.

For all I know, Peyton might have quietly done exactly that. All I know is that if I get asked to speak at a public school or library, commencement or otherwise, I won't take money for it. That should be the privilege of success, imo, and not everything has to be, or should be, about money.

That's just my honest opinion.

 

[50-yard-line]

You very clearly haven't heard very many commencement speeches. There are and always have been plenty of screwed up speeches that were flat out disasters, and not just because of the pressure.

If the student body is dumb enough to get a D-list celebrity for their grand send-off, that's what they're going to get.

Well, I don't know how you derived your conclusion from my comment. All I was pointing out is that, yes, a commencement speech is a lot of work and a lot of pressure. So where, exactly, are we disagreeing?

 

[Joker]

 

[1960Pats]

Ali G (who isn't even a real person) speaks at Harvard.
Snooki speaks at Rutgers.
Robert Redford refuses to speak at the commencement he was hired to speak at.

We're actually making Manning look good with this thread.

I think it says more about the colleges than Manning.

 

[1960Pats]

I'll never forget from back in my newspaper reporting days, I covered a speaking engagement by Chicago Bears fullback Matt Suhey to a group of high school athletes at an awards dinner. We all know how it's customary to open these monologues with a joke to loosen everyone up. Well, Matt had an incredible brain-fart of a moment where he took the podium and proceeded to tell this long, X-rated joke involving a hooker. When he delivered the punchline you could've heard a pin drop. And he was just beginning. This was an audience of teen-age kids and their parents. One of the most embarrassing public displays I've ever seen.

We were lucky enough to have Johnny Unitas come to our HS in the mid 60's. He gave us all a good long talk and seemed genuinely interested in us. A far cry from Matt Suhey or the "Hey Kobe, how does my ass taste" speeches we get now.

 

[Clonamery]

I'm not trolling you. You're the one trying to act like a tough guy.

I'm disagreeing with something you wrote, because I think it's wrong. Celebrities and politicians are frequent speakers at universities, and neither group is brought in (as a general rule) because of tremendous intellectual achievements. In the specific case of Oprah, we're talking about a woman who came from poverty, suffered abuse as a child (allegedly molested by 3 men, beginning when she was age 9), got pregnant as a teen only to have her child die in infancy, found a way to get back to school and go to college, was a beauty queen, got into drugs, led a promiscuous lifestyle, and finally got (at least enough of) her act together and became the first black female billionaire. She's made it as an actress, a talk show host, a producer, and more. She was also the only black billionaire, from 2004-2006.

But her book club sucked.

 

[PP2]

Well, I don't know how you derived your conclusion from my comment. All I was pointing out is that, yes, a commencement speech is a lot of work and a lot of pressure. So where, exactly, are we disagreeing?

Do you actually think Snooki sat down to work on on the speech she gave? Did she really labor over the "when you get a tan, you feel better about yourself" line?

There are people who work hard on their speeches and have a genuine desire to connect with their audience, and then there are speakers like Snooki who only did it to expand her shoe closet.