--- title: Actor Charlie Day Delivers Merrimack College Commencement Address description: Perhaps the only graduation speech you really need to hear canonical: https://time.com/107393/charlie-day-graduation-speech/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-21T14:48:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-21T07:15:02.073Z og:title: Watch Charlie Day's Hilarious, Inspirational Commencement Address og:description: Perhaps the only graduation speech you really need to hear og:url: https://time.com/107393/charlie-day-graduation-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Charlie Day's Hilarious, Inspirational Commencement Address twitter:description: Perhaps the only graduation speech you really need to hear twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Charlie Day's Hilarious, Inspirational Commencement Address by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman May 21, 2014 2:48 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman May 21, 2014 2:48 PM UTC Graduation season is upon us, which means hordes of famous (and, to the disappointment of many graduates, not-so-famous) people will trudge across auditoriums and football stadiums around the country to deliver speeches full of vaguely uplifting platitudes. Of course, plenty of these speeches will actually be quite good: witty, insightful, and genuinely inspirational. See, for instance, Charlie Day’s recent speech at his alma mater, Merrimack College. The actor and writer — best known for his role as the erratic, emotional, illiterate Charlie Kelly on _It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia_ — was of course hilarious, offering commentary on everything from the graduation robes which made everyone look like “some sort of medieval pastry chef” to the sound of his own voice, reminscent of “a ten-year-old with a smoking problem.” But Day’s real message to the graduates comes later in the speech when he shares tales of his own post-college years and the many failures he faced before eventually finding professional and personal success. “You do not have to be fearless,” he says. “Just don’t let fear stop you.” Wise words from a man whose [favorite hobby is magnets](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9V9z8mQP88). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/107393/charlie-day-graduation-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/107393/charlie-day-graduation-speech/"},"headline":"Watch Charlie Day's Hilarious, Inspirational Commencement Address","datePublished":"2014-05-21T14:48:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:15:02.073Z","description":"Perhaps the only graduation speech you really need to hear","url":"https://time.com/107393/charlie-day-graduation-speech/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","celebrity","TIME 100","graduation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/107393/charlie-day-graduation-speech/","name":"Watch Charlie Day's Hilarious, Inspirational Commencement Address"}}]}] ```