06/06/2026
Before he ever told a joke on stage, Ronny Chieng earned commerce and law degrees from the University of Melbourne. He ditched that career path around 2010 for stand-up, and eventually landed a role as a Daily Show correspondent. So when he stepped up to address Harvard College's Class of 2026 on May 27 and described himself as "a du***ss who couldn't get into Harvard," everyone knew exactly what he was doing.
He was there for Class Day, the more relaxed, student-organized celebration held the day before official Commencement. Conan O'Brien handled the main Commencement address.
The 2026 graduation circuit had a theme nobody planned but everybody followed: AI, AI, AI. Master it, embrace it, own it or get left behind. Chieng took the stage and opened with "F*ck AI" three times in a row.
He drew his own lines, though. AI conquering things humans genuinely can't do, like pushing medicine forward or solving problems in physics, he had no beef with any of that. His target was the boasting. People leaning on it to summarize emails they already read, write speeches they'll deliver as their own, produce podcasts bearing their names. He went after Dana White's AI-generated promo for the UFC event held on White House grounds, getting a laugh by noting that even a real shoot "would still have looked like AI."
Then came the part with no punchline behind it. The act of creating something is where the joy lives. Skipping to the finished product means skipping the only piece that actually counts. The whole point is the journey itself.
