Steve Carell At Princeton University Class Day (VIDEO)

Steve Carell: You Are Young, Because Of That, You Are Wrong (VIDEO)

Steve Carell, comedian and actor, mocked how much college students use technology in his address at Princeton University's Class Day.

Carell had the audience look to their right and then to their left to demonstrate that no one looks one another in the eye anymore.

"We have lost touch with our simpler selves, and by 'we,' I mean you," Carell said. "You are young, and because of that, you are wrong.

He talked about being rejected by girls face-to-face, rather than by text. He also touched on going online to Google himself and finding nothing but lies.

"When I was in college, we didn't have Twitter; we had good ol' fashioned gossip," Carell joked. "If you wanted to talk about someone you could do it face-to-face, right behind their back."

Princeton Patch has more:


Despite heavy rain, University officials held Class Day outside, so it was a sea of plastic orange ponchos and black umbrellas on Cannon Green behind Nassau Hall. Students and parents alike wiped down their plastic seats with paper towels before the ceremony began.

Carell was once on track to attend law school. But the 1984 Denison University graduate became stumped while filling out Stanford Law School’s application when the essay question read, ‘Why do you want to be an attorney?”

“I really had no idea,” Carell told Princeton’s graduating seniors. “It sounded good. My parents had worked extraordinarily hard to give me a great education, and I felt that I owed them some sort of valid career choice. So I sat down with my folks, and asked them what they thought, and they proceeded to give me the best advice that I had ever received, or would ever receive. Their words were profound, wise, and they completely altered the rest of my life.

“They said something like ‘blah, blah, blah, follow your dreams, blah, blah, blah.’ I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I didn’t go to law school.”

It turns out Carell’s niece, Maggie, was among the audience, since she is part of Princeton's graduating class of 2012.

Carell hoped that his speech would ripple for years to come, unlike other commencement and class day speeches like Stephen Colbert's, who he appeared with on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. "That guy is the worst," Carell said.

Carell is best known for his role as Michael Scott on The Office, as well as big screen hits like The 40 Year Old Virgin and Anchorman.

Watch Steve Carell's Entire Speech In The Video Above

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Aaron Sorkin

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