Charlie Day Commencement Speech At Merrimack Claims 'Degrees Mean Nothing!' Graduates Should Make Their Own Breaks And Not Give A S**t Until They Can Wear Ridiculous Hats!

Charlie Day delivered a commencement speech at his alma mater Merrimack College. The "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star who extended his career to the movies shares his acquired wisdom and experiences in the best way possible-with humor and explicit language.

Charlie Day is successful. And he wants the graduates to remember that, and also to recognize successful people. Successful people wear ridiculous hats as he says: "Apparently, the higher you climb in life, the more ridiculous your hats will become - like the one I'm wearing today or the Pope or Pharrell."

Speaking of success, Day brings the reality check by saying that a degree is not a symbol or a guarantee of success. In fact, it's nothing: "You cannot exchange your degree for cash, you cannot have your degree do an audition or interview for you. You cannot eat it. Please, do not make love to it. I think you could probably smoke it, but I wouldn't advise it. A college degree does nothing. It collects dust. It does however mean something. It tells something to your community. It says, 'I have expanded my mind, and destroyed my liver, but I didn't give up.' ... Now, all jokes aside, you should be very proud. This is an impressive chapter in your lives."

He talks about his success as "It's Always Sunny.." is poised to become the longest running comedy series on TV. He recalls how he took the riskier path: "Creating the job as opposed to waiting for it to be offered to me was the way to go. I think there is an obvious lesson here: Don't wait for your break, make your break. Go make it happen for yourself."

That is, of course, easier said than done. Day reminds the graduates that he is but a mortal like them. He is not a public speaker and he spent time preparing for the speech by watching Youtube videos of Steve Jobs and Conan O'Brien delivering some of the greatest commencement speeches. He came across "the snarky Youtube comments" that he would be subject to and thought:

"My lesson is this: I don't give a shit."

He moves on to his final, moving message:

"You cannot let a fear of failure, or a fear of comparison, or a fear of judgement stop you from doing what's going to make you great. You cannot succeed without this risk of failure, you cannot have a voice without the risk of criticism and you cannot love without the risk of loss. You must go out and take these risk. ... Do what's uncomfortable, and scary, and hard, but pays off in the long run. Be willing to fail. Let yourself fail. Fail in the way and the place where you would want to fail. Fail, pick yourself up and fail again. Because without this struggle, what is your success anyway?"

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