T.V. Deadpanner Cracks Jokes

In a far cry from his persona as a nerdy teacher calling for “Bueller...Bueller,” Ben Stein quoted lyrics from Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and cracked a series of jokes at Harvard Law School’s Class Day yesterday, before ending on a more serious note by urging students to be grateful to their parents.

“You may think I am here because I’m...representing Bush-Cheney ’04 or representing the Screen Actors Guild, but no, I am representin’ for the gangstas all across the world, hittin’ corners in them low-lows, girl. I’m takin’ my time, perfect the beat and I still got love for the street,” he opened, drawing laughter from the crowd with his slightly altered version of “Still D.R.E.”

A 1970 graduate of Yale Law School, Stein is probably best known for his role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. But he has also worked as a lawyer, political speechwriter, professor, magazine columnist and host of the Comedy Central game show “Win Ben Stein’s Money.”

In an interview earlier in the day, Stein explained his mother was “crushed” when he didn’t get into Harvard as an undergraduate, but he said he was happy that he was rejected from the then all-boys school in what he called a “cold, dark” Cambridge.

“I went to Columbia where I thought I’d hang around with showgirls,” he said, adding that he did get to do that at times.

Stein finally made it to Harvard yesterday, offering the graduating class advice based on his own life experience.

He told students this was not his first time speaking at a law school graduation, remembering how he came to speak at his own. He recalled that in law school he had a “bullying, mean, nasty Socratic method teacher,” and one day in class he lost his patience.

“I stood up and I said...‘If you don’t stop pushing us around and bullying us like this I’m going to take my clothes off and recite the names of the Vietnam War dead,’” he said, describing the moment that helped him secure the class’ vote to speak at graduation.

He said his own varied resume should be a guide for others to continue to try different careers until they find one that is right for them.

“Life is much harder than you think it’s going to be,” he said. “Many of the people you’re going to go to work with in law firms, offices, government offices are genuinely insane. They will be literally crazy and they’ll have tics and there will be all kinds of odd things about them. They’ll have bad breath. They’ll be unethical....But you don’t have to put up with it.”

He said in the interview that he never expected when he was younger that he would take a winding career path leading to prominence in the entertainment world.

But through his work as a screenwriter, he met the producers of Ferris Bueller, who let him try out for the part of Ferris’ teacher.

Stein said he himself was not like Ferris in high school. But even though he earned good grades, he said he was a “wild kid” who drank, smoked, cut class and “had mad crushes on bad girls,” none of whom returned the sentiment.

He also added that he based his portrayal of Ferris’ economics teacher on many of his own teachers.

Stein ended the Class Day speech yesterday by emphasizing the importance of a “life lived in gratitude” and told personal stories of spending time with his parents before they died in order to pay them back for the attention they had always given him.

“You are on this earth to do good things for the people close to you,” he said.

Several soon-to-be law school graduates said afterwards that they were glad Stein, a staunch Republican, refrained from delivering an overtly political speech.

“I think his views probably differ from many of the students here,” said Lisa C. Green. “He did a good job expressing his views about things but also saying things that apply to people regardless of what their views are.”

Students also had praise for Professor of Law William J. Stuntz, whose speech drew loud applause when he accepted an award for teaching excellence during the ceremony.

Stuntz told students to avoid seeing people as “disembodied crimes or torts or bank accounts,” emphasizing that the legal profession needs a more humane approach.

“Justice needs mercy, efficiency needs empathy and legal craft needs love,” he said.

During the ceremony, the class marshals also presented a clock with the inscription, “Thank you for always having time for students,” to Dean Elena Kagan for efforts in improving student life at the law school. Anjan Choudhury said there was a “palpable feeling that things are changing, and changing for the better” at the school under her tenure.

A staff appreciation award and student awards for leadership were also presented at the event.

—Staff writer Jessica R. Rubin-Wills can be reached at rubinwil@fas.harvard.edu.