Rachel Dratch returned as Debbie Downer during a Dartmouth College commencement speech, using jokes about AI and the buildout of data centers to land a blunt message about graduates stepping into a job market shadowed by uncertainty. The comedian also received
Womp, womp.
Debbie Downer was back at Dartmouth College, and this time she wasn’t dressed for a punchline—she was dressed for a commencement line.
On Sunday. Rachel Dratch. the “SNL” alum currently starring in Broadway’s “Rocky Horror Show” revival. gave a commencement speech to graduates at Dartmouth College. Like many commencement speakers this season, Dratch turned to the impact of AI on careers. But where some tech voices have met resistance, she leaned into humor instead—earning laughs rather than boos.
She did it with help from one of her most famous characters.
“Quite an achievement graduating from Dartmouth,” Dratch said as Debbie Downer, before launching into one of the persona’s standard depressing non sequiturs. “Of course, thanks to AI, there won’t be any jobs left, so congrats to all on your mandatory gap years.”
Then she deadpanned into the camera and shrugged as a trombone played two descending, burbling notes—the musical equivalent of: “Womp, womp.”
“It’s inspiring to see all your fresh minds ready to take on our world,” she said. “Sadly, due to the construction of data centers and the impending water wars, the most useful college majors now are foraging and hand-to-hand combat.”
The trombone warbled into an even more discordant sound, and as it did, Dratch delivered the line that turned the joke into a moment: “There you go.”
That kind of AI-at-graduation tension has become a recurring feature of this commencement season, arriving just as graduates walk into a job market already shadowed by questions about the technology.
In the U.S., the unease isn’t just theatrical. A Pew Research Center poll, released on Wednesday, found that only 16% of Americans surveyed were “very or somewhat positive” about AI’s impact on daily life, while 40% said they were “very or somewhat negative.”
Moments before the speech ended, Dratch—who graduated from Dartmouth in 1988—received an honorary doctorate from the university. She tied it directly to the pace of AI.
“Not to brag, but I am also earning a degree here today,” she said. “For most of you, that’s a bachelor of arts. For me, it’s a doctorate. For you, it took four long years. And for me, less than a minute. I guess I’m just a quick study.”
The day carried two kinds of timing at once: a traditional academic milestone, and the fast, unsettling speed of AI—delivered, once again, through Debbie Downer’s bleak humor and a trombone that refused to resolve on cue.
Rachel Dratch Debbie Downer Dartmouth College commencement speech AI data centers water wars honorary doctorate Pew Research Center Eric Schmidt job market