‘Leap Together’: Kermit the Frog Gives a Graduation Speech

U.S.|‘Leap Together’: Kermit the Frog Gives a Graduation Speech

At graduation ceremonies this month all across the United States, students listened to sage advice dispensed by esteemed alumni and distinguished speakers.

The Class of 2025 at the University of Maryland heard from a different kind of celebrity: Kermit the Frog.

He took the podium in a muppet-size formal cap and gown on Thursday to deliver a commencement speech to the graduating students at the university’s football stadium.

You might call the campus his birthplace: Jim Henson, the creator of “The Muppet Show,” was a student at the University of Maryland when he first built Kermit, using his mother’s coats and a ping pong ball cut in half.

Mr. Henson, Kermit said on Thursday, “had a hand in literally everything I did.”

News that the famously cheery frog puppet would be delivering the “Ker-mencement,” as some students called it, was met with mixed reviews on campus. Some wondered if the speech, penned by a Muppets writer and voiced by the puppeteer Matt Vogel, was an effort by the university to sidestep the difficult issues confronting American higher education, like the Trump administration’s crackdown on federal funding and cancellation of some international student visas.

The University of Maryland said it had chosen Kermit to deliver its commencement address to honor the legacy of Mr. Henson, who died in 1990.

Kermit had plenty of words of wisdom, and some ribbing, for the Class of 2025 from a muppet’s life of swamp-swimming and hanging out on Sesame Street. One piece of advice, he said, was sharing life with the right people — even a spotlight-hogging pig. (Miss Piggy, Kermit told “CBS Mornings” before his address, was not among the crowd but “summering on a beach somewhere exotic.”)

From the lectern on Thursday, he said, “Life is not a solo act; no, it’s not. It’s a big, messy, delightful ensemble piece, especially when you are with your people.” He called on the graduates to help each other whenever possible. “Life is better when we leap together,” he said.

Kermit has hit the public speaking circuit before, including delivering the commencement speech in 1996 at Southampton College, then part of Long Island University. His friends on Sesame Street, from Grover to Cookie Monster, have also delivered their own addresses to graduating classes.

He told students to stay connected to their loved ones and to their dreams, “no matter how impossible they seem.”

“Life is like a movie. Write your own ending,” he said. “Keep believing, keep pretending.”

He finished by leading the audience in a singalong to “Rainbow Connection.”