“Now I know I wasn’t the first choice to speak here this afternoon,” Franken said. “I know this because the Crimson article announcing I’d be the class day speaker made a point of underscoring that fact many times.”

Franken read a list of seven speaker candidates named in the article as choices the senior class committee pursued before asking him.

“So, yes, I was available,” Franken said. “Actually, I had to reschedule an audition for a voiceover for a hemorrhoid commercial, but it’s not really worth getting into.”

But yesterday, members of the selection committee said that Ferrell was far from a last resort.

“This time, [Ferrell] was definitely a top choice from the start,” Noonan said.

Subrahmanian said that Ferrell’s presence at Class Day was clinched in a 4 p.m. phone call between himself, Lebou, and the Harvard Alumni Association’s Director of College Alumni Programs Hoopes Wampler.

The selection process of Class Day speakers begins with the solicitation of suggestions from the graduating senior class.

The speakers committee deliberates and then searches the class for connections to candidates. Finally, the committee sends out invitations to top choices.

Ferrell, 34, was born in Irvine, Calif. and graduated from University of Southern California (USC), before working as a sportscaster on a weekly cable show.

Eventually, he joined The Groundlings, a Los Angeles improv comedy group. He starred in the movie Old School, which since opening on Feb. 21 had made $74 million in the U.S.

“[Ferrell] is one of the funniest people in the world, and we’re just really happy to have him,” Subrahmanian said.

—Staff writer Justin D. Gest can be reached at gest@fas.harvard.edu.