Widdicombe's Wit Wins Her an Ivy Nod

The Senior Class Committee made history this spring when it declared that a staffer of the Harvard Lampoon is actually funny.

(OK, that’s a low blow.)

Elizabeth S. Widdicombe ’06—a member of the Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine—will deliver the female Ivy Oration, the more humorous of the senior speeches, at Class Day exercises today.

It’s clear that Widdicombe’s wit has already won over her friends. “She makes jokes that you can repeat to 20 different people out of context and everybody will still laugh,” says Widdicombe’s blockmate, Alexa H. Hirschfeld ’06. “She’s that original, and it just shows what a genuinely witty person she is.”

Friends on staff with Widdicombe at the Lampoon say she is “both terrifying and exhilarating” in her writing style and personality.

“Lizzie is a free bird,” says ‘Poonster Monica L. Padrick ’06.

Today, Widdicombe, who is also a Crimson editor, will look to entertain the audience with her own impressions of her Harvard experience.

The speech is “a reflection of who I am and things that I have observed about Harvard,” says Widdicombe. “It is a very strange place that is very different from anywhere else, and I tried to capture some of that strangeness.”

While Widdicombe admits her rehearsal went smoothly on Monday, the weeks preceding today’s oration were not without some stress or nervousness.

After watching last year’s Class Day speakers, Widdicombe says she knew that she wanted to be one of the two Ivy orators for the Class of 2006. When she heard that a fellow senior had been named another one of the Class Day speakers, Widdicombe says she had to make a friend check her e-mail for her because she was so nervous.

“She’s really humble and talented because she has really high standards for herself,” says Hirschfeld. “She subverts expectations of her.”

In anticipation of her speech, the Memphis, Tenn., native remarks that it took several drafts, which she performed many times in front of her friends.

“I tried to gauge the parts that made them laugh,” says Widdicombe, a Dunster resident, who is receiving an honors diploma in history and literature.

Her ‘Poonster past aside, Widdicombe is likely to leave her classmates in stitches.