“Gandhi said, ‘you must be the change you want to see in the world,’ ” Stephen Colbert told an audience of thousands at the Class Day ceremony this afternoon. “But may I also point out he drank his own urine, so let’s not go overboard on his advice.”

The host and executive producer of “The Colbert Report” and a one-time presidential candidate in his home state of South Carolina, Colbert drew laughter and applause from the assembled senior class and their families as he poked fun at Princeton traditions and urged the class to maintain the status quo after graduation.

Though the Class of 2008 “can change the world,” Colbert said, he pleaded with its members to “please don’t do that.”

“Some of us like it the way it is,” he explained. “Personally, things are going great for me right now.”

Colbert did finally acknowledge the seniors’ potential for achievement, calling the Class of 2008 “a virus that will soon be unleashed upon the world with an unstoppable drive and infectious enthusiasm.”

“And you will reproduce – I’m fairly certain you know how to do that by now,” he added.

Colbert also advised the graduating class not to worry “about making a difference . with your lives,” explaining that “one of the things that stays the same is that you are going to change things, and there’s nothing my generation can do about that.

For example, “Aaron Burr certainly changed the way we think about the office of vice president,” he said. “After that it was completely acceptable for [the vice president] to shoot someone in the face.”

Colbert also alluded to the political significance of 2008 as a presidential election year, noting that the Class of 2008 would be the last class to graduate with President Bush still in office. When audience members began to applaud, Colbert said, “Don’t hide your grief.”

The senior class officers presented Colbert with a Class of 2008 beer jacket and “The Class of 2008 Understandable Vanity Award,” which consisted of a sketch of Colbert and a mirror.

“I loved the mirrored award,” Colbert said in an interview after the event, adding that he would put it right next to his other mirrors. The sketch of himself, he said, “has a feline quality to it.’

As for the beer jacket, he said it “will be great for bootlegging” and “sneaking stuff into concerts.”

When asked by another reporter whether writing a graduation speech is like writing an episode of his show, Colbert explained that one of the hardest things about “doing a speech like this is I don’t know who is invited to this: me or the character.”

“My show is an ongoing argument with my audience,” Colbert explained. “That’s what this sort of is: It’s a call to inaction.”