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It’s not unusual to have celebrities make commencement addresses at college and university graduation ceremonies, the majority of them packed full of love and motivational advice. But when you get a comedian at the podium, you get all that plus a little extra.

So when comedian and actor Kumail Nanjiani, who currently stars on HBO’s Silicon Valley, took to the stage at Iowa’s Grinnell College, his alma mater, he had one major, very unique piece of advice: “Have sex with an immigrant.”

“We’re going through a tough time right now, and it would just be really great for morale,” he joked to a round of laughter, reminding the crowd that refugees are people just like them.

“We cannot expect others to understand our point of view if we don’t understand theirs,” he added. “It’s uncomfortable and awkward and infuriating and it hurts your brain, but with that pain can come growth and real change. … Being a fish out of water is tough, but that’s how you evolve. I think that’s scientifically accurate — I don’t know, I had a liberal arts education.”

Throughout his speech, Nanjiani explained how comedy became his career after relocating to the U.S. at the age of 18 after having spent his entire life in Pakistan.

“When I came to Grinnell, I was a devout Muslim who had never romantically touched a girl and I was going to get a degree that guaranteed me a job,” Nanjiani said. “By the time I graduated, I was basically a Rastafarian with a white American girlfriend and a philosophy degree. College changes you, is my point.”

The actor graduated from the school in 2001, and before delivering his commencement address at the 2017 ceremony this week, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, which he joked that he plans to use “just as much as I used the last one.”