Mr. [Andrew] Ironside, who had his own page in the yearbook, had been elected valedictorian in a vote carefully orchestrated by his peers and designed to embarrass him.
But when graduation night arrived, he gave a speech that transformed a malicious high school joke into an ad libbed sequel to Revenge of the Nerds.
In my high school, I remember there was similar event where a girl on the cheerleading squad was elected to homecoming queen or some such “honor.” I think it started as a prank, but the prankiness of it all fell away. I remember the victim as a nice, sweet kid who didn’t do anything to deserve being set up like that. Perhaps that dawned on some of the organizers of the stunt; I can’t remember for sure, but that’s how I’d like to remember it.
Of course, this fine film came out during my high school years . . . . kind of a worst case scenario.