The most famous of the Nibley stories are when Nibley was invited to give the prayer at a commencement in 1960. He said in that prayer, "We have met here today clothed in the black robes of a false priesthood." That ruffled a lot of feathers. When asked why he worded the prayer that way he responded, "I was feeling very strongly on that particular occasion that there was a lot of hipocrisy going on in those days. There was such fakery, so much bluff going on." He was asked if he enjoyed getting a rise by saying things like that he said, "No, I don't enjoy getting a rise. I wanted to cry at the time."