Honorary Degrees

What's the deal with honorary degrees? Colleges only give them to people who really don't need them. Not to mention it cheapens a degree for those who actually studied and worked for their degree. 'Here, we want to tell you, again, how great we think you are for being such a great actor/musician/comic/politician/etc by giving you what all these people below you had to work really hard for'....this is supposed to make sense?