Tom Lehrer was once asked why he stopped writing and recording. He brilliantly replied that "political satire became redundant when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize."
I was always creative with the rhymes. See the halibuts and the sturgeons being wiped out by detergens. Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, but they don't last long if they try.
And it looks like they're preparing for it , NATO seems determined to push Putin to press that button. Still we won't all go together. The ones responsible will slowly die in their bunkers after we are all gone 😂
@nicholasmackley8580 lol what a future these brave politicians have carved out for us eh? I mean who could possibly argue against these amazing human beings leading us forward into a brave new world..... made of radioactive☢️ shit!!!💩 🤣
Holy fuck. He's right. And for those who don't know, he invented the Jell-o shot to sneak vodka in with his lunch while working at Los Alamos. What a guy!
Right now I was searching the web about his info to update his Swedish wikipedia page since I saw that it had no date of his death, and I saw your comment. Here's to his health.
Yeah If his other songs like Werner Von Braun and this were made today he would've been considered edgy or trying too hard to be cool but his songs were made literally after the war just finished He spoke what everyone was too afraid to speak and made it enjoyable Seriously this guy probably had a hard time walking around with the steel balls he carried Plus he's also great at making educational kid songs
+oinari12345 That might be the most incorrect thing you've said in your entire life. Back then there was the constant threat of war between nuclear superpower #1 vs. nuclear superpower #2. Now the sole remaining world superpower's primary enemies are a non-nuclear caliphate full of primitive screwheads and a mildly nuclear xenophobic three-ring circus. Unless some combination of Russia, China, and the United States are on the brink of war with one another, there is no way the nuclear threats of today even come close to those of the Cold War.
way wrong. I'm not even sure what you mean by what. today the situation is, in a nutshell, that a crazed-decadent US controlled by power-hungry neocons is reaching for world domination regardless of consequences, and a resilient Russia+China are fighting back by all means they can. and especially Russia has got 10x the means to destroy the US and the whole world, too, and nobody can prevent or stop it. talk of ABM's reliability is ridiculous vs. Russian ICBMs. we will all go together when we goo..... soo true even in 2016...
Honestly, these people rather expected to possibly die by nuclear bomb... The thought that while it was certainly possible it never happened, we somehow managed to get through it.
Hey exurb1a. I know you don’t know me but I'm subscribed to you, and I don't really know what to say but I think you're really cool and that your videos are really great, and that I hope you're doing well.
"I always like to end on a positive note, so here is a rousing, up-lifting song, which is guaranteed to cheer you up." [introductory notes] "When you attend a funeral...." Nailed it!
He seems to value authenticity yet he’s very critical of a lot of the people who claim to be authentic yet really aren’t (The Irish Ballad takes aim at folk music which I often love but is a bit self absorbed at times, god knows what he’d think of hipsters). I don’t think there’s anyone who balances sarcasm and honesty in such a odd way
Amazing guy, served in WWII, the NSA, Taught Political Science and Mathematics at the college level, invented the Jello Shot, etc., etc. A great unsung American.
@@christopheroliver148 Mixing jelly with alcohol dates alllllllll the way back to the 1300s, and the first recipe actually including Jell-O is from 1902, so I doubt Tom Lehrer invented the concept. Although, it was popularized in the 50s, so Lehrer likely contributed to that.
@@christopheroliver148 Well according to Mel Magazine, Tom Lehrer created the modern gelatin shot we now know as a means of sneaking booze into a Christmas party on a military base! He mixed orange Jell-O and vodka to smuggle it at the party. But in fact, the first person to actually create a drink with alcohol and Jell-O was back in 1862 when a recipe was recorded in the very first cocktail manual ever published, by Jerry Thomas in How to Mix Drinks called "punch jelly" in his 1862 work How to Mix Drinks that called for adding isinglass gelatin to a bowl of fruit punch spiked with cognac and rum
We're having this song played at my dad's funeral. He loved this song, it was exactly his humour, and he'd have loved the thought of offending some people with how inappropriate it is for the circumstances. 😊
The cheery melody and piano accompaniment contrasted with the subject matter is chilling in a way no metal band can replicate, and that's from a metal fan.
Okay, those are good examples of peppy sounding dark songs, but that guy specifically said "metal".... Neither "Foster the People" nor "Nena" are metal.
There's a LOT of quests in FNV named after songs. In fact, playlist compiled from names of FNV quests is far better than the original game radio playlist. :)
Why are you panicking for nuclear war? It’s not likely going to happen. Even if it did or looks like it’s going to happen, there is nothing you can do so there’s no point in panicking.
@@dimasdelpablo А мне даже не прочь застать это. Представьте, будущие поколения нас, людей до Армагеддона, в случае ядерной войны, будут воспринимать как богов а наш мир как Эдэм, где люди могли сходить и купить воды.
If you'd told me 20 years ago that this song would become relevant again, I'd have laughed in your face. And now it's the 24th of February 2022, and here we are...
I've been humming this to myself for the last 6 weeks- suddenly thought I'd like to actually hear it again. Delighted to find it here. As someone else commented it's actually oddly cheering.
When you attend a funeral, It is sad to think that sooner or Later those you love will do the same for you. And you may have thought it tragic, Not to mention other adjec- Tives, to think of all the weeping they will do. But don't you worry. No more ashes, no more sackcloth. And an armband made of black cloth Will some day never more adorn a sleeve. For if the bomb that drops on you Gets your friends and neighbors too, There'll be nobody left behind to grieve. And we will all go together when we go. What a comforting fact that is to know. Universal bereavement, An inspiring achievement, Yes, we all will go together when we go. We will all go together when we go. All suffuse with an incandescent glow. No one will have the endurance To collect on his insurance, Lloyd's of london will be loaded when they go. Oh we will all fry together when we fry. We'll be french fried potatoes by and by. There will be no more misery When the world is our rotisserie, Yes, we will all fry together when we fry. Down by the old maelstrom, There'll be a storm before the calm. And we will all bake together when we bake. There'll be nobody present at the wake. With complete participation In that grand incineration, Nearly three billion hunks of well-done steak. Oh we will all char together when we char. And let there be no moaning of the bar. Just sing out a te deum When you see that I.c.b.m., And the party will be "come as you are." Oh we will all burn together when we burn. There'll be no need to stand and wait your turn. When it's time for the fallout And saint peter calls us all out, We'll just drop our agendas and adjourn. You will all go directly to your respective valhallas. Go directly, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dolla's. And we will all go together when we go. Ev'ry hottenhot and ev'ry eskimo. When the air becomes uranious, And we will all go simultaneous. Yes we all will go together When we all go together, Yes we all will go together when we go.
Hmm, just noticed that in this video, the line "You will all go directly to your respective valhallas. Go directly, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dolla's" is missing.
"Just sing out a Te Deum, when you see that ICBM..." Some of his rhymes are hilariously daft ('tragic' and 'adjec...tives' for a start!), but this is genius. Great song.
There, just learned another one of the countless English acronyms. Lehrer's nonchalant approach on language is what makes him such a genius in my eyes, daft rhymes inclusive.
Ben Jamin Oh my! It’s anti-climactic. I didn’t mean to do that. He said “This is Tom Lehrer calling about your ad.” I said “TOM LEHRER Tom Lehrer??” He said yes and I told him I didn’t think my apartment would be right for him. He insisted on seeing it, so we shook hands and he essentially agreed with me. Sorry it’s not better. I easily could write a book on celebrity encounters over the decades that make that one insignificant.
As children, we were forbidden to listen to Tom Lehrer on the LPs my parents bought. That translated into our knowing all the songs by heart, word perfect. (Hugely helpful education.) Memory has us singing them loudly in the car on a family holiday driving through France.
Congratulations on Your 94th birthday today, Mr. Lehrer! You were and are always a legend! May Your timeless and genius music and lyrics live on forever!
While we are talking Apocalypse, I wish he had an interpretation of LIFE DURING WARTIME by The TalkingHeads. It's late and my imagination is in a weird and wonderful place.
This is genius! I've loved this song for a while now. But this version doesn't have "You will all go directly to your respective Valhallas Go directly, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars" I love that part
The most 'full' version with all of the additional lines that seem to appear and disappear (the 'maelstrom' bit and '$200' bit!) is on An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer, released in 1959.
I added "Beds are burning" because it seemed appropriate with the whole bushfires in Australia and climate change and stuff, this song, and a couple of others.
@@TheRealEvilkitten3 Burnham's older stuff is better than his recent stuff, I just don't think his stuff ages as well even though they both do the same thing essentially
Yes. Decades ago, legit black and white 😂 if you haven't heard his other stuff, I totally recommend it. I use to dance with my best friend as happy as can be to this song. It sounds like such a happy song, but man. Tom is twisted! He's amazing!
@@LDG519 ha ha ha! Oh really are you now??? 😉😉😉 I wish more people were gone of poisoning geese at my parks. We have too many and they have no class whatsoever.
My kids, now in their 60s, memorized all of his marvelous satirical songs, and we sang them together. We still have those amazing lyrics! What a fabulously creative man ... whose politics and ours are the same.
I heard his stuff in the 60s and 70s but never saw any video, (as was common back then), so I never realized that not only was he intelligent, witty, and talented, he was also a total babe.
It's funny, the man that made Tom stop writing is currently frying right now like a french fry down in the grand incineration we call Hell. Tom on the other hand is still kicking, and living.
The “We will all burn together” envokes a sort of sense of duty to total atomic annihilation like “No ones getting out of this” it’s really powerful for no reason.
"When you attend a funeral, it is sad to think that sooneralll-, -later those you love with do the same for you. And you may have thought it tragic, not to mention other adjec- -tives to think of all the weeping they will do." This man's rhymes are fire.
Now this is what comedy is about, the height of the cold war, tension and fear at an all time high, someone comes along and jokes about the subject and we all collectively laugh and it's just a little easier to deal with as a result.
Actually most of the worlds population was wiped out by climate change before the nuclear war. So only 2 1/2 billion well done steaks. The rest were slow broiled. Aug 2055
This guy was amazing!!! For perspective, this is from the Cold War era, when people were afraid global nuclear war would break out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Do you know that upon his death, his will stipulated that ALL of his copyrights and works would immediately become public domain? What a guy!
I mean . . . He's still alive. He *is* amazing. And possibly wondering if we're headed toward ww3, at which point this will become terribly relevant again
Brilliant! I first met his music about 20 years ago when accompanying a singer who performed Poisoning Pigeons, and I quickly realized that this man is a total genius!
What's the story, Pitch me right now. What's his journey? What's his conflict? Who is he trying to beat? Himself, Another person. There are reasons to make movies. Otherwise, they are bios or documentaries. I don't know, does he have an interesting story? My 8 year old daughter turned me on to him her Hanukkah because of the Hanukkah in Santa Monica song she learned and I loved it and have heard every song. I think he's amazing.
Tom Lehrer was once asked why he stopped writing and recording. He brilliantly replied that "political satire became redundant when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize."
@@_Chill_Out_ what
@@angelusb2066 probably a troll or attention seeker
@@angelusb2066 They were probably suggesting Lehrer never said that
@@btat16 I remember a number of years ago hearing him interviewed about it and he said that things were more frightening now.
brilliant !
Did he just rhyme "funeral" with "sooner or l-"?
You're damn straight he did.
I was always creative with the rhymes.
See the halibuts and the sturgeons being wiped out by detergens. Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, but they don't last long if they try.
I think my favourite would have to be “Plaigarize! Let no one else’s work evade your eyes!”
Or maybe “try’n’ hide” with “cyanide”
He also rhymes "tragic" with "adjec... tives."
That's some truly reckless rhyming right there. Please stop before anyone gets hurt! lol
It's a sin and a crime that none of Tom Lehrer's songs never made it into a Fallout game...
Give it time
I was just having the same thought. How did they miss that amazing opportunity?!
He put all of his songs in the public domain recently, so this absolutely could be a thing in the future.
this song of his in particular was referenced in Fallout: New Vegas as a quest title, at least
@@lanzalot7129which one?
He's still alive at 95, there's still time for all of us to go with him
So true oml
And it looks like they're preparing for it , NATO seems determined to push Putin to press that button. Still we won't all go together. The ones responsible will slowly die in their bunkers after we are all gone 😂
@@hazed1009 oof, although I guess it's better being vaporized than a few years of voting on who gets eaten next
@nicholasmackley8580 lol what a future these brave politicians have carved out for us eh? I mean who could possibly argue against these amazing human beings leading us forward into a brave new world..... made of radioactive☢️ shit!!!💩 🤣
It has been suggested that A.I. will soon kill us all. Since Lehrer is still alive, he might witness his prediction end-game.
Let's just appreciate for a second, that Tom Lehrer is still alive and witnessing the same crazy shit happening on the world stage as we are.
Amen to that
I know, it’s incredible. What a treasure.
Holy fuck. He's right. And for those who don't know, he invented the Jell-o shot to sneak vodka in with his lunch while working at Los Alamos. What a guy!
Right now I was searching the web about his info to update his Swedish wikipedia page since I saw that it had no date of his death, and I saw your comment. Here's to his health.
@@frankwagner3659 Good for him! He might outlive me, and that's fine by me.
This guy is just mocking death. He’s currently 91 years old
The Grim Reaper always wins in the end !!
@@wandaperi if a game exists, someone will find a way to cheat it
He's alive?!
Seriously, Lehrer's still alive??? Wow.
I’m glad I know that.
Tom Lehrer is so deeply underrated it’s absurd. When people talk about edgy comics - Tom pushed boundaries. Way beyond his time
"The Masochism Tango"..... Phenomenal, when you take the timeframe into account
I just discovered this and it made me think of Bo Burnham's music. Wonder if he was inspired by Tom
Yeah
If his other songs like Werner Von Braun and this were made today he would've been considered edgy or trying too hard to be cool
but his songs were made literally after the war just finished
He spoke what everyone was too afraid to speak and made it enjoyable
Seriously this guy probably had a hard time walking around with the steel balls he carried
Plus he's also great at making educational kid songs
Jeanette York the phrase you are searching for is “ahead of his time”
Tom Lehrer is so absurd. He's overrated.
Notice how there isn't QUITE as much laughter in this one as the others? Because they were all probably terrified of it.
hahahahah
there is actually more reason to be terrified of it now than it was back then.
+oinari12345 That might be the most incorrect thing you've said in your entire life. Back then there was the constant threat of war between nuclear superpower #1 vs. nuclear superpower #2. Now the sole remaining world superpower's primary enemies are a non-nuclear caliphate full of primitive screwheads and a mildly nuclear xenophobic three-ring circus. Unless some combination of Russia, China, and the United States are on the brink of war with one another, there is no way the nuclear threats of today even come close to those of the Cold War.
way wrong. I'm not even sure what you mean by what. today the situation is, in a nutshell, that a crazed-decadent US controlled by power-hungry neocons is reaching for world domination regardless of consequences, and a resilient Russia+China are fighting back by all means they can. and especially Russia has got 10x the means to destroy the US and the whole world, too, and nobody can prevent or stop it. talk of ABM's reliability is ridiculous vs. Russian ICBMs.
we will all go together when we goo..... soo true even in 2016...
+Mikasa Ackermann #fightingforyoutodropnukes
This aged like a fine wine
HA
It was on 1959 album so it has had several peaks of aging well including 62
Just more steak now.
@@ammarhusain6235 I was 5 in 1962 & I've never really even gotten over 'Nam man.❄️😶✌️❄️
Except for the 'Every Hottentot and every Eskimo' lol
I actually find this song really comforting.
Me, too, and very much so!
Edgy
Comforting because the the end includes all of us
BabyFawnLegs, you know what the song is really about.
Honestly, these people rather expected to possibly die by nuclear bomb... The thought that while it was certainly possible it never happened, we somehow managed to get through it.
Well. This got relevant
Oh shit! I used to watch your channel all the time. Fancy seeing you.
He’s honestly one of the funniest comedians of the past (if time isn’t an infinite loop)
I was just thinking the same thing!!!!
Hey exurb1a. I know you don’t know me but I'm subscribed to you, and I don't really know what to say but I think you're really cool and that your videos are really great, and that I hope you're doing well.
@@Selverna Hey, thanks ever so much! Big love, hope you're doing well yourself!
I like yelling "nearly EIGHT BILLION hunks of well-done steak" when I sing this because it's the only part that needs updating
crazy how in this guys lifespan the worlds population more than doubled even under threat of "all going together"
He also said Eskimo which is a racist term now
@@sandserpent
Sing "Inuit" instead.
@@shunned5890 exactly
@@sandserpent Alternatively, you could get over yourself
"I always like to end on a positive note, so here is a rousing, up-lifting song, which is guaranteed to cheer you up."
[introductory notes]
"When you attend a funeral...."
Nailed it!
Mewtario And this is why he's a genius.
RMS Gigantic like a sir.
Uplifting, Tom-Lehrer-style.
He indeed nailed the coffin
Demonex A quite grave joke?
Tom Lehrer - 'Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.'
Good thing Kissinger is dead!
"Nearly 3 billion" - I can't believe how much the world population's grown in a lifetime
That was my thought as well. I think it was was four billion when we discussed overpopulation in my freshman political science class in college.
7 billion now, unless I miscounted. it is getting very close to 8. (Tip: next time I do the count, NOBODY MOVE UNTIL I'M DONE!)
He manages to convince me that his cheer is not sarcastic...
Scienceorc that might be more depressing
He seems to value authenticity yet he’s very critical of a lot of the people who claim to be authentic yet really aren’t (The Irish Ballad takes aim at folk music which I often love but is a bit self absorbed at times, god knows what he’d think of hipsters). I don’t think there’s anyone who balances sarcasm and honesty in such a odd way
@@JimmyneutronwasokayIguess What he thinks of hipsters*
He is still alive.
MrDynamite110 Well he hasn’t spoken about them much
It never was.
Amazing guy, served in WWII, the NSA, Taught Political Science and Mathematics at the college level, invented the Jello Shot, etc., etc. A great unsung American.
That last credit: citation needed!
@@christopheroliver148 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jello_shot#:~:text=Multiple%20sources%20attribute%20the%20creation,base%20he%20was%20stationed%20at.
WOW! I am 75 and remember when this was just another popular song, but it stuck in my head and I wanted to share it with one of my clients.
@@christopheroliver148 Mixing jelly with alcohol dates alllllllll the way back to the 1300s, and the first recipe actually including Jell-O is from 1902, so I doubt Tom Lehrer invented the concept. Although, it was popularized in the 50s, so Lehrer likely contributed to that.
@@christopheroliver148 Well according to Mel Magazine, Tom Lehrer created the modern gelatin shot we now know as a means of sneaking booze into a Christmas party on a military base! He mixed orange Jell-O and vodka to smuggle it at the party.
But in fact, the first person to actually create a drink with alcohol and Jell-O was back in 1862 when a recipe was recorded in the very first cocktail manual ever published, by Jerry Thomas in How to Mix Drinks called "punch jelly" in his 1862 work How to Mix Drinks that called for adding isinglass gelatin to a bowl of fruit punch spiked with cognac and rum
We're having this song played at my dad's funeral. He loved this song, it was exactly his humour, and he'd have loved the thought of offending some people with how inappropriate it is for the circumstances. 😊
The cheery melody and piano accompaniment contrasted with the subject matter is chilling in a way no metal band can replicate, and that's from a metal fan.
Ever heard Pumped Up Kicks?
Or twenty red balloons?
@@silverace4741 99 Luftballoons
Okay, those are good examples of peppy sounding dark songs, but that guy specifically said "metal".... Neither "Foster the People" nor "Nena" are metal.
@@TheBlarggle Didn't know this guy is doing metal lol.
"neary 3,000,000 hunks of well done skeak." ohhh 1959
+billyjoe parker Indeed. How quickly the human population has grown. It's almost sad.
+billyjoe parker 1969
*3,000,000,000 (billion has 9 zerros) :D
+piet klaas das alot of 0's
+piet klaas ^^ in the german way of counting a billion has 12 zeroes (Million-Milliarde-Billion-Billiarde etc...) ;)
And 60 years later, this is suddenly relevant again.
Never stopped being relevant.
Why, because of a single country half a world away being invaded? 😂
@@FalonGrey half a world away from You, maybe
@@FalonGrey You do know what I.C.B.M. means right?
@@KingDetonationmost ICBMs expecially in Russia are porely maintained and cannot currently launch
I wish this song was in a Fallout game.
Yes!
There's a quest in New Vegas named after this song
There's a LOT of quests in FNV named after songs. In fact, playlist compiled from names of FNV quests is far better than the original game radio playlist. :)
There's a mod called Secret Stash that adds all of them to radio new vegas!
Lilith Lovett I have always loved the name, Lilith.
LOVE YA TOM.... IN 1973 I USED YOUR TUNES FOR MY POETRY CLASS...
God made your eyes, so don't shade your eyes; plagiarize. - Tom Lehrer
I cited him on a semester paper on the history of nuclear testing
+Ryan Busch "We'll be french fried potatoes by and by!" ? xD
Steven003 he used to work at Los Alamos also
+Ryan Busch Yeah, I know. He is truly a genius.
I'm ecstatic Tom lived to see Hank K shuffle off this mortal coil.
as someone who has suffered a lot of anxiety and panic from thinking the world will end due to nuclear war this song some how comforts me
Humor can be a good antidote to fear.
Why are you panicking for nuclear war? It’s not likely going to happen. Even if it did or looks like it’s going to happen, there is nothing you can do so there’s no point in panicking.
@@dimasdelpablo А мне даже не прочь застать это. Представьте, будущие поколения нас, людей до Армагеддона, в случае ядерной войны, будут воспринимать как богов а наш мир как Эдэм, где люди могли сходить и купить воды.
it helps to reflect on how absurd it all is and to focus on just living life
"I always like to end on a happy note"
...
"whEN YOU ATTEND A FUNERAL"
If you'd told me 20 years ago that this song would become relevant again, I'd have laughed in your face.
And now it's the 24th of February 2022, and here we are...
51+ Years Ago
20'th Century Man
by Kinks
Said it ALL !
Lehrer is still alive. If his mind is still clear, I wonder what he thinks about it all.
@@francisdec1615 "I told you so" perhaps.
I've been humming this to myself for the last 6 weeks- suddenly thought I'd like to actually hear it again. Delighted to find it here. As someone else commented it's actually oddly cheering.
it's never not been relevant, you just want to be fearmongering
When you attend a funeral,
It is sad to think that sooner or
Later those you love will do the same for you.
And you may have thought it tragic,
Not to mention other adjec-
Tives, to think of all the weeping they will do.
But don't you worry.
No more ashes, no more sackcloth.
And an armband made of black cloth
Will some day never more adorn a sleeve.
For if the bomb that drops on you
Gets your friends and neighbors too,
There'll be nobody left behind to grieve.
And we will all go together when we go.
What a comforting fact that is to know.
Universal bereavement,
An inspiring achievement,
Yes, we all will go together when we go.
We will all go together when we go.
All suffuse with an incandescent glow.
No one will have the endurance
To collect on his insurance,
Lloyd's of london will be loaded when they go.
Oh we will all fry together when we fry.
We'll be french fried potatoes by and by.
There will be no more misery
When the world is our rotisserie,
Yes, we will all fry together when we fry.
Down by the old maelstrom,
There'll be a storm before the calm.
And we will all bake together when we bake.
There'll be nobody present at the wake.
With complete participation
In that grand incineration,
Nearly three billion hunks of well-done steak.
Oh we will all char together when we char.
And let there be no moaning of the bar.
Just sing out a te deum
When you see that I.c.b.m.,
And the party will be "come as you are."
Oh we will all burn together when we burn.
There'll be no need to stand and wait your turn.
When it's time for the fallout
And saint peter calls us all out,
We'll just drop our agendas and adjourn.
You will all go directly to your respective valhallas.
Go directly, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dolla's.
And we will all go together when we go.
Ev'ry hottenhot and ev'ry eskimo.
When the air becomes uranious,
And we will all go simultaneous.
Yes we all will go together
When we all go together,
Yes we all will go together when we go.
Stefano Fratta thanks
These lyrics aren’t accurate
Hmm, just noticed that in this video, the line "You will all go directly to your respective valhallas.
Go directly, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dolla's" is missing.
+
Love the monopoly reference
"Just sing out a Te Deum, when you see that ICBM..." Some of his rhymes are hilariously daft ('tragic' and 'adjec...tives' for a start!), but this is genius. Great song.
+Nick Pollard Oh. that's what he was saying... "Te Deum." I always thought it was "tedium" XD
There, just learned another one of the countless English acronyms. Lehrer's nonchalant approach on language is what makes him such a genius in my eyes, daft rhymes inclusive.
I wouldn't say daft. I would say... stretchy!
"Funeral" and "sooner-or-l" is brilliant too
Too true...on a par with bert lahr's line in ''Wizard of Oz, ''and perhaps I'd deserve you, and be even worthy erv you if I only had the nerve''
In the seventies, when I was subletting my apartment, he called in response to my ad. I nearly dropped the phone.
So? What happened? Come on, we need to know!
You don't start a story like that and just leave.
Ben Jamin Oh my! It’s anti-climactic. I didn’t mean to do that. He said “This is Tom Lehrer calling about your ad.” I said “TOM LEHRER Tom Lehrer??” He said yes and I told him I didn’t think my apartment would be right for him. He insisted on seeing it, so we shook hands and he essentially agreed with me. Sorry it’s not better. I easily could write a book on celebrity encounters over the decades that make that one insignificant.
Ross Long I answered Ben Jamin above. It wasn’t too exciting.
@@psychomusicanana Well, that's still a story.
Finally, after all the false starts, it's beginning to look like time to play this song again.
I still can’t look past the fact that he managed to write a song with such macabre dialogue and keep in in a major key
Major disappointment.
As children, we were forbidden to listen to Tom Lehrer on the LPs my parents bought.
That translated into our knowing all the songs by heart, word perfect. (Hugely helpful education.)
Memory has us singing them loudly in the car on a family holiday driving through France.
I knew all the words to the album we had too. We loved watching my dad enjoy the humour as we all sang along🤣
@@margarettallett762 My dad's fave was "they had to make do with gin... "
I’m so glad I found this!
He was a NY lawyer that recorded this on his dictaphone
My dad would sing his songs to the immense hilarity of us 5 kids! Gleeful giggling memories.
Congratulations on Your 94th birthday today, Mr. Lehrer! You were and are always a legend! May Your timeless and genius music and lyrics live on forever!
I never get Tired of listening to his humor. I have collected all of his music just in case it should be censored.
2020: Here's a Coronavirus Epidemic
UA-cam Algorithm: Recommend ALL the Apocalypse songs.
... perhaps.
But that is satire, the machine cannot differentiate. Satire Virus
While we are talking Apocalypse, I wish he had an interpretation of LIFE DURING WARTIME by The TalkingHeads. It's late and my imagination is in a weird and wonderful place.
I notice how he begins to devilishly grin as he says, "Gets your friends and neighbours too."
The audio is spectacularly clear considering this is from 1967. To whomever archived this back in the day, you dear sir or madame did an amazing job.
This is genius! I've loved this song for a while now. But this version doesn't have "You will all go directly to your respective Valhallas
Go directly, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars" I love that part
Yeah it's sad that verse was omitted.
That was my favorite line! My second favorite is "Down by the old Maelstrom, there'll be a storm before the calm"
Victoria Odegaard That line was added just because he was performing in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Oh well I like that line and it's on the Tom Lehrer CD I have so whatever ChaChaLoco20
The most 'full' version with all of the additional lines that seem to appear and disappear (the 'maelstrom' bit and '$200' bit!) is on An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer, released in 1959.
Sadly this aged like fine wine
adding this to my "end of the world" mixtape
Do you have end of of the world as we know it (and I feel fine) by rem?
PLEASE TELL ME WHAT SONGS YOU HAVE ON IT I'M ALSO MAKING ONE OF THESE!
I added "Beds are burning" because it seemed appropriate with the whole bushfires in Australia and climate change and stuff, this song, and a couple of others.
Don't forget "The Final Countdown" :)
@@paris5410 Throw in "Party at the End of the World," with the ones others already mentioned. 😁
and here we go again, more relevant than ever before
Tom Lehrer is a national treasure.
Tom Lehrer is the Bo Burnham of his time. You cannot change my mind.
Haha I think it's other way round. Lehrer is much better than Bo Burnam.
I was thinking the EXACT same thing! They even both have a song called "new math". I can only assume Bo is a fan of Tom.
don't insult Tom like that
look i like burnham's stuff fine, but lehrer is in a league of his own XD
@@TheRealEvilkitten3 Burnham's older stuff is better than his recent stuff, I just don't think his stuff ages as well even though they both do the same thing essentially
Me: Stressed about Coronavirus
UA-cam: here's a song about everyone dying from over a decade ago.
5 decades ago but still, is it too soon to say that coronovirus cancelled world war 3?
@@LDG519 *laughs in Spanish flu*
Yes. Decades ago, legit black and white 😂 if you haven't heard his other stuff, I totally recommend it. I use to dance with my best friend as happy as can be to this song. It sounds like such a happy song, but man. Tom is twisted! He's amazing!
@@sarahnoblick6003 I've seen some of his other stuff, probably not everything though, I'm quite fond of poisoning pigeons in the park.
@@LDG519 ha ha ha! Oh really are you now??? 😉😉😉 I wish more people were gone of poisoning geese at my parks. We have too many and they have no class whatsoever.
WHY DOES THIS SONG KEEP BEING RELEVANT AGAIN!?
Given today's events in the news ... This song has aged well.
My kids, now in their 60s, memorized all of his marvelous satirical songs, and we sang them together. We still have those amazing lyrics! What a fabulously creative man ... whose politics and ours are the same.
Amazing I can just picture villains and Immortal Tyrants alike playing this song, while war or some disaster goes on behind them.
Came here for The Wandering Inn references.
Imagine trying to explain this to someone who just started book 1
Well this song suddenly became relevant again
I heard his stuff in the 60s and 70s but never saw any video, (as was common back then), so I never realized that not only was he intelligent, witty, and talented, he was also a total babe.
Happy 94th Birthday Tom Lehrer!
The most cutting,funny SOB of his time,and a math genius to boot.
This guy screams gen z and he’s older than my grandma
I'd much rather say Doomer, no?
I mean have you seen his permission to 2 Chainz to use the old dope peddler? This old timer is absolutely big mood.
He's older than any stack of ten random grandmas.
Boomers are people who complain about technology, right?
He's the most zoomer boomer in existence
Was trying to find more content about the mathematician Tom Lehrer, and he??? Sings??? This is now my fav human being
It's funny, the man that made Tom stop writing is currently frying right now like a french fry down in the grand incineration we call Hell.
Tom on the other hand is still kicking, and living.
Feb. 2022 -- this song never goes out of style.
The “We will all burn together” envokes a sort of sense of duty to total atomic annihilation like “No ones getting out of this” it’s really powerful for no reason.
An underappreciated US humorist. I'm so glad my dad and later my stepfather introduced me to his work.
"When you attend a funeral,
it is sad to think that sooneralll-,
-later those you love with do the same for you.
And you may have thought it tragic,
not to mention other adjec-
-tives to think of all the weeping they will do."
This man's rhymes are fire.
3...er...8 billion, Tom. & you, sir, lived long enough to see it.
Once again more relevant than ever😊
My social studies teacher played this once during class. Honestly, I'm glad he did.
Ah, Tom. A song for today. You were always relevant.
Was and still is. Tom Lehrer is still alive.
This makes the February 2022 experience a bit more upbeat and cheerful, for sure.
Reminds me of the old saying: "Every cloud has a silver lining, except the mushroom kind. Those are lined with iridium and strontium 90.
Now this is what comedy is about, the height of the cold war, tension and fear at an all time high, someone comes along and jokes about the subject and we all collectively laugh and it's just a little easier to deal with as a result.
Mutually Assured Destruction and the end of our species has never sounded so catchy.
This is quite relevant now
Well, this seems like a good time to listen.
I loved Tom Lehrer. At my fifth graduation, I, as the WORST math student at P.S. 41 I got to sing "New Math" at my graduation.
When he wrote this there were only 3 billion of us, now with almost 7 billion, it will be even a bigger bonfire! Aug 2021
Actually most of the worlds population was wiped out by climate change before the nuclear war. So only 2 1/2 billion well done steaks. The rest were slow broiled. Aug 2055
This guy was amazing!!! For perspective, this is from the Cold War era, when people were afraid global nuclear war would break out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Do you know that upon his death, his will stipulated that ALL of his copyrights and works would immediately become public domain? What a guy!
I mean . . . He's still alive. He *is* amazing. And possibly wondering if we're headed toward ww3, at which point this will become terribly relevant again
Here we go, fam.
Brilliant! I first met his music about 20 years ago when accompanying a singer who performed Poisoning Pigeons, and I quickly realized that this man is a total genius!
YOU WON TOM
Imagine singing this song 60 years ago, and then still being alive now to see the mess we're in...
Here we go boys
Humor is immortal
welp, this is relevant again
Mores the pity.
China is insane enough to play this game again with us . and we are too, so ... wibble.
Aaaaaand once more
@@portalman4665 XD YEA
@@portalman4665 yeah suahsuahsu again
Lovely being here with all of you folks, see you on the other side!
🤝
His lyrics are SO brilliant.
Please make a movie about this man - maybe with Jeff Goldblum as Tom.
What's the story, Pitch me right now. What's his journey? What's his conflict? Who is he trying to beat? Himself, Another person. There are reasons to make movies. Otherwise, they are bios or documentaries. I don't know, does he have an interesting story? My 8 year old daughter turned me on to him her Hanukkah because of the Hanukkah in Santa Monica song she learned and I loved it and have heard every song. I think he's amazing.
@@adamjcohn
There's probably a chance that he was a soldier or something
@@raspberrycrowns9494 yh he was in the US army in the mid 1950s during which he invented the Jell-O shot
@@jamesdettmann94
He invented the jell o shot? I did not know that
@@raspberrycrowns9494 yh or at least he claims to have invented it
No matter how bad I feel, this one always puts a big smile on my face. Thank you, Tom Lehrer, for getting me through some really tough times!
This guy has always been ahead of his time and underappreciated.
I like this music. I have it in my playlist(Leftist Classics)
2022 - still a possibility.
I want this played at my funeral.
And suddenly we are back here in 2022.
More topical than ever.
Nothing but respect for this man ❤❤
Hello everyone
This is suddenly relevant again. ^.^
One of my favorite songs from my childhood. still oddly comforting after all these years.
this is definitly a rousing, uplifting song that has cheered me up :)
Tom Lehrer is still alive.
2 years ago, it was an amusing look back to the past. Today.... not so much.
now it's a grim look in the future #FreeUkraine
I want this song in Fallout 4.
garfocusalternate it's the name of the Camp Searchlight quest in Fallout NV
Matthew Watson Good catch, played F:NV for years, and loved this song, but never noticed that.
Ryan Ellis Thats how i found this song.
+garfocusalternate "When it's time for the Fallout, and Saint P̶e̶t̶e̶r̶ Howard call us all out, we'll just drop our agendas and adjorn."
+garfocusalternate Send it to the devs via email and or forums. Do it naow!
I was humming this when I came out of the cinema for oppenheimer
Brilliant.
Tom Lehrer, still relevant. :'(