Tom Lehrer: Satirist, mathematician, inventor of the Jello shot

The field of satirists and hit singer-songwriters who were also professional mathematicians and lecturers is a very small one, and as such, we feel sure Tom Lehrer was the greatest who ever lived… And he also invented the modern Jell-O shot. Thomas Andrew Lehrer, who died on July 26 aged 97, was born in New York City on April …

[beast666]

Never rated him myself.

May he RIP however.

[Anonymous Coward]

Quelle Surprise .... not !!!!

And so my admiration for his life & sadness at his passing is infinitely unsullied by your non-inclusion in the group who 'appreciate' clever & witty both separately and in combination.

:)

[Anonymous Coward]

Back when I used to find something funny, Lehrer was one of the three times I can remember laughing so hard it left my ribs hurting, along with Derek and Clive Live and Cheech and Chong.

[ICL1900-G3]

An excellent selection, sir/madam.

[Jedit]

"Cheech and Chong"

I'm looking forward to seeing Cheech and Chong's Last Movie later in the year. Another couple of old geezers having one final hurrah.

[NXM]

Cheech & Chong

I very nearly pissed myself because of their van, made out of resin, so full of dope smoke they couldn't see where they were going.

Goodbye Tom. His songs always reminded me of Jake Thackray.

[PB90210]

Re: Cheech & Chong

You also have the great duo, Flanders and Swann from that era...

"Have some Madeira, m'dear..."

[Tim99]

Re: Cheech & Chong

It's about cake.

[Ian Johnston]

Someone who doesn't find Tom Lehrer funny and feels a need to say so in comments on the man's obituary? That's not a terribly attractive picture you're painting of yourself there. Frankly, I don't rate you.

[IGotOut]

I seriously have no idea why The reg haven't ban hammered the troll yet.

[cyberdemon]

Call him a Nazi, he won't even frown

Nazi Schmazi, says Wernher Von Braun

[Anonymous Coward]

Beast666 is little more than a dedicated troll account and- as such- almost everything they post is in that style and purely for the sake of provoking a response.

I can only assume that the mods still find them amusing and/or useful for promoting engagement or discussion (after all, the attention economy doesn't really care about "good" or "bad" attention). But there's a point where even that must get counter-productive and as IGotOut said, it's a wonder they haven't been banned yet.

[JLV]

I guess the comparison with your own sense of humor might be vexing, eh Shepilov?

[Anonymous Coward]

Never rated him myself.

Unlike Mr Musk, eh beast666?

Who's you Musk AI coming ?

[Antron Argaiv]

...and please, don't forget "National Brotherhood Week" (the last week in February, if you're curious)

It's fun to eulogise

The people you despise.

It's only for a week, so have no fear,

Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!

Oh...and it's "Hah-vahd" and "discah-vahd" because there are no "r"s in Bahstahn.

RIP Mr Lehrer, know that your work will live on!

(I was introduced to his "The Elements" in high school in the late 1960s, and have enjoyed his songs ever since)

[Eclectic Man]

Obituary in The Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/28/tom-lehrer-dies-aged-97-dead-musical-satirist

Wikipedia page here lists two mathematical publications: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer

According to interviews, he did not 'give up' satire when Kissinger was awarded a Nobel Peace prize, but because he had written 37 songs in 20 years, which is really not much of a 'singer - songwriter' career and he was more interested in doing and teaching mathematics.

Oh, and I admit that like Daniel Radcliffe, I too learnt his 'elements' song, off by heart. Useful when watching 'Pointless' on UK TV, sometimes.

[stiine]

I didn't. I learned Poisoning pigeons in the park, since that's the song my dad used to sing when I was very young. When I was older he transitioned to the Masochism Tango, which is one of my favorite songs.

[Gene Cash]

That's his song that got the most airplay in the US, especially by Dr. Demento, which ended this year, and I see the Good Doctor himself is 84.

I am feeling most ancient this morning.

[MachDiamond]

"That's his song that got the most airplay in the US, especially by Dr. Demento, which ended this year, and I see the Good Doctor himself is 84."

It's most likely I heard T. Lehrer first on Dr D's show many years ago copied for me on cassette by a friend. I didn't live in LA so couldn't tune in KMET. I'm pretty sure Weird Al got his start on that show and I can still remember Barnes & Barnes and Ogden Edsel Blues Ensemble Band. I've been lucky enough to find a lot of that online to DL and stick in my collection. I have some of Dr D's vinyl albums too.

[Noram]

My dad used to sing Poisoning Pigeons when I was younger, occasionally mixed with "I Hold your hand in mine".

About the only CD's i've actually kept in the car for the last 20 years are of Lehrer songs, mainly because when I'm giving my father a lift i'll sometimes put them on for him.

[Alistair]

I'll be dragging 'em all back out

It is somewhat ironic just how much of what he wrote, sang, and recorded back in the late 50's and 60's is yet once more, completely relevant to the events of the day.

Honestly one of the most direct attacks on the "American Empire" back then, and considering the Id10T in charge at the moment, absolutely appropriate music and diatribes

Of course the maga crowd will be horribly offended and call him a libtard or something, but trust me, he gets to own them.

[Andy 73]

Set the standard

Given most of his work will have only been contemporary for other ninety year olds, it's perhaps not surprising he's less well known these days.

However, his music was foundational for satire and critical of the establishment - and also written for Sesame Street. So even if you're not aware of his tunes, or they seem somewhat old fashioned, they lay the ground for what was to come.

It's just a shame his completely altruistic gift of copyright free music and lyrics did not also set a standard for modern musicians to be guided by.

[Old Used Programmer]

Re: Set the standard

His PBS children's songs were for Sesame Street, they were for The Electric Company.

[upsidedowncreature]

Re: Set the standard

Musicians have to eat too. And with Spotify et al many of them are practically working for free much of the time anyway.

[Andy 73]

Re: Set the standard

Note that he handed over his copyrights in his 80's (? I think). I'm not for a moment suggesting that creatives shouldn't earn a living and own their work.

However, libraries of music being sold for millions as assets that exist beyond a creators lifetime are, on the whole, benefitting no-one but the corporate leeches that contribute absolutely nothing to the creative scene.

[Missing Semicolon]

Re: Set the standard

Calling Mr Dylan!

[swm]

"Sliding down the razor blade of life"

[PRR]

> Songs by Tom Lehrer. He had 400 copies pressed

400 total? Or 400 of the 10 inch 33 LP? (12 inch was already common; I assume the 10" was cost-cutting vanity-price pressing.) I have that little guy, a little worse for wear. I got it from Ron who surely got it from his father the Rabbi.

[Ian Johnston]

As I recall, there are two versions of each of the first two albums: 10" studio recorded and 12" live with commentary, which makes the recordings longer. 10" LPs were quite common at one time for shorter pieces.

[Mage]

Actually 7″, 10″ and 12″ existed as both 78s and 33s. There were even pre-WWII 33s that where not microgroove. Movie sound tracks before optical used larger shellac disks with 78 type groove, but 33 & 1/3 rpm playing from centre (like CDs).

Some cheap record players assumed 7″, 10″ and 12″ for 45, 78 and 33 and had no manual end or start position even though not some not autochangers, so nearly impossible to play less common formats.

The cheap suitcase record players now sold have a 78 rpm speed, but only a microgroove stylus, so useless for 78s.

If the deviation on a 45 is limited to that used on a 33 you can fit about 11 minutes. The 45s play louder because a looser spiral with bigger deviation.

[John Brown (no body)]

There was also a 16rpm for voice recordings. I vaguely remember dad had a couple of old language teaching records that played at 16rpm. That record player we had was the only one I ever saw that could play them too. So I assume that speed was either a relatively short lived standard or was already on the way out when I grew old enough to be able to remember stuff :-)

[Mage]

The Language (and audio books for blind) did indeed do approx 16 rpm. From about mid 1950s to early 1970s.

Audio book albums date from 19th C. 78s. Albums were originally for cut out scraps etc and of course a symphonic work on 78s needed an "album" of discs, hence a full length 33 LP also being called an album even when a single disc.

[Kubla Cant]

10" studio recorded and 12" live with commentary

That solves a mystery for me. I first heard Tom Lehrer in the mid-1950s on a reel-to-reel tape that my father brought home from the lab where he worked. There was a spoken intro for each song, but this wasn't present on the LPs that I subsequently encountered. Presumably they were 10" versions. It's strange to recall that people bought 10" LPs because they were cheaper.

[david 12]

; I assume the 10" was cost-cutting vanity-price pressing

I wouldn't use the word "vanity", but 10" LP's continued to produced for alternate / indi bands at least in the late 80's. I didn't have any interest in indi / alternate music after that so I don't know if it ever stopped.

[MrBanana]

The 10" vinyl record (sometimes referred to as an EP) is still being produced as limited edition releases. No longer a cost-cutting measure, just another way to gouge the old fogeys and young hipsters.

[Ian Johnston]

An EP (Extended Play) records are 7" 45s made with narrower grooves to allow 7.5 minutes per side instead of 4. They were invented by RCA Victor to compete with Columbia's 33 LP (Long Playing) records, which could be 10 or 12 inch.

EPs failed as competition to LPs, but found a niche as two-songs-per-side records, or for mid length pieces. For example, music for an 8×32 strathspey, which is typically 8'30", fits snugly onto an EP.

[Paul Hovnanian]

So sad

When my wife comes home this evening, I'm going to take her hand gently and sing that ballad ..

[Noram]

Re: So sad

I hope you remembered to take off your tie.

[redpawn]

So long mom!

I'm off to drop the Bomb

So don't wait up for me

But while you swelter

Down there in your shelter

You can see me

On your TV

While we're attacking frontally

Watch Brin-k-ley and Hun-t-ley

Describing contrapuntally

The cities we have lost

No need for you to miss a minute

Of the agonizing holocaust

Yeah!

Little Johnny Jones

He was a US pilot

And no shrinking violet

Was he, he was mighty proud

When World War III was declared

He wasn't scared

No siree!

And this is what he said on

His way to Armageddon:

You might also like

So long, mom!

I'm off to drop the Bomb

So don't wait up for me

But though I may roam

I'll come back to my home

Although it may be

A pile of debris

Remember, mommy!

I'm off to get a commie

So send me a salami

And try to smile somehow

I'll look for you

When the war is over

An hour and a half from now!

Thank you Tom for this great song! Rest in peace and my future generations learn from your lyrics.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So long mom!

> "And this is what he said on / His way to Armageddon: / You might also like"

That's an odd line!

Was it part of the original song, or (I'm assuming) some link text shoved in the middle by a lyrics site and inadvertently cut and pasted?

[PhilipN]

Thank God for people like Tom L

Apart from anything else, if you think too hard about his comment on Kissinger and the Nobel Peace Prize, you will realise it has since then been downhill all the way.

Nice write-up - thanks, Liam*

*No, the other Liam

[PB90210]

Re: Thank God for people like Tom L

Perhaps he gave up when he heard there could be another Peace Prize on it's way to the White House

(much like the Queen when she heard Liz Truss was approaching Buck House)

[Michael Strorm]

Re: Thank God for people like Tom L

We might have been spared Truss being made PM if someone hadn't blabbed and told her that the Queen was up in Balmoral instead, then.

[Ribfeast]

When I was a kid in the 80's/90's, my grandfather put together a cassette tape with various funny songs, including "I hold your hand in mine" by Tom. He passed away years ago, but I still have the tape and put it on for nostalgia from time to time. Still gives me a laugh :)

[Mongrel]

I too learnt about him from my Grandad, the Elements song & Poisoning Pigeons were my favourite then but now recognise the awesomeness of I Hold Your Hand

[G Mac]

My favorite snippet...

I got it from Agnes,

She got if from Jim,

We all agree that it must of been

Louise who gave it to him,

She got it from Harry,

Who got it from Marie,

And everybody knows that Marie

Got it from me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58JK3gTEWrQ

[Anonymous Coward]

We will all go together when we go

My exposure to Tom Lehrer was limited to a maths lecturer that would play short excerpts on a tape player to lighten the tutorials.

The "We will all go together" piece must have stuck as I was certain that the line of the CERN scientist Bill and Nardol first encounter in the Extremis episode of Dr Who was familiar and apt. Just couldn't place it.

But then I thought poisoning pidgeons in the park was a Sondheim creation although interestingly the article noted there is a connection between the two.

[vtcodger]

joy and sadness

I enjoyed Leher's music.

And I enjoyed your obituiary.

I'm sad that he's gone.

[CyberWarden6443]

What DID he and his friends get from Agnes?

I came late to the party, discovering Tom Lehrer from hearing covers of his "I got it from Agnes" on YouTube during the Covid years.

I soon heard and loved the rest of his songs, which are applicable even to today... well.. maybe with the exception of "New Math", though it's still a great introduction to Base-8 Mathematics ( "..which is just like Base- 10 - if you are missing two fingers" :D ) .

Rest In Peace Tom.

[MachDiamond]

Re: What DID he and his friends get from Agnes?

Ummm, "The Clap"

[But seriously]

RIP to one of the greatest polymaths to have lived. I have laughed at Lehrer since being introduced by my parents to his songs over 60 years ago.

Sheer genius.

[Roger Kynaston]

two of his songs come to mind the most

First is Pollution though what he would make of climate change would have been interesting. The second is thanks to my Father - a lapse catholic and jazz afficionado - who would play the Vatican Rag endlessly!

RIP Tom and we can hope for someone with his talent to emerge.

[hamiltoneuk]

Great obit. Thanks Liam. Lehrer was truly a prodigy.

[Mage]

Kissinger?

'He stopped making satirical records after the 1960s, saying, "When Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize, satire died." '

But he stopped quite a while before that.That was 1973.

Rumor had it that Lehrer stopped composing when his prophecies began coming true, or that he quit in protest over Henry Kissinger being awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1973.

But Lehrer, in an interview with the satirical news website the Onion in 2000, dispensed with the second rumor, saying he had “quit long before that happened”.

There was nothing abrupt about it, he said. “I figure I wrote 37 songs in 20 years, and that’s not exactly a full-time job. Every now and then I wrote something, and every now and then I didn’t. The second just outnumbered the first.”

.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jul/28/tom-lehrer-dies-aged-97-dead-musical-satirist

Admittedly The Guardian can sometimes be less accurate than Wikipedia. Worst on Technology.

[Ian Johnston]

Re: Kissinger?

The Guardian is staffed by posh arts graduates who see knowledge of or interest in STEM matters as dreadfully vulgar. That and the overweening self-righteousness are the two minor reasons I don't buy it, the major one is my determination not to give any of my money to that insufferable prat Monbiot-

[Mage]

Re: staffed by posh arts graduates

Many aren't even that. But what Churchill said of Democracy seems to apply, paraphrasing: It's terrible, but the others are worse.

[Jedit]

Lehrer was wrong about one thing...

He's gone, but we did not all go with him. :)

Now we are left with the uncertainty of a world where we cannot determine whether it is more surprising that Tom Lehrer outlived Ozzy Osbourne, or that Ozzy nearly outlived Tom Lehrer. Ave atque vale, Tom.

[My other car WAS an IAV Stryker]

Re: Lehrer was wrong about one thing...

Another trio coming?

First, it was Malcom Jamal-Warner, Ozzy, and Hulk Hogan.

Then, Chuck Mangione (the jazz flugelhorn player/composer), Tom Lehrer, and _____???

[Bamba_RFW]

Re: Lehrer was wrong about one thing...

There are some things about which, you would rather NOT want to be proven right.

[gadsgadsgads]

The pigeons in the park

Are now feeling significantly more safe

[My other car WAS an IAV Stryker]

Re: The pigeons in the park

Not until after all the fans do a tribute round en masse.

[Anonymous Custard]

Re: The pigeons in the park

Including a squirrel or two for good measure...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The pigeons in the park

They are hoping for someone to erect a statue. Pigeons will be queuing around the block to take a dump on it.

[sketharaman]

RIP Tom Lehrer. Great tribute. I've known about Tom Lehrer since ca. 1980 for his Wernher von Braun song but it's only TIL that he was a mathematician.

[wsm]

Speak of Tom Lehrer and...

As other have mentioned, it's either 'We will all go together' or 'Vatican Rag' that come to mind for me. I can't help thinking that when we recognize his talents, we should all "Genuflect, genuflect, genuflect'.

[Del+Alt+Del]

Tom Lehrer was cool, but he didn't invent the jello shot

Wikipedia has its history dating back to the 14th century for a precursor, and 1862 for a published recipe.

[PeterM42]

Goodbye....

.....to SHEER GENIUS.

RIP

[NickHolland]

All the world is less in tune / on a summer afternoon...

In the early 1980s, my father found a Tom Lehrer album in a collection he bought, and figured as young teenagers, my brother and myself would be ready for _An Evening Wasted..._ and put it on for us, with the warning that it was pretty "risqué". While the three of us were laughing our butts off (mom was safely at work), at the end dad said, "Well, it was apparently more risqué back when I was young".

I hope his body was examined for possible ingestion of cyanide coated peanuts.

[Reintarnation]

It saddens me to learn of Tom's passing, I discovered Tom Lehrer as a high school student in the late 60s. When I heard the album "An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer" I was immediately smitten with his humor and sarcastic wit.

RIP Tom, the world is a more boring place without you, thanks for the ride.

[Joe Gurman]

RIP, Mr. Lehrer

As long as my memory continues to function, if creakily, I will cherish the phrase, “Soon we'll be sliding down the razor blade of life.”