Looking For Tom Lehrer, Comedy’s Mysterious Genius

[Meanderer]

Tom Lehrer is considered one of the most influential figures in comedy — despite a body of work consisting of just 37 pitch-black songs and a career that stopped abruptly when the counterculture he helped spawn eclipsed him. You can ask him why he quit, but good luck getting an answer.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/tom-lehrer#.pmmqeodP7

 

[SifuPhil]

Excellent piece - thank you!

This poem only made me more in awe of him - his application to Harvard ...

“But although I detest/Learning poems and the rest/Of the things one must know to have ‘culture,’/While each of my teachers/Makes speeches like preachers/And preys on my faults like a vulture,/I will leave movie thrillers/And watch caterpillars/Get born and pupated and larva’ed,/And I’ll work like a slave/And always behave/And maybe I’ll get into Harvard…”

 

[Meanderer]

 

[SifuPhil]

One of my favorites ...

 

[Pappy]

Oh yea.... I remember him. Funny stuff.

 

[Rob]

I know him as well, he taught me the periodic table of the elements ...