Google celebrates Tom Lehrer’s 80th birthday.

Tom Lehrer doesn’t like being “fake” kidnapped. Go figure. Via Tom Lehrer Livejournal.

This rare online Tom Lehrer interview provides a few nice tidbits including potential rhymes for orange and nostril (no, not ‘wastrel’) and a confirmation that Tom Lehrer was a co-inventor of the jello shot.

Tom Lehrer critiques Werner Von Braun’s shifting geopolitical allegiances in the gentle, and boringly named, Werner Von Braun:

This concludes the series of clips of Tom Lehrer on That Was The Week That Was. Thanks to 6funswede for finding and posting them. In appreciation, here’s his myspace page.

To hate all but the right folks is a well established rule, but during National Brotherhood Week Tom Lehrer teaches us how to be short-term tolerant:

The concert version of this song includes Lehrer mentioning that, in 1965, on the first day of National Brotherhood Week, Malcolm X was shot, “which gives you an idea of how effective the whole thing is.”

Tom Lehrer offers up some advice for foreigners visiting the United States in Pollution:

Tom Lehrer crafted this song when he realized that if we’re going to write songs about World War III, we’re really going to have write them before the bombs destroy all of civilization. He took a first stab at the genre with So Long Mom:

Today I received my third copyright infringement notification from YouTube. The first was for a video from the Oscars of the silhouette dancers forming the Snakes on a Plane logo, the second was a clip from the Simpsons of Bart having an interaction with a robotic Smokey the Bear. Today’s DMCA takedown notification came from a film studio and was for the video I posted a few weeks ago of characters from Picket Fences singing New Math by Tom Lehrer.

I don’t know how many other people have been blogging about the DVD release of this long off-the-air television series, but apparently the number is just too high. “Interest in Picket Fences? Pshaw! We don’t want it! We’d rather the show remain obscure and unpopular, thank you.”

Yegads people, why?

I’m concerned that YouTube might someday nuke an entire account of mine if they decide they aren’t pleased with my usage patterns. To defend against that eventuality I’ve gone and backed up all my YouTube postings across my various accounts (I had nearly 70 videos) so that I won’t lose anything the next time this happens.

Film studio, why wouldn’t you want excited people to talk about Picket Fences? I don’t understand.

Tom Lehrer recounts his time in the military (where he claims to have invented the Jello shot) in Send The Marines:

This clip features a rare Tom Lehrer error! It’s got to be tough when you flub your own lyrics on live national television. Watch for it in the Vatican Rag:

It’s odd watching these clips. I’m used to listening to the concert recordings which have more raucous audience responses. This song in particular I always thought got a much heartier laugh than I would have expected. Making fun of the church must have been less of a standard comic enterprise back then. I should dig up the concert recording and compare.

The Vatican Rag was previously seen/heard in the Picket Fences clips.

Tom Lehrer takes a shot at a potential international military entity that we no longer remember, so it’s going to be a bit over most people’s heads. Ah yes, the Multilateral Force, an attempt to mollify raising European criticism that the continent had too little control over their own nuclear defense by establishing a floating arsenal that would be solely under NATO’s control and outside any national governmental military structure.

Nothing beats political satire about events and organizations that we no longer recall. Here’s the MLF Lullaby:

Tom Lehrer provides a song describing his hopes for future love:

Tom Lehrer steps away from the political satires and gives a good dose of psychopathy. Hooray for psychopathy:

I like when he has built in pauses for laughter and the crowd doesn’t fill them up. Lousy crowd.

Tom Lehrer performs the cold war, anti-nuclear song Who’s Next:

This song was previously seen on RumorsDaily being sung by Fyvush Finkel.

In other news, I’m going to again be away from my computer for the next few days. Anything posted will be posted by robot. Go robots!

Some kind soul dug up a series of Tom Lehrer clips from the long, long off-the-air television show That Was The Week That Was. I had no idea that these clips were available at all, let alone online. It’s really nice to see what Tom Lehrer looked like when he was young and spry. Dig those glasses!

Anyway, I’m going to start posting them. They’re great.

We’ll start with the often overlooked piece, The Masochism Tango:

I recently picked up the first season of Picket Fences on DVD and was surprised to discover that there is not one but three different Tom Lehrer songs featured throughout the season. Episode three features New Math sung by Sheriff Brock and one of Kimberly Brock’s school teachers while episode four features Douglas Wambaugh singing Who’s Next and The Vatican Rag in the background of a crowded bar.

Since this blog is basically used exclusively for posting clips from television shows that have been off the air for nearly a decade, it seems only appropriate to pose these as well.

New Math by Tom Lehrer on Picket Fences:

Who’s Next and The Vatican Rag by Tom Lehrer on Picket Fences:

I love Tom Lehrer.