R.I.P. Tom Lehrer, mathematician and musical satirist

Tom Lehrer, the renowned Cold War-era musical satirist whose jaunty and grim show tunes inspired generations, has died. Per Variety, Lehrer was found dead at his Cambridge, MA, home on July 26. He was 97.

Lehrer infiltrated the world of music from the ivory tower of academia. Born in New York City in 1928, Lehrer was a math prodigy. He entered Harvard at the age of 15 and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics, magna cum laude, before his 20th birthday. He received his master’s in 1947 and went on to teach math at MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, and UC Santa Cruz, where he remained for much of his career. After being drafted into the army in 1955, he served in the NSA. There, he made his first contribution to American society: The Jell-O shot. “We were having a Christmas party on the naval base where I was working in Washington, D.C. The rules said no alcoholic beverages were allowed,” Lehrer told San Francisco Weekly. “We wanted to have a little party, so this friend and I spent an evening experimenting with Jell-O. It wasn’t a beverage.”

Lehrer’s unassuming rule-bending served him well as a satirist who couched a sardonic worldview in upbeat show tunes. After some time on the nightclub circuit, where he delighted Isaac Asimov with songs about venereal disease, Lehrer recorded his first album, Songs By Tom Lehrer, for $15 in 1953. Mocking his alma mater, the Boy Scouts, and Confederate nostalgia, Lehrer established himself as a bespectacled firebrand with a wry smile who didn’t pull punches. He returned six years later with More Of Tom Lehrer, which included “Poisoning Pigeons In The Park” and “The Elements,” perhaps his most famous song. Parodying Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates Of Penzance tongue twister, “Major-General’s Song,” Lehrer’s “Elements” recounted all 102 chemical elements on the periodic table. It became a staple of elementary school science classes and popular culture. Yakko Warner used “The Elements” as the basis for “Yakko’s World,” an Animaniacs fan favorite that has found currency in social media memes. Daniel Radcliffe said a recitation of “The Elements” landed him the role of “Weird Al” in Weird.

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