# Looking For Tom Lehrer, Comedy’s Mysterious Genius



## Meanderer (Dec 27, 2014)

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


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## SifuPhil (Dec 27, 2014)

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…”_


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## Meanderer (Dec 27, 2014)




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## SifuPhil (Dec 27, 2014)

One of my favorites ...


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## Pappy (Dec 28, 2014)

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


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## Rob (Dec 28, 2014)

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


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