Added: 4 years ago
From: Fredde21
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  • Do you think 16 people loved their mother a little more than was necessary?

  • Song starts at 1:57

  • No one can make a song about having sex with your own mother as classy as he.

  • I really want to know what happens before, "May I have the next slide please." ARGHH

  • @ParadoxicalParody tom lehrer "elements"

  • hey this was uploaded in my birthday!! ^_^

  • "Ooooooooor, you might end up like Oedipus..."

  • Ah, he loved his mother! :D

  • I'm sending this to my english teacher. Maybe it will get me some more time on my Oedipus essay.....

  • I guess I had forgotten about Mr. Leher's  songs until New Math was used in my daughter's school play.Now I have them all on my IPod and they make me smile when I run. What a brilliant guy.

  • "But maybe you had better let it go at that"-LOL

  • I grew up listening to this, thanks Dr. Demento!!!

  • @daygroomer You lucky bastard... I only get Justin Bieber...

  • this many is amazing

  • Hmmm. Oedipus Rex. There was a m0therfuck3r with issues.

  • @ixd735 I see what you did there.

  • He's more than a man,

    Let me hear you applaud.

    He's more than a man,

    He's a shiny golden god.

  • This is by far the best song he ever wrote, you guys. Not to take away from his other songs-they were all great-but you simply can't compete with this. It's too damn perfect.

    He "loved" his mother...

  • That Was the Wit That Was. A genius.

  • Happy Mother's Day, everybody!

  • '...rock 'n' roll and other children's music.'

    :)

  • At some point in the 50s/60s there was a tsunami of stupidity that hit western culture and swept the likes of Tom Lehrer away - I think it was called Rock and Roll.

  • I am blown away! This guy is probably the best and brightest lyricist of all time.

  • i wonder what kind of people were those 15 who voted down ...

  • Comment removed

  • @LadyofTalent * the sort of people with an oepipus complex! :P

  • A vicious and insensitive song which is extremely clever and funny.

  • "You're way ahead of me"

  • @parafleet What's the difference between a duck? A horse, cause a vest has no sleeves!

  • @Loejyrrab Buhzing!

  • I know that this is totally not the point, but Oedipus was supposed to be a pretty good leader, which made it more tragic when he fell. This song is still freaking hilarious, though.

  • Hum, got to remember to say this next time I get really angry on someone

    YOU MOTHER F...OEDIPUS REX!

    ;)

  • 1:58 if you just wanna hear Tom sing...

  • now who here wants to see that slide?!

  • @Kesh789 lol

  • @Kesh789 I think that refers to the elements song, which he performed before this one.

  • I bought this record album in 1967 and don't have a working player any longer. Thank goodness for Youtube, I can still listen.

  • This is wild....

  • i lllooovvveee tom lehrer <3

  • I love how they all clapped at "rock and roll and other children's records. LOL

  • I don't know why, but I want to see the video for this.

    I think one reason is because when he coughed, everybody laughed, I want to see what he did.

  • @mabarry3 So I'm a couple of months late, but hey. I'm pretty sure he didn't cough;rather, everybody that knew what Oedipus Rex is about understood where he was going.

  • @Vhazhiphor That does make sense though ... I never thought about that.

  • @mabarry3, @vhazhiphor

    It's not about that he coughed, but about that he sang "rather grim" and, after that, attending to the fashion, he added a tune that's full of joy ^^

  • You're way ahead of me ^^.

  • Oh, our Greek/Latin teacher played this to us in class >.<

  • @HexReinette And this is cringe-worthy because? I'd be the happiest person in the world if my teachers played Tom Lehrer songs during class! =D

  • @rainbowheydrich Agreed! 8D

  • I Love Oedipus. simply my favorite play. Im a major lover of the trilogy

  • Elements is still my favourite. It's the only reason I passed chemistry/SAT and so on LOL RIP TOM :) Thanks for uploading this!

  • @penguinmama88 What do you mean RIP? He's not dead, he's 82.

  • @penguinmama88 he's not dead

  • Gotta admit, it was pretty good.

  • Wish I could see his facial expressions as he performed this, that seems to be half of his humor.

  • @t0ej0b cough...I may or may NOT be old enough to have seen him (LOL). However, I would argues that it is NOT HALF his humour. The words are a googleplex greater imho :P

  • I love how everyone busts out laughing at the 1st solo, he was a guy who had fun.

  • Not-a-once did he rhyme it with sex.

  • I remember one of my friends back in High School gave me a cassette tape of Lehrer's "An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer". That was in '88. I've been a huge fan ever since! I must admitt that I hadn't realized how old the songs were. I grew up in Tampa, and we had a Sat. afternoon show called "Creature Feature". The host was Dr. Paul Berrer and he used to lip sync Lehrer's songs, so I knew "Poisoning Pidgeons" as far back as when I was 4 or 5. His stuff will always be funny and relevent! :D

  • When my Ancient Greek teacher was a professor at a different college, a woman who also worked there was given a $50,000 grant to do an interpretive dance full-length MOVIE version of one of Sophocles' Oedipus plays (Antigone, to be specific).

    OEDIPUS. INTERPRETIVE. DANCE. FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF.

  • @kizuna8:

    So, erm, how did she interpret...

  • @anonUK Badly.

    (Lots of arm waving, short scenes of two men dancing each other to death, and copious close-ups of the actress playing Antigone... who also happened to be the same woman given the grant to direct the movie. XD )

  • @kizuna8 Did no-one slap her and the people who approved this across the chops for being so damnably thick?

  • @Misishaxi Maybe someone should go and do that retroactively...

  • Epic song. They still play Lehrer songs in Universities today.

  • Oedipus... you scre me... you with your incest... thats not the motherly love you want... shame on you boy... now your mother/wife hung herself... now go pull your eyes out.... and have your uncle/step brother take your children/siblings under... no go off into the woods... and die... shamefull mother lover

  • The only other Tom Lehrer song I have heard is the Element's Song. This one is just as good. :)

  • i bet someone has done a similar song like this, but no way will it be as ingenieus as this

  • lol that's horrible...but it's so funny! lehrer is good. XD

  • crvorhees, Yes, it is dated, but please recognize the superb talent it takes to do this genre of musical comedy!

  • Ahead of his time.

  • kfjc plays tom lehrer's songs on the radio

  • You must admit that compared to Tom Lehrer's level of musicality, Rock and Roll, particularly in the 50's, was juvenile and simplistic, sanitized blues music designed for consumption by white teenagers. It would be hard to label his comparison racist, since "Oedipus Rex" is a ragtime song, another, more sophisticated and musically complex take on African American music. He was, of course, an Ivy League grad and instructor, so "elitist" is probably a fair cop.

  • BEST STUFF EVAR!

    Smart Guy! :P

  • i loved the play oepipus rex

  • songs about incest: always funny

  • @yukikoforevernoise

    Particularly written from real life?

    ... Or not.

  • only tom lehrer would be able to find a word that rhymes with "oedipus"

  • I teach Oedipus Rex and I actually SHOW the film version he's referring to. I'm trying to learn the song so I can play it for my students. AND NEVER ever present someone else's work as your own. That's just pathetic.

  • It's the version with William Shatner as a member of the Chorus, right? I've seen it. HAW!

  • But lobachevsky told me different! I'm so confused!

  • The response to his "Rock and roll and other children's records" line really dates this recording. I have been listening to An Evening Wasted with Tom Leher since i was in elementary school.

  • .. to say nothing of the references to "hit movies of the past few years" as Ten Commandments, Brothers Karamazov, Incredible Shrinking Man etc.

  • @crvorhees Thats what I was thinking too. (Yeah, that rock n roll is for kids. Mindless, drooling, kids. Ricky Nelson is corrupting todays youth!)

  • 1:58

  • i wish we could see the slideshow.

  • @iamalittlegreekgirl

    no slide show. He was Making a joke about the fact that he was a professor at Harvard.

  • @crvorhees I believe in the original performance this song came right after The Elements, hence the "next slide" joke.

  • I need to make a 20- line poem in Social Studies for extra credit.. we are doing Greece... Should I?

  • Your teacher will probably recognize it. Tom Lehrer is more well-known than you think.

  • He taught Math at UCSC as I recall.

  • Lobachevsky would tell you to go for it ;-)

  • this guy Rocks

  • This guy is a genius

  • Bringing Greek Tragedies to the Masses.

    thanx...

  • Hold on -- he rhymed WHAT with WHAT??!

  • i love the playwrite oedipus rex. its brillant and fun.

  • Haha! This is some fine humor from way back. The late 60s?

    My mum has the original album somewhere.

    Thanx for sharing.

    5/5 and fave.

  • How is this song racist? It's not racist at all.

  • It's not racist, but it's certainly elitist. Ooh wow, he compared rock and roll to children's music.

  • You forget that in the days he was making music, Rock n Roll was NOT the same thing it is today.

  • @Redward652 Yeah it was much BETTER than it is today. It was raw and still had it's roots in blues which is very simplified music played by people on the fringes of society. .mostly poor folks. So yeah, it is elitist.

  • That doesn't make it elitist. Blue jeans were once used specifically by only minors. Now they're popular amongst everyone. Does that make THEM elitist, too? No, it doesn't. Popularity does not equal elitism.

    Rock n Roll is a totally different KIND of music now. It doesn't sound the same. Pop-country is closer to the old stuff than modern Rock is.

  • I never said it wasn't. What doesn't sound elitist or may not have even been meant that way becomes that if you look at it closely.

  • @Quttan no, he meant the person (tokyohalogen) that said "I hate this man".

    That's totally racist.

  • I don't get how it could be racist, considering Greece is a European country, and Lehrer is of European Descent, so he'd just be poking fun at a member of his OWN race.

  • Wow...it was a response to tokyohalogen..

    YT needs to hurry up with the response posts to be under the person someone responds to...-_-

  • Just awsome

  • "I'd rather marry a duck billed platypus..."

    Genius.

  • @Fyrebahl isn't that redundant? or is it supposed to be?

  • @MarkNie1 I don't get how it's redundant, besides being a quote.

  • @Fyrebahl well all platypi are duck-billed.

  • @MarkNie1 That's their name, though. A Duck-billed Platypus. I guess the name is a bit redundant, I just didn't know what you were talking about.

  • Respond to this video... So, since it's their name, it is supposed to be redundant.

  • @MarkNie1 That wasn't supposed to have the "respond to this video..."

  • "Or you may find yourself with a quite complex , complex" It just doesn't get much funnier than that.

  • Other than possibly 'buy her candy or some flowers or a brand new hat, but maybe you'd better let it go at that' :D

  • "Apart from Rock and Roll and other children's records..." I love Rock, but I love you more Tom Lehrer. You're just too funny for words.

  • i would hack off everyone else arms to be able to write like this..

    ;-}~

  • Does anyone have the music for this?

  • This was taken from an album entitled "An Evening {Wasted| with Tom Lehrer". A friend of mine played it for me way back in the 1960's. Hilarious then, still funny after all these years. You might also want to check out the video "We Will All Go Together When We Go" this was also on the album. LOL

  • song starts at 1:58

  • thx!!

  • I loooove this man so muuuuch lol <3

  • Oh, a pot shot at Rock and Roll. Hahaha!

    Tom Lherer is a master mind.

  • Amazing man and songs!  I wish I...nevermind ;)

  • 0.0

  • He's 81, for those who are curious. His website is tomlehrer, but there's not much there. He will ever be one of the funniest songwriters of all time.

  • That was BRILLIANT.

  • Because he is funny.... smart funny, not stupid funny. n_n

  • because this man is a genius when it comes to writing lyrics and songs hes briliant and his songs arnt just music they comedy as well

  • I think you may have missed the point by a bit...

  • *sigh*

  • FAN bloody TASTIC!!! He is still the best, put him up against anyone living (go ahead...lol) and he'd still SLAY me :)

  • He's great--But I'm pretty sure he's still alive!

  • Yup. Alive and (hopefully) well at around 87 the last time I checked.

  • eeek! Should have googled, I stand corrected and stunned. Music (look at Pete Seeger) seems to keep you alive and well (if it doesn't kill you in your 20s (JOKE) xoxoxoxoxo

  • You are correct there !

  • Anybody can write a song, but it takes a certain amount of style to rhyme "Oedipus" with "platypus".

  • Well his options were pretty limited. LOL Genius!!

  • @bunnydoc57

    but they do rhyme? I don't get it...

  • @bunnydoc57 Not really. It seems dragged in just for the rhyme.

  • Oedipus Rex, the original mo fo.

  • Brilliant! what more can one say?

  • why don't you make random little films to go with them? I'm sure Tom would approve of some animated vegetables or some random pissing about to illustrate his work.

  • I grew up with this in the early 1960's. In 1963, in 7th or 8th grade I wrote"Platypus Rex". The tragic story of a misunderstood misformed misfit.

  • I hope you get raped by baboons for your random uncalled for criticism.

    Baboons with horse cocks.

    I bet 'Platypus Rex' was an awesome saga.

  • rly i grew up w/ this played in my house 24/7 since i was about 6... im 15 see the generations arent too different... WE ALL LIKE TO LAUGH @ TRAGEDIES

  • im 15 and this guy is a fucking legend :D

  • Indeed he is !

  • I still can't believe he did these so long ago. They're such modern political satire. Come to think of it, they're much BETTER than most modern political satire. Bring back Tom!

  • @lillyahoo Were you thinking cloning, a time machine or some kind of Frankenstein machine?

  • The very fist bit about the next slide was after he just sang the elements song.

  • does anyone know when this was recorded? I'm trying to figure out which film he's referring to, instinctively i'd guess the Pasolini version but wasn't that 1967 and hadn't he stopped touring by then?

  • I can't be certain as I can't find any direct information on the song

    That said, i think it's likely he's referring to the 1957 version of the movie. Tom had stopped touring regularly by the early sixties and the 57 version was more of an accurate "arthouse" type film as he mentions in the intro.

    However its not impossible he meant the Pasolini version as he did occasionally perform and VERY occasionally tour after that. either way its a very late song for him.

  • This is from "An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer" and was released in 1959.

  • I have been a fan of Tom Lehrer and this is the first time I have heard this. Brilliant social commentary turned musical. Pure enjoyment!

  • Yeah if you could get the actual video that would be great. otherwise try a slideshow but not one of those crappy slideshows where they repeat the same pictures.

  • The very best of Mr. Lehrer. This song always makes me smile and laugh, even though I've heard it countless times.

  • Oedipus Rex is a sad play, isn't it. The play was mentioned, NOT the song itself.

  • I know....Disneys just fantastic!!

  • There's no comparison!

  • Dear God I would hope not.

  • well, obviously Disney could not touch the Odipus subject in a toon series geared for 3 to 11 year olds but Eric Idles Promethean Ditty is simply hilarious and Song Of Circe is dripping with innuendo, but something tells me youve never heard of these Disney tunes.

    Dont worry, though, Im a huge Tom Lehrer fan and probably have been before you were born.

  • If anyone has a problem with this they should find a time machine, go over to Asia and burn your ideals into their brains..on that note I believe I'll retire to a site to visit some other folks mothers.