The Merry Minuet

As with everyone's favorite Kurt Vonnegut speech that was not a Kurt Vonnegut speech, this is every old fogie's favorite Tom Lehrer song that is not any kind of Tom Lehrer song.

• Category

  Music

[margot980]

Thank you, alonzobarbanzo,

I was just reading about what a hero Mossadegh was, trying to nationalize Iranian oil, which meant getting it back from what is now BP. And I remembered the line about "strife in Iran", about which I think I knew nothing at the time. Well the removal of Mossadegh was in '53, and five years later we all laughed at the song.

How little we knew, how little I knew until tonight. Look up Mossadegh, Stephen Kinzer.

[Alonzo Garbanzo]

Unfortunately, the strife hasn't exactly disappeared from Iran since then.

The grim humor and topicality of this ditty is undiminished over time. The Cold War may be 20 years dead, but the weapons are proliferating.

[Trebuchet1066]

Gosh this takes me back to elementary school & our bomb drills...get out of your seat, crawl under the desk part & cover the back of your neck with your hands so the flying glass wouldn't cut you...like that would save your happy butt in the event of a nuclear bomb detonating over your town...LOL Thanks for the stroll down Memory Lane!!

[Alonzo Garbanzo]

Hey, thank you, and judging from your username, I'm glad I'm not King Harold!

[bigbabyhoss]

brilliant!

YouTube needs to pay you for these videos.  are they paying you? they should be.

[Alonzo Garbanzo]

I couldn't agree with you more.

[Jennifer Burdoo]

Heh. I remember when I first heard Cows With Guns I thought it was a Garrison Keillor song (the artist was a dead ringer for his voice, and it fit his sense of humor).

[Jennifer Burdoo]

Good one.  I had the Kingston Trio record of this as a kid.

[Alonzo Garbanzo]

Well, YEAH...

[raymondcrooke]

Not on mine. You must have the executive version.