You’ve probably heard by now, the brilliant – and brilliantly funny – Tom Lehrer died on Saturday at the age of 97. Lehrer’s songwriting career was comparatively brief, as was his stint as a performer – avocations both, he claimed. The talent was effortless, if he is to be believed, his early creations tossed off to the delight of his university classmates. But when it came to making a living, he chose academia, teaching mathematics at Harvard and M.I.T. and mixing math with musical theater at the University of California. To the chagrin of his publisher, I’m sure, he relinquished all licensing opportunities by declaring his songs, both original music and lyrics, were free and available to the public to do with what they will. As a satirist and a composer, his mordant wit and lyrical dexterity could be devastating. He was a black comic genius, whose send-ups of politics, religion, and other human and social foibles were as gleeful as they were savage. He could have contributed so much more to the literature, but what he left us is gold. Here he is in his impish prime.

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