“You can’t be satirical and not be offensive to *someone*.”

I heard this on my iPod rotation this morning, and was reminded of what it was like to listen to people who made no pretension of being politically correct:

I really have a yen/To go back once again,
Back to the place/Where no one wears a frown
To see once more those /Super-special just plain folks
In my hometown.

No fella could ignore/The little girl next door.
She sure looks sweet/In her first evening gown.
Now there’s a charge/For what she used to give for free
In my hometown.

I remember Dan/The drugist on the corner.
He was never mean or ornery/He was swell!
He killed his mother-in-law/And grounded her real well,
And sprinkled just a bit/Over each banana split

The guy who taught us math/Who never took a bath
Acquired a certain/Measure of renown.
And after school he sold/The most amazing pictures
In my hometown.

That fella was no fool/Who taught our Sunday School,
And neither was our/Kindly Parson Brown.
(We’re recording tonight so I’ll to leave this bit out)
In my hometown.

I remember Sam!/He was the village idiot,
And thought it seems/A pity it was so.
He loved to burn down houses/Just to watch the glow.
And nothing could be done/Because he was the mayor’s son.

The guy that took a knife/And monogrammed his wife
And dropped her in the pond/And watched her drown.
Oh yes, indeed, the people there/Are just plain folks
In my hometown.

Here’s the audio

Tom Lehrer didn’t care a whiff about objections to his songs. He figured that those who didn’t like what he sang could turn off the radio or change the station.

Lay one on us!

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s