What makes a hat into hate?

June 14, 2005 7:37 PM

That's Mathematics! Warning, contains bad camera work, worse editing, a rather complicated homework problem, a few mathematical in-jokes, illegible chalkboard writing, and a 13 minute performance by Tom Lehrer.
posted by eriko (29 comments total)

I cannot tell you how happy you've made me. Thank you.
posted by trip and a half at 8:03 PM on June 14, 2005

and a 13 minute performance by Tom Lehrer

It was very decent of you to post that part. Many of us would have clicked on the link otherwise.
posted by y2karl at 8:05 PM on June 14, 2005 [1 favorite]

Tom Lehrer is the man. There are few joys greater then signing one only to be joined by like-minded nerds, breaking out into a jubilant chorus of reguritated wit.
posted by phrontist at 8:25 PM on June 14, 2005

It has math jokes.
posted by TwelveTwo at 8:30 PM on June 14, 2005

Tom Lehrer is the man.

Oh, my mistake. For some reason I was putting his name to the face and voice of Mark Russell. You can understand my comment in that context, I believe. Thirteen minutes of Mark Russell would certainly rank as a violation of the Geneva Conventions. Carry on.
posted by y2karl at 8:46 PM on June 14, 2005

He da man. Thanks Erikko!
posted by ahimsakid at 8:49 PM on June 14, 2005

That was fantastic. Is there a date on the performance anywhere? He sounds on that clip just as he did in the 50's and 60's. I didn't realize or know that he was still performing anywhere, for anyone.

God, a full-blown Tom Lehrer concert would be the ultimate.
posted by yhbc at 8:59 PM on June 14, 2005

The man is a genius. He must just poop this stuff. Had anyone else heard any of this material? Rhyming "tragic" with "adjec... tives". Brilliant.
posted by trip and a half at 9:12 PM on June 14, 2005

Never mind that, the true genius is in getting up half way through a song and writing something on the blackboard.
posted by fvw at 9:20 PM on June 14, 2005

Oh, my mistake. For some reason I was putting his name to the face and voice of Mark Russell.

Sacrilege! That's almost worse than your original comment!

I can't see the movie cause it seems to be only in Windows Media, but trip and a half, the "tragic/adjectives" rhyme is from 1959's We Will All Go Together When We Go (from An Evening Wasted) - which I must assume he performs on this video?
posted by soyjoy at 9:51 PM on June 14, 2005

Heh. Minimum, "Find the Fourier series."
posted by CrunchyFrog at 10:15 PM on June 14, 2005

I've been a Tom Lehrer freak for years but I've never seen any live footage.
What an amazing talent.
(digs out An Evening Wasted..., cues it up)
Eriko: do you have any more?
posted by cows of industry at 10:15 PM on June 14, 2005

"nothing rhymes with algebra..."
doesn't he know mermaids wear algae bras?
posted by Silky Slim at 11:31 PM on June 14, 2005

lehrer is such a genius that that i find him hilarious even though i know deedley squoot about math.
posted by Silky Slim at 11:35 PM on June 14, 2005

At least you know deedly squoot, Silky Slim. I didn't even go that far in school.
posted by TwelveTwo at 12:43 AM on June 15, 2005

I did advanced deedly squoot.
posted by fvw at 1:41 AM on June 15, 2005

"Base Eight is like Base 10 really .... if you're missing two fingers..."
posted by darren at 3:49 AM on June 15, 2005

For some reason I was putting his name to the face and voice of Mark Russell. You can understand my comment in that context, I believe.

Yeah, and I forgive you. However, for penance, you should say 10 Our Fathers, 10 Hail Marys, and one Vatican Rag.

He must just poop this stuff. Had anyone else heard any of this material? Rhyming "tragic" with "adjec... tives".

The mathematics songs? No. But I've got most of his recorded canon -- and he's used that trick before, which does remove a bit of shine from that part.

When you attend a funeral,
It is sad to think that sooner or
Later those you love will do the same for you.
And you may have thought it tragic,
Not to mention other adjec-
Tives, to think of all the weeping they will do.
But don’t you worry.
No more ashes, no more sackcloth.
And an armband made of black cloth
Will some day never more adorn a sleeve.
For if the bomb that drops on you
Gets your friends and neighbors too,
There’ll be nobody left behind to grieve.

We'll all go together when we go...

posted by eriko at 4:44 AM on June 15, 2005

For some reason I was putting his name to the face and voice of Mark Russell. You can understand my comment in that context, I believe.

Yeah, and I forgive you. However, for penance, you should say 10 Our Fathers, 10 Hail Marys, and one Vatican Rag.

He must just poop this stuff. Had anyone else heard any of this material? Rhyming "tragic" with "adjec... tives".

The mathematics songs? No. But I've got most of his recorded canon -- and he's used that trick before, which does remove a bit of shine from that part.

When you attend a funeral,
It is sad to think that sooner or
Later those you love will do the same for you.

And you may have thought it tragic,
Not to mention other adjec-
Tives, to think of all the weeping they will do.

But don’t you worry.
No more ashes, no more sackcloth.
And an armband made of black cloth
Will some day never more adorn a sleeve.

For if the bomb that drops on you
Gets your friends and neighbors too,
There’ll be nobody left behind to grieve.

And we will all go together when we go...

posted by eriko at 4:44 AM on June 15, 2005

Ru-roh. Sorry about that.
posted by eriko at 4:47 AM on June 15, 2005

Great as this is, it's a really bad introduction for the lehrerlayman. Try this, or better still one of the albums.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 5:30 AM on June 15, 2005

The best Tom Lehrer rhyme ever:

"While we're attacking frontally
Watch Brink-e-ley and Hunt-e-ley
Describing contrapuntally
The cities we have lost..."

(Of course, it helps if you remember the "Huntley-Brinkley Report")
posted by briank at 5:50 AM on June 15, 2005

Yay!

Mr R grabbed that over the weekend, and called me in "hey, watch this", with no further info. Two seconds into it, I said "Tom Lehrer!" Way cool. I grew up listening to Tom Lehrer...my mom has the first two or three albums in original vinyl - I should ask her if she ever saw him live. (but remember, please, to always call it ... research.)
posted by jlkr at 6:20 AM on June 15, 2005

"Take your cigarette from its holder;
And burn your initials in my shoulder."
posted by cows of industry at 7:32 AM on June 15, 2005

Tom Lehrer is indeed the man. As a true Lehrer nerd, I performed his "Elements" number in a goofy student-written high school production.

"These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others but they haven't been discarvered."

Classic!
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 8:13 AM on June 15, 2005

About 15 years ago, in a college survey English class, our professor instructed us to plagerize.

Half the class (soon joined by the professor) promptly broke into the Tom Lehrer song and the other half looked really, really confused.
posted by QIbHom at 12:09 PM on June 15, 2005

I was listening only yesterday to Tom Lehrer as I drove from London to its-grim-up-north preston and enjoyed myself no end singing along. These songs weren't really like his better know stuff and, following pretty_generic, they aren't a great introduction to Lehrer. However, it is really something for those of us who've only seen stills and heard voice separately to get the two together, and for that eriko, I thank you very much.
posted by blindsam at 12:39 PM on June 15, 2005

Fantastic. Wish I'd been at MSRI for this.
posted by gleuschk at 2:03 PM on June 15, 2005

BTW, "That's Mathematics" is available in Rhino's "The Remains of Tom Lehrer" box set, along with a few songs he did for The Electric Company and "(I'm Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica," which to my knowledge are not available anywhere else. It was so cool to hear some "new" Lehrer when I bought it.
posted by pmurray63 at 2:04 PM on June 15, 2005