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Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:49 am
by kaztaylor
WAYAMY27NARF @ Oct 12 2007, 11:49 PM wrote:
But I did indeed fix it up, and I'll gladly post the correct Church of Yankovia.
You mean you know where to find it? I've been looking for it (online) for YEARS! Please tell me the true URL! (And/or contact info.) Besides putting it here, you should probably PM me (Since the brain surgery, I forget which topic threads I'm following sometimes.)
Thank you!

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:07 am
by DonnaNoble
"I think a big reason why Lehrer remains popular is that, unlike other musical satirists like Allan Sherman and 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Lehrer's songs are based on original melodies," director Gellis says, "so listeners can focus on the lyrics and situations of the song, as opposed to comparing it to the original work. I used to love listening to Weird Al's stuff, but once I reached an age where I wasn't familiar with the songs themselves, not from any clever mimicry of the base material."
Oh, right, Al NEVER writes his own songs thats why Lehrer is SOOO much more popular than him (who ever the heak that is)... thats also probably why ALL Als fans are immature little kids, I'm sure thats also why Als songs are ONLY funny if you hear the origanal...
Does anybody know who this Gellis guy is??? I need to posin his lemonade
Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:57 am
by Orthography Enthusiast
Tom Lehrer is a retired math teacher. I thought everybody knew that.
He may also be the inventor of the Jello Shot. It depends on how much faith you put in Wikipedia.

Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:07 am
by Grom
addictedtoyankovic @ Dec 21 2007, 03:07 PM wrote:
thats also probably why ALL Als fans are immature little kids,
Does anybody know who this Gellis guy is??? I need to posin his lemonade
Well, there's proof of at least one little kid...
Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:06 am
by minnick27
Orthography Enthusiast @ Dec 20 2007, 11:57 PM wrote:
Tom Lehrer is a retired math teacher. I thought everybody knew that.
He may also be the inventor of the Jello Shot. It depends on how much faith you put in Wikipedia.
If by retired you mean still teaching, then you are correct. And Mr Lehrer was a major influence of Al's in his early years, and still one of his all time heroes.
The Onion A.V. Club periodically seeks out the commentary of singer "Weird Al" Yankovic, whose newest album is titled Running With Scissors.
Tom Lehrer is one of my two living musical idols (Stan Freberg being the other). Even though his lifelong recorded output was not what you would call voluminous, the undisputed brilliance of those songs has inspired hero worship among several generations of fans of satire and funny music. Ive never met Mr. Lehrer in person, but weve exchanged a couple letters and phone calls. (I was thrilled beyond words when he started quoting lines from my movie UHF!) I tried my best to get him to appear on my ill-fated CBS Saturday-morning kids show, but he declined. I knew it was a long shot: Lehrer treasures his anonymity so much that he has never allowed publicity photos to be taken for his albums, and hes successfully managed to avoid the spotlight for more than three decades. Ive always kind of considered him the J.D. Salinger of demented music.
And I believe the wikipedia reference to be true:
A rumor has circulated for years that in the 1950s, Lehrer invented the Jell-O shot, a cup of flavored gelatin infused with booze, which has now become a frat-house favorite. He throws his head back and laughs.
"That's amazing how that got around! What happened was, I was in the Army for two years, and we were having a Christmas party on the naval base where I was working in Washington, D.C. The rules said no alcoholic beverages were allowed. And we wanted to have a little party, so this friend and I spent an evening experimenting with Jell-O. It wasn't a beverage," he says with a shrug.
"And we finally decided that orange Jell-O and vodka was the best. We tried gin and vodka and various flavors and stuff -- of course you can't sample too much. So we went over to her apartment and we made all these little cups and we thought I would bring them in, hoping that the Marine guard would say, 'OK, what's in there?' And we'd say, 'Jell-O.' and then he'd say, 'Oh, OK.' But no, he didn't even ask. So it worked. I recommend it. Orange Jell-O."
Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:19 am
by weird_el
If he's still teaching that's quite impressive. I believe he'll be 80 in April.
The Jello Shot story is from the liner notes of The Remains Of Tom Lehrer (box set).
Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:46 am
by Orthography Enthusiast
The info I found said he taught his last class in 2001, and is now just enjoying hangin' around in Santa Cruz.
Didn't Ruben go to school in Santa Cruz?
Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:08 am
by minnick27
He still guest lectures occasionally, which is kinda teaching.
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:19 am
by Orthography Enthusiast
Nice few paragraphs about Al in an article from the SLO paper about celebrity interviews.
grew up with spoofs like Fat, Eat It and Another One Rides the Bus. To this day, the words to Amish Paradise pop into my head whenever Coolio starts rapping.
Thats why I was so pleased to find that Al is such a stand-up guy.
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 7:35 pm
by Elvis
Thats why I was so pleased to find that Al is such a stand-up guy.
I guess the author never saw "Bob" or "The Saga Begins" performed live.
Dave