If I can write about Hulk Hogan’s passing, I would be remiss not to recognize the brilliant satirist (and mathematician!) Tom Lehrer who passed on July 26 at age 97. (Google the news outlet of your choice.)

Unlike Hulk Hogan, there’s no evidence that Tom was a believer in any deity although he was Jewish by birth.

I have a “personal” connection in that I’ve sung some of his songs. I have a modest collection of funny songs that I can be persuaded to perform (badly) from time to time. “I’m My Own Grandpa” I learned from Andy Griffith (sung here by Ray Stevens with diagrams!). Allan Sherman gave me “You’ve Gott Have Skin,” which became one of my signature pieces.

Tom Lehrer? Just last week I was having a math conversation with a young man I’ve been working with for several years. He wanted to know about doing arithmetic in bases besides base 10. So I referred him to the Tom Lehrer song New Math in which he shows how to do subtraction in Base 8.

I can’t sing New Math, but I have done Poisoning Pigeons in the Park at places as diverse as the Christian Conference Center Spring Canyon, my son Mark’s wedding rehearsal, and by request at my 70th birthday party. At the wedding rehearsal, the pastor came up and said, “I bet you have “Vatican Rag” running around in there somewhere!” I replied, “I do, but I don’t do that one in public.” Tom Lehrer did, and it’s considered his most controversial song.

If you don’t know, the man was brilliant:

After graduating early from the Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut, Mr. Lehrer went to Harvard, where he majored in mathematics and received his bachelor’s degree in 1946, at 18. He earned a master’s from Harvard the next year… – from the NY Times Obituary

I thought that despite all that education, he made his living in music. For example he occasionally wrote songs for the television show “That Was the Week that Was.” Not so. The obit continues:

But his entertainment career ultimately took a back seat to academia. In his heart he never quit his day job; he just took a few sabbaticals.

He stopped performing in 1960 after only a few years, resumed briefly in 1965 and then stopped for good in 1967. His music was ultimately just a momentary detour in an academic career that included teaching posts at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, and even a stint with the Atomic Energy Commission.

In an era where song writers’ families earn money for generations from royalties, Tom posted a notice on his website in 2020:

I, Tom Lehrer, individually and as trustee of the Tom Lehrer Trust 2007, hereby grant the following permissions:

All copyrights to lyrics or music written or composed by me have been permanently and irrevocably relinquished, and therefore such songs are now in the public domain. All of my songs that have never been copyrighted, having been available for free for so long, are now also in the public domain. In other words, I have abandoned, surrendered and disclaimed all right, title and interest in and to my work and have injected any and all copyrights into the public domain.

…

Performing and recording rights to all of my songs are included in this permission. Translation rights are also included.

In particular, permission is hereby granted to anyone to set any of these lyrics to their own music, or to set any of this music to their own lyrics, and to publish or perform their parodies or distortions of these songs without payment or fear of legal action.

Some recording, movie, and television rights to songs written by me are merely licensed non-exclusively by me to recording, movie, or TV companies. All such rights are now released herewith and therefore do not require any permission from me or from Maelstrom Music, which is merely me in another hat, nor from the recording, movie, or TV companies involved.

In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs.

So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.

He said he would take the site down at some time in the future, but it’s still up: https://tomlehrersongs.com/

He brought joy to a lot of people. Faith Bottum of the Wall Street Journal concludes her tribute with:

I’ve always had a soft spot for Tom Lehrer. I discovered him when I was young going through my parents’ old CDs. Somehow I still sing his songs with surprising regularity. After being stuck on the highway after the car broke down. To cheer up an old friend. To laugh when I’m feeling down. Lehrer’s music was funny—funny enough for people to hum 70 years later. – July 28, 2025

I’ve written before, we ought to recognize excellence wherever we see it, and we worship a God who gave us music and humor.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38.4 – 7, NKJV)