You are now entering the Jewish Currents archive.

April 9: The End of Satire

lawrencebush
April 9, 2011

Two great satirists share this date as a birthday: Tom Lehrer, born in 1928, and Paul Krassner, born in 1932. Lehrer used a musical theater style to satirize the politics and morés of America in the 1950s and early ’60s. In 1973, he noted that the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger had made political satire obsolete. Paul Krassner published the notorious satirical publication, The Realist, throughout the 1960s and ’70s (and on occasion since). Krassner was a founder of the Youth International Party, a member of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, and the editor of his friend Lenny Bruce’s autobiography, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. He also accompanied Groucho Marx on his first LSD trip. Krassner remains a prolific cultural warrior; Lehrer taught mathematics and other subjects at the University of California before retiring from academia in 2001.

“To classify Krassner as a social rebel is far too cute. He’s a nut, a raving, unconfined nut.” —FBI letter to Life magazine

Watch a video of Tom Lehrer performing live in 1967 for students in Copenhagen, Denmark (50 minutes)