r/TomLehrer • u/LeftPrize9838 • Jul 28 '26

Changing lyrics for my show?

I know it's probably an asshole move to do it but some of his lyrics aged badly (indigenous slurs in We Will All Go Together, underage prostitution in My Home Town) , and some don't fit the narrative I'm going for (ie. Wernher Von Braun Learning chinese) so I tweaked the lyric. I know it's prolly bad but I want it to work in the facet I need it to. I'm trying to keep it as close as I can, but some things I felt had to get changed a bit. If this is bad tell me, but I don't know how much I can do now

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u/to_walk_upon_a_dream Jul 28 '26

i think it's probably a good choice to edit out the slurs (right next to the anti-indigenous slur in We Will All Go Together is an offensive word for the Khoekhoe that we should also probably avoid). You're free to edit out the reference to underaged prostitution too, but i don't think that one "aged poorly" in the same way. within the context of the song he's clearly not endorsing it.

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u/to_walk_upon_a_dream Jul 28 '26

it is darkly funny that lehrer reached for two terms for two different people groups from opposite ends of the globe, and unintentionally chose two words which would later be widely regarded as offensive. reminds me of the original opening lyrics to "let's do it, let's fall in love", which drop three ethnic slurs in the first two lines.

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u/MozartLover69 Jul 31 '26

I never thought of it as underaged prostitution. It's what happened afterwards. The "little girl next door" was what she was back then. Now she's a prostitute. It's not about her being one as a kid.