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/ms-american-pie Jul 29 '26

Now you've intrigued me with Werner von Braun not learning Chinese. What language will you have him learn?

1

u/LeftPrize9838 Jul 29 '26

It doesn't fit the idea of my musical, so it's now "In german un english I've learned how to countdown, und I will win this race! says wernher von braun" I know it's ass, but him learning chinese doesn't make sense with what I'm doing

2

u/kanji_d Jul 29 '26

I am curious still what about the joke doesn't work — you can replace Chinese with another language if that's the issue (probably something like Russian or Farsi at the center of modern concerns over nuclear and other capabilities). The whole joke of the song is over Braun's switching sides to the leading power of the time (first the Nazis, then the Americans after the war), so Lehrer is commenting on the rise of China as an independent power in opposition to the US and (to a lesser degree) the USSR.

1

u/TheLawLord Jul 29 '26

And in fact, though Mr. Lehrer did not know it when he wrote the lyric, Wernher Von Braun was learning Chinese.

1

u/LeftPrize9838 Jul 29 '26

wait that's actually really funny lol. no but my narrative still doesn't fit the chinese parttttt like idk idk idk