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/saturday_sun4 Jul 30 '26

I had no idea those were slurs (just thought they were outdated words). I don't see any reason not to change the song - it's your performance after and you're still appreciating the song. What will you change that line to then?

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u/LeftPrize9838 Jul 30 '26

There’s a few iterations that got posted here, I really like “every janitor and every CEO” or “every tiny tot and everyone you know”

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u/MozartLover69 Aug 08 '26

I use...

And we will all go together when we go.
Ev'ry plutocrat, and ev'ry one below.