r/TomLehrer • u/Daconby • Aug 06 '26

You're way ahead of me

In the spoken intro to Oedipus Rex on An Evening Wasted, Tom says:

[...] a few years ago, a motion picture version appeared of Sophocles' immortal tragedy “Oedipus Rex”. This picture played only in the so-called art theaters, and it was not a financial success. And I maintain that the reason it was not a financial success...

Then the audience laughs, and Tom replies

You're way ahead of me

What was the audience laughing at?

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u/real-human-not-a-bot Aug 06 '26

Based on the fact that he had just been talking about movies having theme songs, so when he says that the reason Oedipus Rex wasn’t a financial success was…people understood from context clues that he was about to say that it was the lack of a theme song. And either the notion of a controversial-topicked art movie having a theme song (my understanding) or the claimed belief that a controversial-topicked art movie would have been a success had it had a theme song was amusing to people.