I too idolized Lehrer. But I disagree that he wouldn't be big today. He'd be a YouTube star, with millions rushing to watch/listen to every new song. In many ways Randy Rainbow on YouTube is today's Tom Lehrer. (I'm a new subscriber to your letter. Looking forward to reading your stuff. Congrats on the mentee thing.)
Just took a look at Rainbow's stuff. He's nowhere near the genius Lehrer was as a writer. His videos are great, his voice and persona clever, but no original music and a lot of the satire is pretty predictable.
I am pleased to have found you through the Substack blog. This is not Pompeii, though. It is the age of the gilded moron with a platform. That's a fixable problem, if we can figure out how to make the technocrats fix their damn algorithms so that they prioritize wise thoughts instead of click bait bullshit.
I too idolized Lehrer. But I disagree that he wouldn't be big today. He'd be a YouTube star, with millions rushing to watch/listen to every new song. In many ways Randy Rainbow on YouTube is today's Tom Lehrer. (I'm a new subscriber to your letter. Looking forward to reading your stuff. Congrats on the mentee thing.)
Just took a look at Rainbow's stuff. He's nowhere near the genius Lehrer was as a writer. His videos are great, his voice and persona clever, but no original music and a lot of the satire is pretty predictable.
Thank you soooo much. I agree Lehrer would be a star today too. But I had to include a dig against the "woke" folks who have attacked me mercilessly.
I am pleased to have found you through the Substack blog. This is not Pompeii, though. It is the age of the gilded moron with a platform. That's a fixable problem, if we can figure out how to make the technocrats fix their damn algorithms so that they prioritize wise thoughts instead of click bait bullshit.
Thanks soooo much. I just loved that analogy. So clever.
Tom Lehrer is vastly superior to Tomi Lahren. Witty and wise versus vastly vapid.