The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel: the videos Hacker News recommends
Not the channel's most viewed videos: the ones HN commenters kept linking with real commentary. The top pick, "Tom Lehrer - Wernher von Braun", hN quotes it constantly, mostly as a joke or reference, whenever rocketry, engineers' ethics or skill-versus-morality comes up.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2016–2026music videoHN quotes it constantly, mostly as a joke or reference, whenever rocketry, engineers' ethics or skill-versus-morality comes up.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2015–2023music videoHN commenters cite it as a favorite Lehrer song and invoke it as a joke whenever elements or science-themed wordplay come up.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2016–2020music videoHN quotes it in discussions of engineers' moral responsibility and recommends it as a favorite of Lehrer's witty songs.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2014–2024music videoHN brings it up as the sharpest satire of scientists who serve whoever pays them, and as a favorite Lehrer song.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2014–2022music videoMostly quoted or linked as a witty example of Lehrer's satire, often as a joke in unrelated threads.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2017–2022music videoMostly quoted as a joke in nuclear war and doom threads, with one commenter praising Lehrer's satire.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2016–2024comedy videoHN mentions it mostly in nuclear-weapons threads as a witty or darkly funny aside, rather than as a recommendation.
- cited 3× 0 months 2018–2025music videoPosted as a humorous reference in threads about pigeons or Lehrer.
Questions
Which The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel video does Hacker News recommend most?
Tom Lehrer - Wernher von Braun: recommended in 3 different months by 3 HN users between 2016 and 2026.
Is this every The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel video?
No. Only videos that at least three different HN users linked, in at least three different months, with at least a sentence of their own commentary. That filter is what makes the list useful.
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.