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Tom Lehrer Full Copenhagen Performance

Tom Lehrer
Music
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this music video2 months2020–2025 score 2.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Posted whenever Lehrer comes up, as the best way to see him perform, and treated as a complete stand-up-style set.

A full-length recording of Tom Lehrer's 1967 concert in Copenhagen, mixing his satirical songs with spoken comedy between numbers. It runs about 51 minutes with good audio for its age.

“He intersperses song and spoken comedy, with the whole performance hanging together masterfully.” (HN, 2022)

2 strong recommendations · 1 recommendations · 1 citations · Music

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@schiffern Dec 2022 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Tom Lehrer has released all of his songs into the public domain
If you never got the chance, give his full albums a listen. He intersperses song and spoken comedy, with the whole performance hanging together masterfully. An Evening (Wasted) with Tom Lehrer (1959, 42m) [link] Tom Lehrer Discovers Australia (And Vice-Versa) (1960, 49m) [link] That Was The Year That Was (1965, 38m) [link] Live in Copenhagen (1967, 51m) [this video]
Songs and spoken comedy hang together masterfully.
@schiffern Dec 2022 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Tom Lehrer has released all of his songs into the public domain
If you haven't had a chance, give his full performances a listen. He intersperses song and spoken comedy, with the whole arc hanging together masterfully. Think of one of the great stand-up specials. I'd say it "feels very modern," but the truth is that Lehrer (re-)invented the modern form. An Evening (Wasted) with Tom Lehrer (1959, 42m) [link] Tom Lehrer Discovers Australia (And Vice-Versa) (1960, 49m) [link] That Was The Year That Was (1965, 38m) [link] Live in Copenhagen (1967, 51m) [this video]
Songs and spoken comedy like a great stand-up special.
@archagon Jul 2025 Recommends
on HN thread Tom Lehrer has died
May he rest in peace. In memoriam, this hourlong recording of a concert in Copenhagen is a joy to watch: [this video]
Hourlong Copenhagen concert, a joy to watch.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@BuildTheRobots Oct 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Tom Lehrer releases song lyrics to public domain
Somewhat off topic, but he did a concert in Copenhagen of which there's a full recording on Youtube [1] For something filmed in 1967 the audio quality is absolutely stunning. I wonder what equipment they used? My suspicion is that it's a piezoelectric microphone which had fantastic reputation for picking up a wide range of sound (especially for things like multiple people around a table) but fell out of favour as they worked best with valve amplifiers. [1] [this video]
Full 1967 concert with stunning audio quality.

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.

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