Funny Songs Top Ten: Poisoning Pigeons in the Park (#2)

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As I said yesterday, these top two on the list of my favorite funny songs aren’t necessarily “funnier” than “It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips At Night…” Certainly none of them have a video that can match that! But these are sentimental favorites, so that’s why they’re at the top. Let’s start with this one. #2: Poisoning Pigeons in the Park - Tom Lehrer For decades this song has been like a “secret password” among friends of mine. “Oh, you know that song, too? You’re one of us, huh?” Yeah, I’m one of them. Tom Lehrer (now 95) retired before many of you were born, resorting to the boredom of teaching mathematics at MIT. He actually came out of retirement to write ten songs for the children’s reading show The Electric Company, keeping his humor intact (a song about the adverb ending LY concluded with asking how you leave a room when you see Dracula: “Immediately, immediately, immediate-L-Y!” ). The fact is Lehrer didn’t want success, and he literally threw it away (last year he transferred all of his songs into public domain, meaning @TheHorse can sing “The Masochism Tango” after his favorite tune [“The Rodeo Song”] at gigs and not pay a penny in royalties). As for this song, it has a little basis in reality, despite the ominous theme. It seems that, in the 50s, New York City officials were concerned about the cost of repairing statues that were covered by pigeon poop, so they came up with an idea to kill them. Of course, that went over like a dead pigeon (predatory animals ate the dead birds and they, too, were poisoned; then you had to clean up the carcasses). But not before Lehrer could take a jab at the premise. I wish he had done more, but maybe the reason we so revere his brilliance is because Lehrer’s output was so remarkably tiny. Poisoning Pigeons in the Park Written by Tom Lehrer Recorded by Tom Lehrer From An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer, 1959 Spring is here, spa-ring is here: