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Frame from Tom Lehrer - The Elements - LIVE FILM From Copenhagen in 1967 Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Tom Lehrer - The Elements - LIVE FILM From Copenhagen in 1967

8 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
2 HN users recommended this music video2 months2015–2023 score 2
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN commenters cite it as a favorite Lehrer song and invoke it as a joke whenever elements or science-themed wordplay come up.

A 1967 live film of Tom Lehrer performing his patter song "The Elements" in Copenhagen, reciting the chemical elements to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune. It is a short, polished example of his satirical piano-and-voice style.

“is the Tom Lehrer song that made the biggest impression on me.” (HN, 2022)

2 recommendations · 1 citations · 2 jokes · Music

5 Hacker News comments

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

@Diederich May 2020 Recommends
on HN thread Google deletes “communist bandits” from comments on Youtube
For those who aren't aware and/or won't look this reference: [link] As the other comenter noted, Tom Lehrer is indeed a national treasure, and his satire is top shelf. From the light-hearted "The Elements": [this video] (watch for the surprise at the end) To the gallows comedy of "We Will All Go Together When We Go": [link] NB: I appreciate the irony linking to YouTube content in a 'WTF Google/YouTube' thread.
Light-hearted song reciting chemical elements, with a surprise ending.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@DonHopkins Jan 2015 Makes a joke
on HN thread Design of Lisp-Based Processors Or, LAMBDA: The Ultimate Opcode (1979) [pdf]
Jonathan Rees's a la carte menu of the elements of "object oriented programming" is a great example of that. [link] The Elements of Object Oriented Programming: Encapsulation, Protection, Ad Hoc Polymorphism, Parametric Polymorphism, Everything Is An Object, All You Can Do Is Send A Message, Specification Inheritance, Implementation inheritance/Reuse, Sum-Of-Product-Of-Function Pattern. These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard, and there may be many others, but they haven't been discarvered. ;) [Apologies to Tom Lehrer.] [this video]

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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