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Tom Lehrer - We Will All Go Together When We Go

The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel1 HN recommender · recommended in 1 month, 2017–2022
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music · general · evergreen · 2017–2022 on HN

Tom Lehrer's gallows-humor song about nuclear annihilation, in which everyone goes together when the bomb drops.

Mostly quoted as a joke in nuclear war and doom threads, with one commenter praising Lehrer's satire.

6 comments from Hacker News

@Diederich2020-05 · in “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": link (watch for the surprise at the end) To the gallows comedy of "We Will All Go Together When We Go": ▶ this video NB: I appreciate the irony linking to YouTube content in a 'WTF Google/YouTube' thread.

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@imagine992022-10 · in “Nowhere to hide: How a nuclear war would kill you–and almost everyone else”

Adopting an attitude similar to Tom Lehrer in "We will all go together when we go" [1] may provide some peace of mind in this case. In any event, here is a rousing, uplifting song which is guaranteed to cheer you up: [1] ▶ this video

@bobsmooth2022-03 · in “Updated rules on preparedness for nuclear explosion”

Either we all die or we don't[1], either way there's nothing you can do. I'm sure there's things you can be worried about that you can actually affect. [1] ▶ this video

@catchclose89192022-02 · in “Bank of China's Singapore operation stops financing Russian oil trades”

> why write like this? This comment makes no sense to me > transmission-poor You're insulting their communication skill, but some (I'd say possibly many) people actually enjoy reading/listening to this kind of communication . I actually really enjoyed it and found it funny and witty, and satisfying especially because it made me google for ~30sec to find out about Thucydides and Melos to be able to decode "old Melian", and then more to solve the puzzle of the "Piper" - although native Enlish speakers are more familiar with the The Pied Piper of Hamelin I'd guess or at least with the "pay the piper" expression. I actually find regular low-density conversations excruciatingly boring so tuning the density way up and sprinkling some puzzles in there improves my ability to focus and not tune out as I do in many conversations . It's a form of communications that helps AHDHed-techno-creatives like us follow and enjoy conversation and reading more actually, not transmission-poor but on the contrary more like transmission-enhanced , but probably only for a subset of people with brains wired a particular way. (Now that I think about it, even the sci-fi literature that I enjoy reading, eg. Charlie Stross, Vernor Vinge is a bit like this comment, although way more diluted probably to appeal to a greater audience... and yeah, I guess conspiracy theories are the lower end trash version of "sci-fi appealing to ADHDed-techno-creatives", so it kind of makes sense.) ...come to think about it, I

@acqq2019-09 · in “Soviet Officer Stanislav Petrov, 'The Man Who Saved the World' (2017)”

On an uplifting note, we will all go together when we go (this year is the 60th anniversary of the song recording): ▶ this video