Satire is a risky business. Especially when you’re a Harvard-educated mathematician with a piano and a mean streak of cynicism. Tom Lehrer knew this better than anyone. In 1964, he sat down for the NBC show That Was the Week That Was and performed a ditty that would eventually become a permanent fixture of American counterculture.
Tom Lehrer National Brotherhood Week lyrics aren't just funny. They are a scalpel. They slice right through the performative nonsense of mid-century American "tolerance." Honestly, if you listen to it today, it feels less like a 60-year-old relic and more like a tweet sent ten minutes ago.
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The Weird History of the "Week"
Most people think Lehrer made the holiday up for the sake of the joke. He didn't. National Brotherhood Week was a real thing. It started back in 1934, spearheaded by the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ).
The idea? Get people of different faiths to stop hating each other for seven days. Presidents like FDR and LBJ gave it their official blessing. They’d hold dinners. They’d have "Tolerance Trios"—a priest, a rabbi, and a minister—touring around like a religious boy band to prove they could coexist.
But by 1965, the civil rights movement was exploding. The gap between the "Brotherhood" posters and the reality of fire hoses in Selma was a canyon. Lehrer saw the gap. He jumped right in.
Breaking Down the Tom Lehrer National Brotherhood Week Lyrics
The song starts with that jaunty, almost aggressive cheerfulness that Lehrer perfected. It’s a march. It’s a "rah-rah" anthem for people who don't actually like each other.
"Oh, the white folks hate the black folks / And the black folks hate the white folks..."
He doesn't waste time. No metaphors. No flowery language about "the human spirit." He just lists the grievances. You've got the classic line about Lena Horne and Sheriff Clark dancing "cheek to cheek." For context, Jim Clark was the brutal sheriff in Selma, Alabama, known for violence against protesters. Putting him in a dance with Lena Horne, a Black icon and activist, was a punch to the gut of 1960s sensibilities.
The "Inferiority" Punchline
The song hits its peak of nastiness (the good kind) when Lehrer sings:
"Be nice to people who are inferior to you / It's only for a week, so have no fear."
This is the core of his critique. He’s saying that "brotherhood" as practiced by the establishment wasn't about equality. It was about noblesse oblige. It was about the "superior" classes being "nice" to the "inferior" ones for a limited-time engagement before returning to the status quo.
Basically, it's the 1965 version of a corporate "Inclusion" slideshow that happens once a year while the pay gap stays exactly where it is.
Why "Everybody Hates the Jews" Still Stings
The most famous—or infamous—segment of the Tom Lehrer National Brotherhood Week lyrics is the religious breakdown:
"Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics / And the Catholics hate the Protestants / And the Hindus hate the Muslims / And everybody hates the Jews."
Lehrer, who described himself as "Jewish by ancestry" but more into the delicatessen than the synagogue, was pointing out the universal scapegoat. In performances, this line usually got the biggest laugh. Why? Because it’s the "in-group" admitting to the "out-group" reality.
It’s uncomfortable. It's supposed to be. Satire works when it makes the audience realize they are the ones being mocked. When the crowd at the Hungry i nightclub in San Francisco laughed at those lines, they were acknowledging the absurdity of a "Brotherhood Week" in a world where these tensions were—and are—fundamental.
The Legacy of a Math Professor's Sarcasm
Lehrer eventually quit the music business. He famously said that "political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."
He went back to teaching math at UC Santa Cruz.
But the song stayed. In 2020, Lehrer did something almost unheard of: he put all his lyrics and music into the public domain. He just gave them away. He wanted them to be used.
If you're looking to understand why we still struggle with "performative" activism, go watch the grainy footage of him at the piano. Look at the smirk. The Tom Lehrer National Brotherhood Week lyrics serve as a reminder that you can't fix systemic hatred with a calendar event.
Next Steps for the Curious:
- Listen to the original: Check out the 1965 album That Was the Year That Was. The live recording captures the audience's nervous energy perfectly.
- Read the history: Look up the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ). They still exist, though they’ve moved far beyond the "Brotherhood Week" gimmickry of the 1940s.
- Analyze the rhyme: Pay attention to how he rhymes "Puerto Ricans" with "very chic-ans" (stylistically). It’s a masterclass in songwriting structure used for subversion.