Posted on 03/30/2023 11:48:15 AM PDT by Borges
Mark Russell, a master of political satire who stood at a star-spangled piano and kept the cognoscenti in stitches for six decades with musical parodies and professorial tomfoolery that tweaked politicians and captured the silly side of Washington, died on Thursday at his home there. He was 90.
The cause was prostate cancer, his wife, Alison Russell, said.
With his deadpan solemnity, stars-and-stripes stage sets and fusty bow ties, Mr. Russell looked more like a senator than a comic. But as the capital merry-go-round spun its peccadilloes, scandals and ballyhooed promises, his jaunty baritone restored order with bipartisan japes and irreverent songs to deflate the preening ego and the Big Idea.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Saw his skit a few times and it seemed like he was always on PBS.
Wow, I just looked at his profile on Wikipedia two days ago.
He was fun to listen to.
I enjoyed watching him live in the lounge of the old Shoreham Hotel, back in the 1960’s. That was his regular gig.
and it seemed like he was always on PBS.
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Oh, that’s where the vast majority of his appearances were. I used to laugh at his stuff...before I truly became a conservative.
Hope he knew Yeshua.
Paste the gobbledegook below on your search line to hear Lehrer singing, "National Brotherhood Week." Y'all owe it to yourselves.
(And I'm sorry I don't remember FR's link code!)
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=tom+lehrer+national+brotherhood+week+youtube&t=brave&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DsEGRsE1Fubw
Huh, I thought he’d died a while back.🤨
are you sure you don’t mean the satirist Russell Baker?
Oops, I do believe you are right! Thanks for the correction. Faulty memory here.
I agree.
I rarely found his satiric songs remotely funny. All conventional inside the Beltway stuff that mocked us rubes in the sticks for electing Republicans to Congress.
Farewell, and thanks for the laughs...back when we could laugh at each other on a political level.
Funny guy back in the day before the snowflakes and woke arrived.
Was never a Russell fan. I liked Tom Lehrer who was much better at this schtick (though preferred Lehrer’s non-political songs - “The Vatican Rag” and “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” were the funniest songs I ever heard.)
RIP. I remember his PBS specials in the 80s. Doubt you could do that kind of thing today.
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