# Tom Lehrer - George Murphy intro? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 7, 2002, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-george-murphy-intro/131180 "2002-10-07T13:19:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-george-murphy-intro/131180/1 "2002-10-07T13:19:48Z")
Love Tom Lehrer’s music dearly, but at this point, some of them really need ‘subtitles-for-the-(then)-current-events-impaired’. Like [George Murphy](http://bridge.anglia.ac.uk/~systimk/Humour/Lehrer/Tw3.Html#GeorgeMurphy) The verbal intro to the song: Massachussetts had three senators? Obivously a joke, but why? Some ex-senator shooting his mouth off as if he was still elected? Would someone with a knowledge of 1964 MA history please explain this to a non-Massite? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-george-murphy-intro/131180/2 "2002-10-07T14:12:24Z")
It was probably a reference to Bobby Kennedy. He was elected senator from New York in 1965, but he’d spent most of his life in Massachusetts and few considered him a New Yorker. ---
**Author:** ![I\_am\_Sparticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@I\_am\_Sparticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_am_Sparticus)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lehrer-george-murphy-intro/131180/3 "2002-10-07T15:43:49Z")
Definitely a Bobby Kennedy reference. George Murphy was an actor turned California “Tap Dancing” Senator, inspiring the line: “now we’ve got a Senator who can really sing and dance”