Famed musical satirist Tom Lehrer passes away at 97

Tom Lehrer, the acclaimed humourist and pianist whose satirical songs made him one of America’s favourite prophets of doom before he retreated to academia, has died, US media reported Sunday. He was 97.

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The singer-songwriter died on Saturday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his friend David Herder said, according to The New York Times.

Lehrer's sardonic numbers, backed up by a dazzling prowess at the piano that reflected his love for uptempo Broadway show tunes, enchanted audiences in the 1950s and 1960s.

But Lehrer was always much more than the sum of his parts. A child prodigy, he graduated from Harvard at 19 and later taught at the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Well ahead of his time on issues like pollution and nuclear proliferation, Lehrer made his mark with biting humour and zany rhymes.