Christopher Cerf
Encyclopedia
Christopher Cerf is a U.S.
author, composer-lyricist, voice actor, and record and television producer. He is known for his musical contributions to Sesame Street
, for co-creating and co-producing the award-winning PBS literacy education television program Between the Lions
, and for his humorous articles and books.
His father was co-founder of Random House
, publisher, editor and TV panelist, Bennett Cerf
. His mother was journalist and children's book publisher, Phyllis Fraser
.
television program, most notably as a regular contributor of music and lyrics, and as the producer of many of its music albums. In the process, he has won two Grammy Awards and three Emmy Awards for songwriting and music production. Since writing and performing his first song for Sesame Street, "Count It Higher" (1972), Cerf has written or co-written over 200 songs featured on the program, including "Put Down the Duckie
", "The Word Is No", "Dance Myself to Sleep", "Monster in the Mirror
", and parody songs as "Born To Add", "Letter B", "Wet Paint", and "Furry Happy Monsters". Cerf also played a pivotal role in the ongoing funding of Sesame Street, founding and serving as the original editor-in-chief of Sesame Workshop
's books, records, and toys division.
In addition to his contributions to Sesame Street, Cerf’s musical material has appeared on Saturday Night Live
, The National Lampoon Radio Hour
, The Electric Company
, Square One Television, Between the Lions
, and in numerous Muppet productions, and his songs have been performed by such stars as Paul Simon
, Ray Charles
, Johnny Cash
, R.E.M., James Taylor
, Tony Bennett
, Dixie Chicks
, Tracy Chapman
, Carol Channing
, Randy Travis
, The Four Tops, Melissa Etheridge
, Smokey Robinson
, Bonnie Raitt
, Wynton Marsalis
, Little Richard
, B.B. King, Jimmy Buffett
, Bart Simpson
, and the Metropolitan Opera
's José Carreras
—not to mention the blond, curly-haired Muppet character from Sesame Street who is his namesake and the lead singer of the rock group "Chrissy and the Alphabeats."
(co-founded by his father in 1927), where he worked with such diverse authors as George Plimpton
, Andy Warhol
, Abbie Hoffman
, Ray Bradbury
, Richard Fariña
, and Dr. Seuss
. In 1993, Cerf renewed his ties to Random House when he assumed the role of Chairman of the Modern Library
's Board of Advisors.
& Friends' Free To Be...A Family book, album and TV special. The book reached #1 on The New York Times
bestseller list within a week of its publication in 1987, and the show received a prime-time Emmy as the year's outstanding children's special.
Cerf and Thomas recently collaborated again, co-editing and co-producing Thanks & Giving: All Year Long
, a book and CD about generosity and sharing (and their polar opposites, selfishness and thoughtlessness). Royalties from the project, for which Thomas and Cerf won a 2006 Grammy Award
, go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
, founded by Thomas’s father, Danny Thomas
, in 1962.
, the children's literacy series that his company, Sirius Thinking, Ltd., created for PBS. Between the Lions has twice won the Television Critics’ Award as the nation’s outstanding children’s television program, and, in its six seasons on the air, the show has amassed six Emmy Awards. (In 2006, Between the Lions was nominated for three more Emmys, including Outstanding Children’s Show.) In two independent studies, conducted by the University of Kansas
and Mississippi State University
, the program has also demonstrated success in helping kids – including those at the highest risk of literacy failure – to learn how to read.
, Cerf continues to cement his role in the history of children's educational programming by producing fun educational shows for children. Cerf is currently the co-Creator (with Norman Stiles
and Louise Gikow), Executive Producer and Writer of the new PBS Kids
show Lomax, the Hound of Music
. The show, which debuted in the winter of 2008, is a new children's series featuring "a good-natured, melody-obsessed puppet pooch named Lomax, his fluffy feline sidekick Delta, and their human companion, Amy, on a tune-filled train ride crisscrossing the musical landscape of America. With the help - and full participation - of real kids on the train, on location, and the viewers at home, Lomax and his friends doggedly pursue their mutual passion: tracking down the wonderful songs that form the heart of our nation's diverse musical heritage."
In addition to being fun for the whole family, the show has true educational credentials. Aware that many American children do not receive any formal musical education, Cerf, Stiles and Gikow based Lomax on the music education curriculum created by the music educator John Feierabend, Ph.D. Feierabend's curriculum has been extensively researched and shown to increase children's musical ability and intelligence. It includes appearances by music notables such as Larry Campbell
and Tom Chapin
.
The show is currently in its first season and raising funds to produce a second season as soon as possible.
, George Plimpton
and Rusty Unger the journalistic parody Not the New York Times
.
The Experts Speak, the "compendium of authoritative misinformation" that Cerf co-authored with Victor Navasky
in 1984, has recently been reissued. In 1986, Cerf collaborated with National Lampoon colleague Henry Beard
on The Pentagon Catalog: Ordinary Products at Extraordinary Prices, which offered readers the historic opportunity to obtain a free hex nut—valued at $2,043 by the McDonnell Douglas
Corporation—with every copy they purchased. (The book has a die-cut hole in its front cover and first few pages: the book was sold in clear plastic shrink wrap
with a steel hex nut inside this hole, slightly less than flush with the cover. The shrink wrap displayed the hex nut and prevented it from falling out before the book was purchased.) The Official Politically Correct Dictionary, also written with Beard, first appeared in 1992.
In 2008, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of George W. Bush
's victory speech aboard the U.S.S. Lincoln, Cerf again collaborated with Victor Navasky to produce Mission Accomplished! based on America's military presence in Iraq.
reported that various musicians were coordinating their objections to the use of their music as a technique for softening up captives
.
The songs used were primarily Heavy Metal
, but also included songs from Sesame Street. The Associated Press reported that Cerf "...was horrified to learn songs from the children's TV show were used in interrogations."
Interviews
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author, composer-lyricist, voice actor, and record and television producer. He is known for his musical contributions to Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
, for co-creating and co-producing the award-winning PBS literacy education television program Between the Lions
Between the Lions
Between the Lions is a PBS Kids' puppet show designed to promote reading. The show is a co-production between WGBH in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with Mississippi Public Broadcasting, in Mississippi. The show has won seven Daytime Emmy awards between 2001 and...
, and for his humorous articles and books.
His father was co-founder of Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, publisher, editor and TV panelist, Bennett Cerf
Bennett Cerf
Bennett Alfred Cerf was a publisher and co-founder of Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show What's My Line?.-Biography:Bennett Cerf...
. His mother was journalist and children's book publisher, Phyllis Fraser
Phyllis Fraser
Phyllis Fraser Cerf Wagner was an American actress, journalist, and children's book publisher, and the co-founder of Beginner Books.-Early life:...
.
Musical compositions
Since its first season in 1970, Cerf has played a significant role in the creation and production of the Sesame StreetSesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
television program, most notably as a regular contributor of music and lyrics, and as the producer of many of its music albums. In the process, he has won two Grammy Awards and three Emmy Awards for songwriting and music production. Since writing and performing his first song for Sesame Street, "Count It Higher" (1972), Cerf has written or co-written over 200 songs featured on the program, including "Put Down the Duckie
Hoots the Owl
Hoots the Owl was a character on the children's television program, Sesame Street, performed by Kevin Clash. He was an owl that plays a saxophone...
", "The Word Is No", "Dance Myself to Sleep", "Monster in the Mirror
Wubba Wubba Wubba
Wubba Wubba Wubba is the chorus of the Sesame Street song "Monster in the Mirror" written by Christopher Cerf and Norman Stiles in 1989...
", and parody songs as "Born To Add", "Letter B", "Wet Paint", and "Furry Happy Monsters". Cerf also played a pivotal role in the ongoing funding of Sesame Street, founding and serving as the original editor-in-chief of Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop , is a Worldwide American non-profit organization behind the production of several educational children's programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world...
's books, records, and toys division.
In addition to his contributions to Sesame Street, Cerf’s musical material has appeared on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, The National Lampoon Radio Hour
The National Lampoon Radio Hour
The National Lampoon Radio Hour was a comedy radio show which was created, produced and initially written by staff from National Lampoon magazine. The show ran weekly, for a little over a year, from November 17, 1973 to December 28, 1974...
, The Electric Company
The Electric Company
The Electric Company is an educational American children's television series that was produced by the Children's Television Workshop for PBS in the United States. PBS broadcast 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971 to April 15, 1977...
, Square One Television, Between the Lions
Between the Lions
Between the Lions is a PBS Kids' puppet show designed to promote reading. The show is a co-production between WGBH in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with Mississippi Public Broadcasting, in Mississippi. The show has won seven Daytime Emmy awards between 2001 and...
, and in numerous Muppet productions, and his songs have been performed by such stars as Paul Simon
Paul Simon
Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
, R.E.M., James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, Dixie Chicks
Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks are an American country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines...
, Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles "Fast Car", "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Give Me One Reason" and "Telling Stories". She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.-Biography:Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland,...
, Carol Channing
Carol Channing
Carol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards , a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination...
, Randy Travis
Randy Travis
Randy Travis is an American country music singer and actor. Since 1985, he has recorded 20 studio albums and charted more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, 22 of which were number one hits...
, The Four Tops, Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician.Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals...
, Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy...
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
, Little Richard
Little Richard
Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...
, B.B. King, Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett
James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...
, Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
, and the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
's José Carreras
José Carreras
Josep Maria Carreras i Coll , better known as José Carreras , is a Spanish Catalan tenor particularly known for his performances in the operas of Verdi and Puccini...
—not to mention the blond, curly-haired Muppet character from Sesame Street who is his namesake and the lead singer of the rock group "Chrissy and the Alphabeats."
1963–70: Cerf at Random House
Before joining Sesame Street, Cerf spent eight years as a senior editor at Random HouseRandom House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
(co-founded by his father in 1927), where he worked with such diverse authors as George Plimpton
George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.-Early life:...
, Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, Abbie Hoffman
Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ....
, Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
, Richard Fariña
Richard Fariña
Richard George Fariña was an American writer and folksinger.-Early years and education:Richard Fariña was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Cuban and Irish descent. He grew up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn and attended Brooklyn Technical High School...
, and Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone....
. In 1993, Cerf renewed his ties to Random House when he assumed the role of Chairman of the Modern Library
Modern Library
The Modern Library is a publishing company. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, it was purchased in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer...
's Board of Advisors.
Collaborations with Marlo Thomas
One of Christopher Cerf's best-known projects was the editing and production of Marlo ThomasMarlo Thomas
Margaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
& Friends' Free To Be...A Family book, album and TV special. The book reached #1 on The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
bestseller list within a week of its publication in 1987, and the show received a prime-time Emmy as the year's outstanding children's special.
Cerf and Thomas recently collaborated again, co-editing and co-producing Thanks & Giving: All Year Long
Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long
Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long is an album of songs and spoken-word selections by entertainment personalities and others, and is intended as a companion to the anthology book of the same name....
, a book and CD about generosity and sharing (and their polar opposites, selfishness and thoughtlessness). Royalties from the project, for which Thomas and Cerf won a 2006 Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
, go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a leading pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children's catastrophic diseases. It is located in Memphis, Tennessee. It is a nonprofit medical corporation chartered as a 501 tax-exempt organization under IRS regulations.In...
, founded by Thomas’s father, Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy . He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
, in 1962.
Between the Lions
Currently, Cerf serves as Executive Producer, and Music and Audio Producer, of Between the LionsBetween the Lions
Between the Lions is a PBS Kids' puppet show designed to promote reading. The show is a co-production between WGBH in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with Mississippi Public Broadcasting, in Mississippi. The show has won seven Daytime Emmy awards between 2001 and...
, the children's literacy series that his company, Sirius Thinking, Ltd., created for PBS. Between the Lions has twice won the Television Critics’ Award as the nation’s outstanding children’s television program, and, in its six seasons on the air, the show has amassed six Emmy Awards. (In 2006, Between the Lions was nominated for three more Emmys, including Outstanding Children’s Show.) In two independent studies, conducted by the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
and Mississippi State University
Mississippi State University
The Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science commonly known as Mississippi State University is a land-grant university located in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States, partially in the town of Starkville and partially in an unincorporated area...
, the program has also demonstrated success in helping kids – including those at the highest risk of literacy failure – to learn how to read.
Lomax, the Hound of Music
Along with Between the LionsBetween the Lions
Between the Lions is a PBS Kids' puppet show designed to promote reading. The show is a co-production between WGBH in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with Mississippi Public Broadcasting, in Mississippi. The show has won seven Daytime Emmy awards between 2001 and...
, Cerf continues to cement his role in the history of children's educational programming by producing fun educational shows for children. Cerf is currently the co-Creator (with Norman Stiles
Norman Stiles
Norman Stiles is a television writer, best known for his work on the show Sesame Street from 1971 until approximately 1995. As part of the Sesame Street writing team, he received eight Daytime Emmy Awards.-External links:*...
and Louise Gikow), Executive Producer and Writer of the new PBS Kids
PBS Kids
PBS Kids is the brand for children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States founded in 1993. As with all PBS programming, PBS Kids programming is non-commercial. It is aimed at children ages 2 to 10...
show Lomax, the Hound of Music
Lomax, the Hound of Music
Lomax, the Hound of Music is a PBS Kids TV series that brings together puppets, humans, live music and animation to promote musical education for children ages 3–7...
. The show, which debuted in the winter of 2008, is a new children's series featuring "a good-natured, melody-obsessed puppet pooch named Lomax, his fluffy feline sidekick Delta, and their human companion, Amy, on a tune-filled train ride crisscrossing the musical landscape of America. With the help - and full participation - of real kids on the train, on location, and the viewers at home, Lomax and his friends doggedly pursue their mutual passion: tracking down the wonderful songs that form the heart of our nation's diverse musical heritage."
In addition to being fun for the whole family, the show has true educational credentials. Aware that many American children do not receive any formal musical education, Cerf, Stiles and Gikow based Lomax on the music education curriculum created by the music educator John Feierabend, Ph.D. Feierabend's curriculum has been extensively researched and shown to increase children's musical ability and intelligence. It includes appearances by music notables such as Larry Campbell
Larry Campbell (musician)
Larry Campbell is a multi-instrumentalist who plays many stringed instruments in genres including country, folk, blues, and rock...
and Tom Chapin
Tom Chapin
Tom Chapin is a Grammy Award-winning American musician, entertainer, singer-songwriter and storyteller.-Biography:Chapin attended State University of New York at Plattsburgh and graduated in 1966. From 1971-1976, he hosted a TV show called Make a Wish...
.
The show is currently in its first season and raising funds to produce a second season as soon as possible.
Humorous writings
Christopher Cerf is perhaps best known to the general public for his work as an author and satirist. In 1970, he helped launch the National Lampoon, serving as a Contributing Editor from its first issue until the mid-1970s, and in 1978, he co-conceived and co-edited with Tony HendraTony Hendra
Tony Hendra is an English satirist and writer who has worked mostly in the United States. Educated at St Albans School and Cambridge University, he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights revue in 1962, alongside John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.-Career:In 1964 Hendra...
, George Plimpton
George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.-Early life:...
and Rusty Unger the journalistic parody Not the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
The Experts Speak, the "compendium of authoritative misinformation" that Cerf co-authored with Victor Navasky
Victor Navasky
Victor Saul Navasky is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was editor of The Nation from 1978 until 1995, and its publisher and editorial director 1995 to 2005. In November 2005 he became the publisher emeritus...
in 1984, has recently been reissued. In 1986, Cerf collaborated with National Lampoon colleague Henry Beard
Henry Beard
Henry N. Beard is an American humorist, one of the founders of the magazine National Lampoon and the author of several best-selling books.-Biography:...
on The Pentagon Catalog: Ordinary Products at Extraordinary Prices, which offered readers the historic opportunity to obtain a free hex nut—valued at $2,043 by the McDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturer and defense contractor, producing a number of famous commercial and military aircraft. It formed from a merger of McDonnell Aircraft and Douglas Aircraft in 1967. McDonnell Douglas was based at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport...
Corporation—with every copy they purchased. (The book has a die-cut hole in its front cover and first few pages: the book was sold in clear plastic shrink wrap
Shrink wrap
Shrink wrap, also shrinkwrap or shrink film, is a material made up of polymer plastic film. When heat is applied it shrinks tightly over whatever it is covering. Heat can be applied with a hand held heat gun or the product and film can pass through a heat tunnel on a conveyor.-Composition:The...
with a steel hex nut inside this hole, slightly less than flush with the cover. The shrink wrap displayed the hex nut and prevented it from falling out before the book was purchased.) The Official Politically Correct Dictionary, also written with Beard, first appeared in 1992.
In 2008, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's victory speech aboard the U.S.S. Lincoln, Cerf again collaborated with Victor Navasky to produce Mission Accomplished! based on America's military presence in Iraq.
Objected to the use of his music to break captive's will
On 9 December 2008, the Associated PressAssociated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported that various musicians were coordinating their objections to the use of their music as a technique for softening up captives
Music torture
Music has been used in psychological operations. The term music torture is sometimes used by critics of the practice of playing loud music incessantly to prisoners or people besieged....
.
The songs used were primarily Heavy Metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
, but also included songs from Sesame Street. The Associated Press reported that Cerf "...was horrified to learn songs from the children's TV show were used in interrogations."
Selected bibliography
- Alligator (Harvard Lampoon parody of Goldfinger), 1962
- The Vintage Anthology of Science Fantasy (editor), 1966
- "The World's Largest Cheese," 1968
- Not the New York Times (co-editor, with Larry Durocher, Josh Feigenbaum, Tony HendraTony HendraTony Hendra is an English satirist and writer who has worked mostly in the United States. Educated at St Albans School and Cambridge University, he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights revue in 1962, alongside John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.-Career:In 1964 Hendra...
, George PlimptonGeorge PlimptonGeorge Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.-Early life:...
, and Rusty Unger), 1978 - The 80's: A Look Back at the Tumultuous Decade 1980-1989The 80's: A Look Back at the Tumultuous Decade 1980-1989The 80s: A Look Back at the Tumultuous Decade 1980-1989 is a humor book published in 1979.It was edited by Tony Hendra, Christopher Cerf and Peter Elbling, with art direction by Michael Gross. Contributors to the book included Henry Beard, Valerie Curtin, Amy Ephron, Jeff Greenfield, Abbie Hoffman,...
(co-editor, with Tony HendraTony HendraTony Hendra is an English satirist and writer who has worked mostly in the United States. Educated at St Albans School and Cambridge University, he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights revue in 1962, alongside John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.-Career:In 1964 Hendra...
and Peter Elbling), 1979 (ISBN 0-89480-122-8, ISBN 0-89480-119-8 [paperback]) - The Experts Speak: The Definitive Compendium of Authoritative Misinformation (with Victor NavaskyVictor NavaskyVictor Saul Navasky is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was editor of The Nation from 1978 until 1995, and its publisher and editorial director 1995 to 2005. In November 2005 he became the publisher emeritus...
), 1984 (ISBN 0-394-71334-6 [paperback], ISBN 0-394-52061-0 [hardcover]), 1990, 1998 (ISBN 0-679-77806-3) - The Pentagon Catalog: Ordinary Products at Extraordinary Prices (with Henry BeardHenry BeardHenry N. Beard is an American humorist, one of the founders of the magazine National Lampoon and the author of several best-selling books.-Biography:...
), 1986 (ISBN 0-89480-036-1) - Marlo Thomas & Friends: Free to Be... a Family (co-editor, with Marlo ThomasMarlo ThomasMargaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
), 1987 - The Book of Sequels (with Henry BeardHenry BeardHenry N. Beard is an American humorist, one of the founders of the magazine National Lampoon and the author of several best-selling books.-Biography:...
, Sarah DurkeeSarah DurkeeSarah Durkee is a singer-songwriter, a television lyricist and screenwriter, and an author and humorist.Durkee and her husband Paul Jacobs are the creators of the theme song for the popular PBS literacy education series, Between the Lions, and have also written many other musical numbers for the...
, and Sean Kelly), 1990 - Small Fires: Letters From the Soviet People to OgonyokOgonyokOgoniok is one of the oldest weekly illustrated magazines in Russia, issued since . It was re-established in the Soviet Union in 1923 by Mikhail Koltsov....
Magazine, 1987-1990 (co-editor, with Marina Albee), 1990 (ISBN 0-671-69397-2, ISBN 0-671-72876-8 [paperback]) - The Gulf War Reader: History, Documents, Opinions (co-editor, with Micah L. Sifry), 1991 (ISBN 0-8129-1947-5)
- The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook (with Henry BeardHenry BeardHenry N. Beard is an American humorist, one of the founders of the magazine National Lampoon and the author of several best-selling books.-Biography:...
), 1992 (ISBN 0-679-74113-5), 1993 - The Official Sexually Correct Dictionary and Handbook (with Henry BeardHenry BeardHenry N. Beard is an American humorist, one of the founders of the magazine National Lampoon and the author of several best-selling books.-Biography:...
), 1995 (ISBN 0-679-75641-8) - The Iraq War Reader: History, Documents, Opinions (co-editor, with Micah L. Sifry), 2003 (ISBN 0-7432-5347-7)
- Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks and Giving: All Year LongMarlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year LongMarlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long is an album of songs and spoken-word selections by entertainment personalities and others, and is intended as a companion to the anthology book of the same name....
(co-editor, with Marlo ThomasMarlo ThomasMargaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
), 2004 (ISBN 0-689-87732-3) - Blackie: The Horse Who Stood Still (with Paige Peterson (artist)Paige Peterson (artist)Paige Matthews Peterson is an American painter and illustrator specializing in acrylic landscapes, portraits, and figural images. She is the former daughter-in-law of billionaire and former US Secretary of Commerce Peter George Peterson. She now lives and works in New York City and East Hampton,...
), 2006 (ISBN 1-59962-017-0) - Mission Accomplished! (or How We Won the War in Iraq), (with Victor S. Navasky), 2008 (ISBN 1-4165-6993-6)
External links
- Profile of Christopher Cerf in The New York Times, February 1, 2004
- Muppet Wiki: Christopher Cerf, detailed Sesame Street credits
- A selection of songs and music videos from Between the Lions
- Christopher Cerf at Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site
- "Americans United to Beat the Dutch" pages at the official National Lampoon Web Site
Interviews
- Audio interview of Christopher Cerf by Linda Wertheimer of NPR about The Iraq War Reader and the U.S. military's use of Sesame Street songs as a psychological weapon during the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners, June 7, 2003
- Audio interview of Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky by Noah Adams of All Things Considered about The Experts Speak, October 9, 1998
- 2008 Interview with Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky about their book, Mission Accomplished! (or How We Won the War in Iraq), on Bill Moyers' Journal