When Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize, satire died'

'When Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize, satire died'. It was satirist musician cum mathematician, Tom Lehrer who gave that as his reason for stopping writing satire in 1967. As those words seem to find new resonance even today, we revisit Todd S Purdum’s Guardian article from the year 2000, when he went to visit the reclusive genius. ​