The latter method was used by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to control pigeon populations in Boston public areas during the 1950s.

[6] The pianist hired for an orchestral version of the song, arranged and conducted by Richard Hayman with vocals by Lehrer, fell off his bench when he heard the title.

Believing that a recent (1957) film adaptation of Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex had failed at the box office because it did not have such a song, he wrote this one in ragtime style.

[12] This song is prefaced by a lengthy commentary about the (fictional) Dr. Samuel Gall, who gained fame and fortune from his "invention" of the gallbladder.

Lehrer explains that the Army "didn't have no official song" when he started basic training; he wrote this one in an attempt to remedy the situation.