"You Shall Count, Mein Schnitzel..."

Those of you who (like us) are frequent (daily) Sesame Street watchers are of course familiar with the Count's "Number of the Day" song. It's a bit where the Count sings a lilting waltz, counting up until the Countess (and Robert) yell "SCHTAAAAAAAP!" When she yells it, that number is the number of the day.

(Boy, when you explain it, it sounds really stupid. But trust me, it's not.)

Well, the SCHTAAAAAP usually comes somewhere in the mid-teens, and Emily and I could never remember the words to the end of the song. (We'd only seen it get all the way to 20 once.) I searched the Internet for the lyrics; found nothing. Emily, the information professional, searched the Internet and found nothing. Finally, Thursday morning, the Count made it to twenty -- disappointing Robert, who loves to yell SCHTAAAAAP. But that meant it was on the DVR, which meant we could now display the lyrics here for all the blog world to see.

(Count) Hit it, Mike!
Number of the day,
Number of the day,
Number of the day, of the day, of the day, (hey hey hey)
Is it 1?
Is it 2?
Is it 3?
Is it 4?
Is it 5?
Is it 6?
Is it 7?
Will be great... if it's 8,
And divine... if it's 9,
Or 10,
Or even 11...
Could it be 12,
Or maybe 13,
Or even 14... can begin a beguine...
Is it 15?
16?
Sweet 17?
If not 18,
19 is plenty
(Countess) I see what you mean, but it isn't 19...
(Count) In that case, the number is 20!

So there you go. And next time someone's searching for the lyrics so you can get them out of your head, I'm glad we could help.