Count von Count

Count von Count
Sesame Street character
First appearance	November 27, 1972
Portrayed by	Jerry Nelson (1972–2012) Matt Vogel (2013–present)
Information
Aliases	The Count Count
Species	Muppet vampire
Gender	Male
Nationality	American

Count von Count, often known simply as "the Count" or "Count", is one of the Muppet characters on Sesame Street. The Count is a vampire modeled after Bela Lugosi's interpretation of Count Dracula.

Description and personality

The Count's main role in the show is to educate children about simple mathematical concepts, most notably, as his name implies, counting. The Count loves counting so much that he often will count anything and everything regardless of size or amount, and the other characters can sometimes be quite annoyed by this. In Episode 0746 (Season 6, 1975), for example, he hired Ernie to answer his telephone so that he wouldn't be bothered while looking for things to count and then impulsively forbade him from answering the first call that came through until it was too late, because he wanted to count all 5 times the telephone rang, and when the person on the other end tried calling back, a melee soon followed (he did warn Ernie that the job "wouldn't be easy"). In Episode 2283 (Season 18, 1987), on his first day of serving as an elevator operator, he foolishly neglected to let Kermit the Frog out at his selected floor, because he wanted to count all 10 floors in the building, and was unable to stop until he finished. And in Episode 3489 (Season 27, 1996), he tricked Oscar the Grouch into saying the word "no" 17 times, by continuously knocking on his trash can and prodding him to help the Count find something to count 17 of. The Count can occasionally lose his temper when somebody or something interrupts his counting, or feel sad when there is nothing around for him to count. But apart from these, he is typically portrayed as friendly and cheerful.

The Count lives in an old cobweb-infested castle which he shares with many bats and a cat named Fatatita. He spent his childhood in the Carpathian Mountains, which makes it clear he is Romanian. Perhaps not surprisingly, he speaks in an accent from that area of the world. His pet bats tend to have Slavic names, such as Grisha, Misha, Sasha, and Tatiana. He views the bats as his "children" and sometimes counts them. As a running gag, his castle has a squeaky door, which visitors always point out, only for the Count to instantly change the subject to his counting addiction. The Count drives a special car, the Countmobile, designed to look like a bat. (cf. Batmobile)

The Count has been shown with a number of girlfriends, who tend to be vampire Countesses. These include Countess von Backwards (debuting in Sesame Street's 28th season) who counts backwards; Countess Dahling von Dahling (debuted in the 12th season); and one simply called "The Countess" (first appearing in season 8). The von Count family includes an unnamed brother and mother as well as an Uncle Uno and grandparents.

According to BBC News, during an interview with the More or Less team's Tim Harford, the Count said his favorite number is 34,969. The Count was quoted as saying, "It's a square-root thing.": 34,969 is a perfect square, being 187².^[1]

The Count mentions 2:30 at any chance he can get and often makes jokes about it. This number is likely a tooth-related pun ("Tooth Hurty").^[2] During the afternoon, his segments of the show always come on at exactly 2:30 p.m. or during the "fashionably late" segment, which airs at 2:31.

The Count's signature song is "The Song of the Count". The song was written by Jeff Moss as a traditional Hungarian Csárdás. He might not be a vampire in the classic sense, given that he has been seen with a reflection in a mirror, and he has no problem with being out in the daylight.

Character history

The Count debuted on Sesame Street in Episode 0406, the premiere of Season 4 (1972–73), and he was conceived by Norman Stiles, who wrote the first script. In the Count's very first scene, Ernie told Bert to watch his pyramid of blocks and make sure nothing happened to it while he got his camera to take a picture of the pyramid. The Count then walked by, counted the blocks, and in the process, took Ernie's pyramid apart, before Bert could stop him. He then counted the blocks again, moving them back into place. Bert yelled at the Count for moving Ernie's blocks, so the Count counted the blocks again, taking the pyramid apart. The Count was performed by Jerry Nelson, who brought the character to life. He is made out of the Large Lavender Live Hand Anything Muppet pattern. Before a counting session, he originally greeted the viewers (and the characters) by saying, "Greetings. I am the Count. They call me the Count, because I LOVE to count... things." Nelson voiced the Count until his death on August 23, 2012. At that time, Matt Vogel had taken over performing the puppetry of the Count. Upon Nelson's death, Vogel started performing both the Count's voice and puppetry. His first performance of the Count was in a YouTube video called "Counting the Yous in YouTube", a song about the celebration of Sesame Street's YouTube channel reaching 1 billion views.

Despite the fact that the Count is now friendly and non-threatening, in his earliest appearances from 1972 to 1975, he showed a much more villainous nature. To begin a counting session, the Count would enter the scene holding his cape over his face in an exaggerated Lugosi-style pose before reciting his greeting, and he was often accompanied by creepy organ music. He wouldn't even let anything interrupt him while counting, and to prevent this, he shouted "SILENCE!" and used hypnotic powers to temporarily stun people with a wave of his hands (although he sometimes did this without shouting anything, and even did it for no reason, occasionally).^[3] And after counting, he would laugh maniacally, "MWAH HA HA HA HA HAAAA!!!", while thunder and lightning flashed in moody colors, and then he would exit the scene, once again, holding his cape over his face. This aspect of the Count's personality, however, was abruptly ended in 1975 out of concern that it might frighten younger viewers, and this practice was changed, as he became friendlier, did not have hypnotic powers, did not enter or exit the scene holding his cape over his face, and interacted more pleasantly with the characters (both live actors and Muppets). Also, the creepy organ music was removed, the lightning flashes were changed from moodily colored to normally colored, and his laugh was changed from a maniacal laugh to a more throaty, triumphant Lugosi-style laugh, "Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Belvedere Castle, in New York's Central Park, was used for exterior establishing shots of the Count's castle on the show.

The Count made an appearance in the film The Muppets Take Manhattan at Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy's wedding, then in the Sesame Street movies Follow That Bird (1985) and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999). Notably, the Count appeared on-screen during the closing credits of Follow That Bird where he proceeded to read and count the credits. He also said "Hi, Mom." when a credit appears for Joan Ganz Cooney, creator of Sesame Street.^[4]

In Season 33, the Count got a daily segment on Sesame Street, simply called The Number of the Day.

Internationally

• In the Dutch version of the series, Sesamstraat, the Count's name is Graaf Tel (literally, "Count (nobleman) Count (process of counting)").
• In the French series 1, Rue Sésame, his name is Comte von Compte.
• In the German series Sesamstraße, his name is Graf Zahl (literally, "Count Number").
• In the Hebrew series Rechov Sumsum, his name is 'מר סופר', phonetically pronounced 'Mar Sofer', which literally means "Mr. Counter".
• In the Mexican series Plaza Sésamo, his name is Conde Contar (literally, "Count of Counting").
• In the Polish series Ulica Sezamkowa, his name is Liczyhrabia (literally, "Countcount").
• In the Portuguese series Rua Sésamo, his name is Conde de Contar (translated as "Count of Counting").
• In the Russian series Улица Сезам, his name is Graf Znak (Граф Знак) (translated as "symbol" or "sign" as the mathematical categories).
• In the Spanish series, Barrio Sésamo, his name is Conde Draco.
• In the Turkish series Susam Sokağı, his name is Sayıların Kontu (literally, "The Count of Numbers")

Appearances outside Sesame Street

• The Count appeared on a video package aired on the first episode of the Late Show with David Letterman that was shown after Letterman's emergency quintuple bypass operation. He appeared as a surgeon in an operating theater, counting "One bypass... AH AH AH! Two bypass..."
• The Count was interviewed in character on the BBC Radio 4 economics programme More or Less on December 11, 2009, where he mentioned his favorite number, 34969.
• He appeared on the Halloween edition of SportsCenter to count down the top ten trick plays of the 2010 college football season.
• He was a guest on Countdown with Keith Olbermann for the first anniversary episode.
• He was animated in Family Guy counting bats, then Peter Griffin asked if the Count had ever "done someone in." In a later episode, when he's dating Meg Griffin, he counts, "One nipple! Two nipples! Three..." and then beats a hasty disgusted retreat.
• He was also animated in The Simpsons, this time counting coconuts. Marge Simpson admits her dislike towards the Count. She gets upset and yells, "Go back to your own country!". In another episode, Homer Simpson and Count Dracula asked him where they could find Lisa Simpson and Edmund, who had run away together. The Count is also seen sucking Big Bird's blood. the Count also appears along with Elmo and Big Bird at the springefield ice show.
• In the Mormon Tabernacle Choir 2014 PBS Christmas Concert Keep Christmas with You, Tabernacle organist Richard Elliott along with the Count performed The Twelve Days of Christmas on the 7,667 pipe Conference center organ.
• He was a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers on March 27, 2015, to help out in the feature "This Week in Numbers".
• In the video game Plague Inc., an achievement references The Count, which is triggered when the player's vampire makes 123 victims in USA.
• An animated form of himself appears as Count Dracula in the "Yo Mama" series on YouTube. In one "Yo Mama So Fat" jokes, The Count contracts diabetes after sucking a fat woman's blood wherein he says "One..Two... Type 2 Diabetes" and makes his signature laugh before breaking down to despair by saying that it was never funny. A second fat joke depicts the fat woman's blood as Nutella and after sucking her blood once more wherein the show's host, Brody Foxx tastes the blood and compliments it, The Count announces that he forgot of his ailment and manically laughs before breaking down once more by stating that it was still not funny.
• In Cars 2, Mater's vampire disguise looks similar to the Count.
• He was interviewed in character by WIRED in a video released February 22, 2017. In the interview, he cannot decide on a single favorite number, and says he will be 6,523,728 years old "next October."^[5]
• The Count begins to count the cast members at the end in each Cedarmont Kids video.

In popular culture

The St. Paul Saints, an independent minor-league baseball team in St. Paul, Minnesota known for unique and sometimes over-the-top promotions, announced that it would give away 2,500 bobblehead dolls dressed as the Count at its May 23, 2009 game. However, instead of the Count's regular head, this doll's head featured Al Franken on one side and Norm Coleman on the other, and was called "Count von Re-Count"—referring to the extraordinarily prolonged recount and legal battle surrounding the 2008 U.S. Senate election between the two men. The team made further jabs at the election during the game.^[6]

Australian rugby league football international Anthony Minichiello has been nicknamed 'The Count' due to his striking resemblance to the character.^[7]

The Black Library novel, Warhammer End Times: The Return of Nagash by Josh Reynolds features Count Nyktolos, inspired by the Count. The vampiric character wears a monocle, has "skin the colour of a bruise", a far too flat and wide head, with a mouth full of sharp teeth that stretches from ear to ear.

See also

• Arithmomania#In folklore and Vampire#Creating vampires for other vampires with a compulsion to count

Notes and references

External links

• Count von Count on Muppet Wiki