Count Von Count - Description

Description

The Count's main purpose is educating children on simple mathematical concepts, most notably counting. The Count has a love of counting; he will count anything and everything, regardless of size, amount, or how much annoyance he is causing the other Muppets or human cast. For instance, he once prevented Ernie from answering a telephone because he wanted to continue counting the number of rings. Another time, while serving as an elevator operator, he refused to let Kermit the Frog get out at his selected floor so he could count on every floor in the building. Another time he decides to have a sleepover at his good friends Bert and Ernie's basement apartment home; Bert gives Count his bed next to Ernie for the night; but when Count is unable to sleep Ernie suggests that he counts sheep but this ends up causing the Count's fun to get so loud that his counting sheep game while keeping Ernie up at night, ends up lasting until the next morning. When Bert wakes up to greet Count he says he had a blast with Ernie and asks for another sleepover but Bert is frightened when he sees an extremely tired unrested Ernie who is counting sheep to get rest but is acting like a mummy or crazy guy in the process.

The Count is very goofy, funny and friendly but can lose his temper or show displeasure for interruptions of counting; for example he once got upset with Cookie Monster because Cookie wanted to eat the apples that the Count wanted to count. The next time he saw Cookie Monster he was forced to let Cookie eat the apples after he counted them to prevent arguments. Another time when he has nothing to count he gets sad and almost cries until he finds an idea of counting his feelings inside of him thus making him happy again. Also in his early appearances for the first two years his old skit involved him appearing spooky, easily angered, counting and chuckling manically (Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!!!) and thunder and lightning would boom more loudly until parents wrote to Sesame Street saying that their kids were afraid of the Count; thus changing his attitude to his normal skit.

A typical role of the Count is him saying to the audience "Greetings it is I the Count. They call me the Count because I love to count things." Then he would find something to count and say "That is one (insert object here)" and go on until he would then smile after counting; and chuckle "Ah... ah... ah!" following a calm sound of thunder and lightning before continuing until he finds a reason to move on from his performance for the other cast.

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."

The Count mentions 2:30 at any chance he can get and often makes jokes about it. This number may represent an inside joke ("Tooth Hurty"). 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 has made several appearances besides the Muppets; he appeared in a TV special celebrating the first year of a news show Countdown with its' anchorman Keith Olbermann where he gave them a charm shaped like the number 1 while at the same time Sesame Street was celebrating its' 35th year in broadcast. He also has appeared in concerts, TV broadcasts etcetera.

The Count lives in an old, cobweb-infested castle which he shares with many bats. Sometimes he counts them. Some of the pet bats are named, including Grisha, Misha, Sasha, and Tatiana. He has a cat, Fatatita, as well. Sometimes he counts her. He also drives a special car designed in the features of a bat, named the Countmobile which he drives in the movie Follow That Bird! when going to find Big Bird (Role below)...

The Count has been shown with a number of girlfriends. Always a feminized version of the Count Muppet, they have included 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 named "The Countess" (first appearing in season 8). The von Count family also includes an unnamed brother and mother as well as an Uncle Uno and grandparents.

In the movie Follow That Bird!, when his good friend Big Bird is exiled from Sesame Street by a dodo family and flees his new home the Count searches for him in his Countmobile; on the way he joins in a song with the others about not giving up but comically gets off track of the song's point by singing about counting telephone poles and one time in the movie counts how many cars from Sesame Street are going to find Big Bird.

Jerry Nelson voiced the Count until his death on August 23, 2012. Matt Vogel started performing the puppetry of the Count, with Nelson still performing the voice until his death. Vogel will presumably start performing the Count, both voice and puppetry following Jerry's passing.