Talk:Count von Count

David Bowie

Was the Count based off of David Bowie? There is a distinctive physical resemblence (especially the lazy eye), and their singing voices are similar as well. And Bowie was topping the charts when the Count made his debut... hmm. UndeniablyJordan 15:35, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Naah, can't be, as David Bowie is British and Sesame Street is a US show... Seriously though: this might just be a coincidence. Bowie was way up in the charts routinely since about the end of the 60s. If, on the other hand, you know some authoritative sources backing your supposition, this really should be in the article, together with the relevant citations.--GrafZahl 09:16, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

of vs von

why von and not of? I only ever heard of... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.155.79.172 (talk) 21:55, 9 May 2012 (UTC)

Fan club

The following text was added by anon:

• The count's only known active fanclub today is located in Jerusalem, Israel in the school of Leyada. The club has different activities such as counting and worshiping the count.

I'm deleting it from the article because the information is hard to verify. Especially that the fan club should be the only known active seems somewhat dubious to me. Nevertheless, if Count fan clubs are for real, it should get a mention, I think.--GrafZahl 08:44, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

Mental Disorders sentence

That mental disorders paragraph (currently the second paragraph) has gotta' be bunk, if not vandalism. Anyone want to source it? If no one responds I'm gonna' delete it after a while. --Mrcolj 22:43, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Probably more like Original Research, if anything. It'd be interesting if a source could be found, though. Powers 02:32, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Picture

I am really not liking this picture. Would it really be that hard to get a screenshot of The Count, rather than a person dressed up as him with a fan. I'm not critising the photo, I just think one of him on Seasame Street would suit the article better.

I'll look for a screenshot and change the pic. Any objections? --Rachel Cakes 06:00, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Obviously, this never happened. But I agree. Ideally we should have a pic of the actual puppet. I'm going to see if I can fix this. - It doesn't stick. (talk) 18:27, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Alright, I'm going to have to read-up on uploading pix to Wikipedia as I've not done that before. If it proves to be too big a PITA, I might take a pass on it for now, but upon looking at the current pic's details I see that it is incorrectly labeled as Public Domain (it isn't). Better we find something suitable for Fair use. --- It doesn't stick. (talk) 18:37, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Eric Jacobson as Count ?

I think Eric Jacobson should take over as Count, when Jerry leaves Sesame Street. Why ? Because I want him performing more than just Frank's characters (if you heard his Guy Smiley, i'm sure you'd agree). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 4.229.57.239 (talk • contribs) .

If anything Matt Vogel should take over that character. -- 173.76.121.93 (talk) 21:38, 28 August 2012 (UTC)

And apparently, Matt Vogel did get the character!! He sounds exactly like Jerry Nelson!! -- 134.241.28.252 (talk) 15:00, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

Youtube

There should be some mention of the various 'parody' videos of The Count that have surfaced on youtube that show The Count's words 'censored', most notably the "Song of the Count censored" video by Lemon Demon.

Anonymous —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.191.144.220 (talk) 08:31, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, in actual F.A.C.T. I wish to dispute the notability of this video, especially in the context of what ought to be an encyclopaedic description of the character in question. AS the citation of youtube videos is a dubious and uncertain question anyway, I will remove this passage from the page until a consensus opinion deems it appropriate. (95.144.79.29 (talk) 20:17, 16 February 2010 (UTC))

Although I know many people who are aware of the video in question we do need more quantifiable proof of its notability. But that video is AMAZING!!! Thetictocmonkey 13:50, 3 April 2010 (UTC)

It's no different from Youtube Downfall parody videos being mentioned on the page about The Downfall —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.21.105.26 (talk) 18:42, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

References in Popular Culture

This section keeps getting disproportionately longer, bizarre, and obscure; not to mention entirely uncited and unverifiable. I think some sort of guidelines need to be established as to what is appropriate (what constitutes popular culture? must it be cited? considering there are thousands of Sesame Street parodies, do they all go here?). Thoughts, please? -Sme3 (talk) 12:34, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Association with vampire folklore

I was just reading the vampire article here on Wikipedia and found the following:

Other methods commonly practised in Europe included... placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains. Similar Chinese narratives state that if a vampire-like being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in myths from the Indian subcontinent as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings.

Would this information (which is cited in the vampire article) be relevant to this article? No signature (talk) 00:23, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

It's certainly a bit of interesting information; but is there any evidence that Norman Stiles and/or Jim Henson had this in mind when the character was created? It could just be a strange coincidence. There might be a way to work it into the article, but you'd need to carefully state how it is relevant. -Sme3 (talk) 00:47, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Why should there be evidence that this was intended? I think this "coincidence" is interesting. More importantly, this amazing connection between Count von Count and vampiric legend is fact. Artist intent is hardly ever regarded as important, meaning can be found whether the artist was aware or not.

As for the relevance, it is no more or less relevant than the "reflection in mirrors" remark, or the accent, or the cape, or any other measure of vampirocity. Sam Coskey (talk) 18:23, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

When the above comment was written, the section on "Influences and resemblances" had not yet been added. The article includes this information now, and is presented as a similarity (and possible coincidence) between Count von Count and other vampires -- as is the reflection part, etc. I think the article is fine as it is, don't you? -Sme3 (talk) 19:15, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Any image?

As mentioned in a previous review the picture had to be deleted because it was not a screenshot and so far there has not been another image added at all. There has got to be thousands out there so I think one should be put up soon. trainfan01 —Preceding undated comment added 03:04, 4 May 2010 (UTC).

It's just a shame, that's all

I think that the article would be greatly improved if the TOC read:

1. Description
2. History and evolution of the character on Sesame Street
3. Influences and resemblances

   AH AH AH AH AH!

4. Internationally
5. Appearances outside of Sesame Street
6. In popular culture
7. Notes and references
8. External links

   AH AH AH AH AH!

... but reluctantly accept that this will never happen. 82.6.102.118 (talk) 03:09, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

Oh, that would be beautiful but, you're right, it'll never happen.

"In the xx series yy, his name is zz..."

Can we move over to a table here instead of near-identical prose just with different countries? I really think a table would be appropriate here. -andy 217.50.43.173 (talk) 12:08, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Birthday?

If you do a quick Google, dozens of sites are claiming the count's birthday to be "Oct. 9, 1,830,653 B.C.". Is there any citation to back this up? Thx. -Ayeroxor (talk) 17:58, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Just for the record

"He spent his childhood in the Carpathian Mountains, which makes it clear he is Romanian. Perhaps not surprising, 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." Just for the record and for the majority that doesn't know: Romanians are not Slavs, neither was the fictitious Count Dracula nor the real Vlad Tepes. They chose Slavic names for his pets because they sound more familiar to the ordinary audience and it might have been pretty difficult coming up with four female Romanian names... ;.-)--87.184.134.186 (talk) 09:18, 30 September 2017 (UTC)

David Letterman

Article says

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..."[citation needed]

That episiode is on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkncCHefWKI and I flipped through it (didn't view the whole thing) and didn't see Count von Count. Robin Williams appears dressed up as a surgeon about 31 minutes in. Not going to revert yet but maybe someone has an update or correction. The Count supposedly was called in to assist with reporting vote totals after the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses[1] but I don't have a secondary source for that so who knows. 2601:648:8202:96B0:0:0:0:E118 (talk) 22:34, 5 February 2020 (UTC)

2:30

I removed the unsourced statements, "The Count mentions 2:30 at any chance he can get and often makes jokes about it. 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 problem with this is that "Sesame Street" didn't air at the same time on every PBS station, and this would only make sense if the show aired at 2 PM or possibly 2:30 PM. For example, when I was a child, "Sesame Street" aired on my local station at 4 PM daily, so it would have been impossible for the Count to appear at 2:30 PM. And now "Sesame Street" episodes debut on HBO MAX, which is a streaming service, so episodes don't air at any particular time of day. Only during the 2016-2020 HBO run could there have been a consistent time of day for the episodes to run, but even on HBO episodes would not run at the same time for everyone, due to time zones. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 06:32, 11 April 2021 (UTC)

Change the title back

The title really needs to be changed back, the character’s name is Count von Count, as he’s literally been saying for decades. —- 2601:18C:500:5DA0:5C6E:DC20:B3D3:B100 (talk) 21:52, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

 Done - Aoidh (talk) 22:00, 14 July 2021 (UTC)

Thanks for listening to me. —- 2601:18C:500:5DA0:B175:CFC6:82D9:8A3B (talk) 22:20, 18 July 2021 (UTC)

Requested move 27 November 2024

Count von Count → Count (Sesame Street) – A more appropriate name, prominently shown in the TV Show. 2605:B100:14C:FCAA:14DD:97D8:5A11:6CD (talk) 03:27, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

• Oppose - Per WP:NATURAL. "The Count" is more commonly used than Count von Count, but "Count" is not. From what I've seen online and looking through some clips and the show's website, when sources do refer to him it is either as The Count or Count Von Count, not just Count. Either way, a natural disambiguation should be preferred. - Aoidh (talk) 03:51, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

  To be clear though, while Count (Sesame Street) doesn't appear to be supported by reliable sources, moving it to The Count (Sesame Street) also isn't ideal per WP:NATURAL and I would oppose a move to that name for that reason. - Aoidh (talk) 04:19, 27 November 2024 (UTC)

• Oppose I suggest instead to move it to The Count (Sesame Street), as "The Count" is far more known and used than Count von Count or simple Count without the article "the", but also vague without the parenthetical disambiguation. Turtletennisfogwheat (talk) 04:07, 27 November 2024 (UTC)
• Oppose all moves: As Aoidh says, "Count von Count" is a natural disambiguation, and it's the actual name of the character. Toughpigs (talk) 04:27, 27 November 2024 (UTC)