Schoolhouse Rock!

"Naughty Number Nine"

Original Air Date

March 3, 1973

It teaches about the multiplication of 9 during a cat-and-mouse version of billiards featuring a large anthropomorphic feline pool hustler (possibly inspired by Minnesota Fats). Despite the blatant tobacco-smoking reference in which "Number Nine" puffs a cigar, the song never received any censorship or removal from rerun rotation and continued to air, with no known complaints, well after the depiction of smoking in children's television was banned. This song was voted the 21st best song on the 30th anniversary edition.

Lyrics to "Naughty Number Nine"

Number nine will put you on the spot

Number nine will tie you up, oh, in a knot

When you're trying

Multiplying by nine

You might give it everything you've got

And still be stopped

If you don't know some secret way you can check on

You'll break your neck on

Naughty number nine

Now the first thing to keep in mind

When you're multiplying by nine

Is that it's one less than ten

You see, nine is the same as ten minus one

So you could multiply your number by ten

And then subtract the number from the result

And you'd get the same product

As if you'd multiplied by nine

And you knew it

I mean, eight times nine is 80 minus eight

And seven times nine is 70 minus seven

And six times nine is 60 minus six

You could use those tricks

Because you must have some secret way you can beat it

Or else you'll meet it

With naughty number nine

Of course, it doesn't hurt

To know the table of nines by memory

It goes like this:

One times nine is nine, and two times nine is 18

(Mean ol' number nine)

Three times nine is 27, and four times nine is 36

Five times nine is 45, and six times nine is 54

And seven times nine is 63

Eight times nine is 72, and nine times nine is 81

And ten times nine is 90

Now the digit sum is always equal to nine

I mean, if you add two and seven, the digits

You get nine, the digit sum

That's true of any product of nine

If they don't add up, you've made a mistake

Because you must have some secret way you can check it

Or else you'll wreck it

With naughty, nasty, mean old number nine