Schoolhouse Rock!

"My Hero, Zero"

Original Air Date

January 13, 1973.

A young boy portrayed as a superhero (later redesigned as "Schoolhouse Rocky," the franchise mascot), shows his skeptical older sister the importance of the digit 0 as well as multiplication by powers of 10. This song was voted #11 on the 30th Anniversary DVD's Top 25.

Lyrics to My Hero, Zero :
Zero?

Yeah, zero is a wonderful thing
In fact, zero is my hero!

How can zero be a hero?

Well, there are all kinds of heroes, you know
A man can get to be a hero
For a famous battle he fought
Or by studying very hard
And becoming a weightless astronaut

And then there are heroes of other sorts
Like the heroes we know from watching sports
But a hero doesn't have to be a grown up person, you know
A hero can be a very big dog
Who comes to your rescue
Or a very little boy who's smart enough to know what to do

But let me tell you about my favorite hero

My hero, zero, such a funny little hero
But until you came along
We counted on our fingers and toes
Now you're here to stay
And nobody really knows
How wonderful you are
Why we could never reach a star
Without you, zero, my hero
How wonderful you are

What's so wonderful about a zero?
It's nothing, isn't it?

Sure, it represents nothing alone

But place a zero after 1
And you've got yourself a 10
See how important that is?
When you run out of digits
You can start all over again
See how convenient that is?

That's why with only ten digits including zero
You can count as high as you could ever go . . .
Forever, towards infinity
No one ever gets there, but you could try

With 10 billion zeros
From the cavemen until the heroes
Who invented you
They counted on their fingers and toes
And maybe some sticks and stones, or rocks and bones
And their neighbors' toes
You're here
And nobody really knows
How wonderful you are
Why we could never reach the star
Without you, zero, my hero
Zero, how wonderful you are

Place one zero after any number
And you've multiplied that number by 10
See how easy that is
Place two zeros after any number
And you've multiplied that number by 100
See how simple that is
Place three zeros after any number
And you've multiplied that number by 1,000

Et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad astra, forever and ever
With zero, my hero, how wonderful you are