Can you tell me how to get... how to get to Vegetable Street?

I admit I had forgotten about the marvelousness of Sesame Street's incredible plant-promoting superhero, Captain Vegetable, but as soon as I heard a verse of the song, memories came floating back and I was able to retrieve the lyrics from some hardly-used portion of my '80s childhood brain.

Here's the transcript of the song:

Out of his secret garden somewhere in New Jersey comes your newest favorite super hero!

It is I, Captain Vegetable
With my carrot, and my celery
Eating crunchy vegetables is good for me
And they're good for you, so eat them too
For teeth so strong, your whole life long
Eat celery and carrots by the bunch
Three cheers for me, Captain Vegetable
Crunch, crunch, crunch!

My name is Andy
I love candy
And I eat it whenever I can
If it's handy
Gimme some candy
It's so good and sweet
The perfect treat
It's such a thrill
To eat my fill
And gobble till there's nothing on the plate
Candy is great, but wait!

Who are you, some kind of bad dream?
Do I look like a bad dream?

It is I, Captain Vegetable
With my carrot, and my celery
Eating crunchy vegetables is good for me
And they're good for you, so eat them too
For teeth so strong, your whole life long
Eat celery and carrots by the bunch
Three cheers for me, Captain Vegetable
Crunch, crunch, crunch!

My name is Eddie
I love spaghetti
So I eat it whenever I can
If it's ready
Gimme spaghetti
It's a lovely thing
It looks like string
It's such a thrill
To eat my fill
And gobble till there's nothing on the plate
Spaghetti is great, but wait!

What are you? Are you some kind of weirdo?
Do I look like a weirdo?
It is I, your newest super hero

It is I, Captain Vegetable
With my carrot, and my celery
Eating crunchy vegetables is good for me
And they're good for you, so eat them too
For teeth so strong, your whole life long
Eat celery and carrots by the bunch
Three cheers for me, Captain Vegetable

Gee, Captain Vegetable this is the best thing to come around since meatballs!
Three cheers for Captain Vegetable!

Three cheers for me Captain Vegetable
Crunch crunch crunch!

and here, you lucky folks, is the video! It's so damn catchy, we've been singing it around the house a lot.



OMG! I found an updated version featuring John Leguizamo as Captain Vegetable wherein he refers to Elmo twice as "Playa."



Sesame Street has been trying in strange ways to get us to eat vegetables and learn to count and be kind to each other and whatnot for 40 years, and to celebrate Sesame Street's 40th birthday, they invited America's First Lady Michelle Obama to Sesame Street (again) to teach kids how to plant an organic vegetable garden and to promote eating healthy vegetables.

She rules. This rules. I'm a happy girl. Gonna go eat some vegetables.