"Try Me" From She Loves Me

Can anyone explain to me the math used here? Does she get the proper change? It doesn't seem to make sense.

Great song though, here are the relevant lyrics:

Thats twenty and six for the autumn heather
Eight and three for the cream
Thirty two even for that bottle of mermaids dream
One and three for the eyebrow pencil
Nine for the large shampoo
And then for the jar you're bringing back thats four and two for you
That's a total of ninety eight less four and two for the jar
Out of a hundred
Here's your change
Five and two
There you are
the biggest sale in several years I believe

Although I'm not that familiar with the show, I believe "Try Me" is sung by Arpad.

And these lyrics aren't that song.

Actually...they are from TRY ME.

Don't know about the math though.

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My adding and subtraction are awful - but I'd always assumed that Arpad was supposed to get it wrong....

Yes, it's not supposed to be right.

He's a nervous mess.

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BUT...does he do it cause he's nervous or a klutz...or does he do it on purpose to get the job?

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Been awhile since I've looked at it, but I think the script even capitalizes FIVE and two. I think Arpad is shortchanging the imaginary customer purposefully to impress his boss.

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Here's another reason why I think it is deliberate. For that section, the rhyming scheme of the lyrics becomes very intricate, and the tempo brightens. The subtext I've imagined when I listen to it is that this imaginary customer scenario is something that Arpad has been practicing and practicing in his spare time, to impress his boss, and then when it comes time to act it out, he's fairly bursting at the seams, to present it for Maraczeck. It isn't spontaneous, like the emotion of the rest of the song. It feels rehearsed. I think the shortchanging is something he's built into the routine, to even earn his boss an extra buck.

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Updated On: 11/17/05 at 03:00 PM