"Yakko's Universe" is a song sung primarily by Yakko Warner, describing how vast and big the universe really is compared to us. His siblings are joined in singing the last verse. It originally aired as the third and final segment of episode 3, and was later returned as a segment of one of the Christmas-themed episodes because of the snowy setting of the song. It was inspired by Eric Idle's "Galaxy Song" from Monty Python and the Meaning of Life.
The song was composed and written by Randy Rogel. However, the song went through some changes. The original lyrics are shown below the telecast lyrics.
The song was released on the first soundtrack, Animaniacs and Rob Paulsen performed it entirely solo in the Animaniacs Live shows, as well as this video.
And they're all inside a country which is part of a continent
That sits upon a planet known as Earth.
And the Earth is a ball full of oceans and some mountains
Which is out there spinning silently in space.
And living on that Earth are the plants and the animals
And also the entire human race.
It's a great big universe
And we're all really puny.
We're just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
It's big and black and inky
And we are small and dinky
It's a big universe and we're not.
And we're part of a vast interplanetary system
Stretching seven hundred billion miles long.
With nine planets and a sun; we think the Earth's the only one
That has life on it, although we could be wrong.
Across the interstellar voids are a billion asteroids
Including meteors and Halley's Comet too.
And there's over fifty moons floating out there like balloons
In a panoramic trillion-mile view.
And still it's all a speck amid a hundred billion stars
In a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
It's sixty thousand trillion miles from one end to the other
And still that's just a fraction of the way.
'Cause there's a hundred billion galaxies that stretch across the sky
Filled with constellations, planets, moons and stars.
And still the universe extends to a place that never ends
Which is maybe just inside a little jar!
The Warners:
It's a great big universe
And we're all really puny,
We're just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
Though we don't know how it got here
We're an important part here
It's a big universe and it's ours!
Cut Lyrics[]
The third verse originally described all the planets, but when Randy Rogel was informed the writer Paul Rugg was writing a planets song, he changed it. The chorus was also changed to avoid having a call from any lawyers. Here are the original lyrics, which he performed at a special event for Rob Paulsen's podcast "Talking Toons" in August 2012.
And we're part of a vast interplanetary system
With everyone revolving 'round the sun,
With Mercury in between us, and after that comes Venus,
And still the solar system's just begun.
Past the Earth on towards the stars, where we find the planet Mars,
Which is over fifty-million miles away,
And orbiting in pattern, are Jupiter and Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto so we say, ...all together!
It's a great big universe and everyone's a part of it,
And no one knows just where's the end or start of it,
We all live here together,
It's our home forever...
It's a small world after all!
Trivia[]
Footage of the sun with the planets would later be used in the intro of the Pinky and the Brain spin-off series.
Also the footage of Yakko travelling around the planets would later be used in The Planets.