99 bottles of beer - wikipedia 99 bottles of beer `` 99 Bottles of Beer '' is an anonymous folk song dating to the mid-20th century. It is a traditional reverse counting song in both the United States and Canada. It is popular to sing on long trips, as it has a very repetitive format which is easy to memorize and can take a long time to sing. In particular, the song is often sung by children on long bus trips, such as class field trips, or on Scout and / or Girl Guide outings. Contents 1 Lyrics 2 Andy Kaufman routine 3 Mathematically inspired variants 4 References in computer science 5 See also 6 References Lyrics The song 's lyrics are as follows : 99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer. Take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall... The same verse is repeated, each time with one bottle fewer, until there are none left. Variations on the last verse following the last bottle going down include lines such as : No more bottles of beer on the wall, no more bottles of beer. Go to the store and buy some more, 99 bottles of beer on the wall... Or : No more bottles of beer on the wall, no more bottles of beer. We 've taken them down and passed them around ; now we 're drunk and passed out ! Another alternate line reads : If that one bottle should happen to fall, what a waste of alcohol ! Andy Kaufman routine The boring and time - consuming nature of the `` 99 Bottles of Beer '' song means that probably only a small minority of renditions are done to the final verse. The American comedian Andy Kaufman exploited this fact in the routine early in his career when he would actually sing all 100 verses. Mathematically inspired variants Donald Byrd has collected dozens of variants inspired by mathematical concepts and written by himself and others. ( A subset of his collection has been published. ) Byrd argues that the collection has pedagogic as well as amusement value. Among his variants are : `` Infinity bottles of beer on the wall ''. If one bottle is taken down, there are still infinite bottles of beer on the wall ( thus creating an unending sequence much like `` The Song That Never Ends '' ). `` Aleph - null bottles of beer on the wall ''. Aleph - null is the size of the set of all natural numbers, and is the smallest infinity and the only countable one ; therefore, even if an infinite aleph - null of bottles fall, the same amount remains. `` Aleph - one / two / three / etc. bottles of beer on the wall ''. Aleph - one, two, three, etc. are uncountable infinite sets, which are larger than countable ones ; therefore, if only a countable infinity of bottles fall, an uncountable number remains. Other versions in Byrd 's collection involve concepts including geometric progressions, differentials, Euler 's identity, complex numbers, summation notation, the Cantor set, the Fibonacci sequence, and the continuum hypothesis, among others. References in computer science The computer scientist Donald Knuth proved that the song has a complexity of O ( log ⁡ N ) ( displaystyle O ( log N ) ) in his in - joke - article `` The Complexity of Songs ''. Numerous computer programs exist to output the lyrics to the song. This is analogous to `` Hello, World ! '' programs, with the addition of a loop. As with `` Hello World ! '', this can be a practice exercise for those studying computer programming, and a demonstration of different programming paradigms dealing with looping constructs and syntactic differences between programming languages within a paradigm. The program has been written in over 1500 different programming languages. A simple example using classical BASIC syntax : FOR Bottle = 100 TO 1 STEP - 1 PRINT STR ( Bottle ) + '' bottles of beer on the wall, `` + STR ( Bottle ) + '' bottles of beer '' PRINT `` Take one down and pass it around, `` + STR ( Bottle - 1 ) + '' bottles of beer on the wall '' NEXT Bottle See also Drinking song `` Ten Green Bottles '' -- a similar song which is popular in the United Kingdom References Jump up ^ Nyberg, Tim ( 2006 ). 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall : The Complete Lyrics. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 112. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7407 - 6074 - 7. Jump up ^ Baird, Kevin C. ( 2007 ). Ruby by example : concepts and code. No Starch Press. p. 25. ISBN 978 - 1 - 59327 - 148 - 0. Jump up ^ http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/122399/enc_S1223_Pa.html Andy Kaufman 's 99 Bottles. Retrieved 15 Sep 2012. Jump up ^ Byrd, Donald ( 2013 - 10 - 08 ). `` Infinite Bottles of Beer : Mathematical Concepts with Epsilon Pain, Or : A Cantorial Approach to Cantorian Arithmetic and Other Mathematical Melodies '' ( PDF ). Indiana University, School of Informatics. Archived ( PDF ) from the original on 1 April 2011. Retrieved 2014 - 01 - 14. Jump up ^ Donald Byrd ( 2010 ). `` Infinite Bottles of Beer : A cantorial approach to Cantorian arithmetic and other mathematical melodies ''. Math Horizons : 16 -- 17. Jump up ^ Team, 99 Bottles of Beer. `` 99 Bottles of Beer - Start ''. www.99-bottles-of-beer.net. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=99_Bottles_of_Beer&oldid=819994845 '' Categories : American folk songs Traditional children 's songs Drinking songs Songs about alcohol Hidden categories : All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from May 2015 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Deutsch 한국어 Italiano Polski Русский 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 12 January 2018, at 13 : 26. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who wrote 99 bottles of beer on the wall
Answer: anonymous