Following a theme used throughout the musical, the song begins with a tritone on the word Dear, held longer to signify its importance.
"[4][5] The last line of the song (performed as a "Shave and a Haircut" fanfare) is "Gee, Officer Krupke – Krup you!"
Lyricist Stephen Sondheim originally wanted to break a then-existing Broadway taboo by ending the song with "Gee, Officer Krupke – fuck you!
For the film's release, "Krupke" was switched with "Cool" (which was originally performed in the play's first act) on a request from Sondheim, who disliked the sequence of the songs in the play, feeling it was unfitting to watch a street gang perform a comedy number right after having seen both gang leaders get killed in the rumble.
[9] In the fourth season episode of The West Wing, titled "Election Night," White House staffer Charlie Young is asked by a student he's mentoring to help another student out of a legal bind; Charlie brushes off the request by stating, "I'm not Officer Krupke.
"[10] In the thirty-sixth season episode of The Simpsons, titled Women in Shorts, the grocery store clerks perform a musical number parodying of Gee, Officer Krupke when they remind Homer of all the embarrassing products Marge has bought for him in the past after he attempts to avoid searching for the tampons she asks him to find.