Animal (Muppet)

**Animal** is the wild and frenzied monster drummer of the fictional band, Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem, from *The Muppet Show*. He is one of The Muppets originally created by Michael K. Frith.

**Animal** is the wild drummer on *The Muppet Show*, performing with Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. A crazed percussionist with three styles of music — loud, louder, and deafening — Animal speaks in a guttural shout, often repeating a few simple phrases, such as "BEAT DRUMS! BEAT DRUMS!" or "WO-MAN!" In relatively calmer moods, he is capable of more coherent conversation, though these instances are infrequent.

In his first appearance in the 1975 pilot *The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence*, Animal is chained in a basement cell when not onstage performing with the Electric Mayhem. He later became a lead character on *The Muppet Show*, and his unrestrained style has made him popular with young people for decades.

Frank Oz says that he had his character down to five words: Sex, sleep, food, drums, and pain. Occasionally, two of those essentials, food and drums, are interchangeable. In *The Muppet Movie*, Dr. Teeth had to remind Animal to beat, not eat, his drums. In *The Muppet Show* episode 110, when asked by Kermit if he preferred drumming to food, Animal replied that drums *are* food.

Animal's wild attitude can be compared to Cookie Monster. In *A Muppet Family Christmas*, after observing Cookie Monster eating all of Janice's cookies in his signature manner, Animal comments, "That my kind of fella!"

Animal's family life is generally non-existent, and outside of the band, the *Muppet Show* troupe, and women in general, he has no other relationships. A significant exception is depicted in the book *The Case of the Missing Mother*, which reveals the existence of Animal's mother, LaVerne, who is also a drummer, implying that percussion skills are a family trait.

## Notable performances

Animal has performed a number of solos on *The Muppet Show*, including "Sweet Tooth Jam", "Wild Thing", and "Foggy Day."

When drumming legend Buddy Rich appeared on *The Muppet Show* Episode 522: Buddy Rich, one scene featured a "drum battle" between Rich and Animal in homage to the legendary face-off album between Rich and his contemporary Gene Krupa. The actual drumming for Animal, in every episode of the series, was performed by Ronnie Verrell, a veteran drummer and member of Jack Parnell's house band for *The Muppet Show*.

Despite their drum battle, episode 110 had previously established that Buddy Rich was one of Animal's idols. Animal also reveals that he has been playing the drums for five years, which (assuming a literal timeline) would mean that he's been playing the drums since 1971.

One of Animal's most memorable performances with a guest star was in episode 105, in which he wildly played the drums in Rita Moreno's number "Fever." He started getting so out of hand, Rita was forced to give him a lengthy verbal reprimand in Spanish, ending with "Cool it!" Other guest stars who have had scenes with Animal include Lou Rawls, Leo Sayer, James Coburn, Harry Belafonte (another drum battle), and Kaye Ballard.

Animal has also had roles in all of the Muppet movies. In *The Muppet Movie*, he ate Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's Insta-Grow Pills, causing him to grow ten times his size and scare away Doc Hopper. This was followed by *The Great Muppet Caper*, *The Muppets Take Manhattan*, *The Muppet Christmas Carol*, *Muppet Treasure Island*, *Muppets from Space*, *It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie* and *The Muppets' Wizard of Oz*.

In *The Muppets*, Animal is found in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, being sponsored by Jack Black. Animal has learned to stay calm (occasionally mumbling "IN CONTROL"), but goes wild when he hears the word "drums." Animal rejoins the Muppets, but Jack Black encourages him to stay away from drums. It's only after a moment of psychomachia that Animal decides to play the drums again, during the Muppets' performance of "Rainbow Connection."

In *Muppets Most Wanted*, Animal was the first to notice that Kermit had been replaced by Constantine.

Animal is probably the most popular member of the Electric Mayhem. He has been included in more merchandise than the rest of the band. He was also the only member of the band to be included regularly on *Muppet Babies*.

Animal was the mascot of the U.S. snowboarding team for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Animal made a television appearance in Nagano with CBS reporter Kennedy, during which she stapled his feet to a snowboard.

On *Muppets TV*, an original French-only show, Animal talks in full-formed sentences.

## Casting history

**Main Performers**:

* Frank Oz - from *The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence* (1975) to *Muppet Monster Adventure* (2000)
* Eric Jacobson - from *It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie* (2002) to Present

**Alternate Performers:**

* Rob Mills - Episode 112: Food of *The Jim Henson Hour* (1990)
* Kevin Clash - Episode 107: Sandra Bullock of *Muppets Tonight* (1996)
* John Kennedy - Q Awards (2001), MasterCard commercial (2002), *Muppets Party Cruise* video game (2003)
* Drew Massey - *Statler & Waldorf: From the Balcony*, Episode 9 (2005)

When Animal plays the drums, the drumsticks are connected to his arm rods at an approximately 45-degree angle. As of 2020, his drumming arms are most often performed by Michelan Sisti.

## Book appearances

* *The Muppet Show Book* (1978)
* *The Comic Muppet Book* (1979)
* *Robin Hood* (1980)
* *The Muppets Go Camping* (1981)
* *Muppet Picnic Cookbook* (1981)
* *Two for the Show* (1982)
* *The Case of the Missing Mother* (1983)
* *The Muppets Take Manhattan (comic book)* (1984)
* *Jim Henson's Bedtime Stories* (1991)
* *The Phantom of the Muppet Theater* (1991)
* *Muppet Time* (1996)
* *Ask Kermit: All About the Human Body*
* *The Muppet Show Comic Book* (2009)
* *The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson* (2009)
* *Muppet Robin Hood* issue #3 (2009)
* *Muppet Robin Hood* issue #4 (2009)
* *Muppet Snow White* (2010)
* *Kermit's Costume Caper* (2012)
* *The Muppets Character Encyclopedia* (2014)
* *Muppets Meet the Classics: The Phantom of the Opera* (2017)
* *Muppets Meet the Classics: Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm* (2018)

## See also

* Animal filmography
* Animal (animated)
* Animal's Alternate Ages
* Was Animal based on a famous drummer?
* Official speculation on Animal's name

## Performers

Animal was performed by Frank Oz from his first appearance in the pilot for *The Muppet Show* until his 2000 appearance in the video game *Muppet RaceMania*, and has been performed regularly by Eric Jacobson since his 2002 appearance in *It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie*. On *The Muppet Show*, his drumming was performed by Ronnie Verrell up until his passing in 2002. Animal has had roles in all Muppet movies, and was the only member of The Electric Mayhem to be included regularly on the *Muppet Babies* cartoons.

He was voiced by Howie Mandel in the first two seasons of *Muppet Babies*, followed by Dave Coulier in subsequent seasons. Animal was performed by Rob Mills in the series finale of *The Jim Henson Hour*, and was occasionally performed by Kevin Clash on *Muppets Tonight* in the absence of Frank Oz. John Kennedy also briefly performed Animal in a 2002 commercial for MasterCard, as well as the 2003 video game *Muppets Party Cruise*. Drew Massey performed Animal in *Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony*. In *Jim Henson's Little Muppet Monsters*, Animal was voiced by Hal Rayle (who also voiced Gonzo and Miss Piggy).

## Characteristics

Frank Oz has stated that Animal's character can be summed up in five words: sex, sleep, food, drums, and pain. However, Animal has retorted: "Drums *are* food!" Animal's vocabulary is generally limited to guttural shouts and monosyllabic grunts, often repeating a few simple phrases, as well as his trademark gravelly laugh. During performances, Animal is usually chained to the drum set by a collar around his neck, as his musical outbursts are extremely violent. In some episodes, he has been summoned to chase off performers who are 'being annoying'.

From *The Muppet Movie*, as the Electric Mayhem introduces themselves:

Unique among characters on the show, Sgt. Floyd Pepper has trained his fellow musician to obey a few simple off-drum commands correctly, suggesting dog training.

Animal's bushy eyebrows and hair, outrageous behavior, and wild drumming has sometimes been compared to several classical hard-partying rock drummers, such as The Who's Keith Moon, Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, and Cream's Ginger Baker. Animal is a savant, versatile session drummer, to back Muppet tunes, capable even of finishing a slow song, if the singer is a nice lady. He can match both Buddy Rich and Harry Belafonte in drum-offs on *The Muppet Show*, Questlove on *Late Night with Jimmy Fallon* in 2011, and Dave Grohl on *The Muppets* in 2015. He shows a talent for jazz in a television advert for the Renault Clio car with French footballer Thierry Henry.

Animal has also run afoul of *Muppet Show* guests. In 1981, the aforementioned scene with Buddy Rich ends with the seasoned pro learning Animal's gonzo style, and performing it with twice the speed and proficiency. Animal throws a drum onto the irascible entertainer's head. When he repeatedly interrupted Rita Moreno's rendition of *Fever* with loud drumming outbursts, she became annoyed and slammed his head between a pair of cymbals (to which Animal responded by saying "Uh, that's my kinda woman!", before passing out). In another episode, he chased Mark Hamill and Angus McGonagle the Argyle Gargoyle offstage at Kermit's request after they snuck onstage. In another episode, Animal became hostile toward Dudley Moore when Moore tried to replace the band with a programmable, music-playing robot. On another occasion, however, Animal is starstruck by James Coburn after the movie tough-guy demonstrates his own violent streak in a parodic manner:

A common gag involves someone imparting a figure of speech to Animal: Animal turns to the audience, his eyes go wide and he goes berserk, taking the figure of speech literally. For example, Jim Nabors once spoke the traditional theatrical good luck wish, "Break a leg", whereupon Animal indulged him by trying to break Nabors's leg. Another gag would occasionally occur when the band plays a slow song: Animal will get about halfway through and then after announcing "Too slow!" launch into a faster paced version of the song. The band would usually comment that Animal lasted much longer than they thought he would.

Animal is a literal skirt-chaser. In *The Muppets Take Manhattan*, he chases a female student out of the auditorium, chanting "Woo-maaaan!" after her. He also chases cars. While many Animal gags involve a role reversal, or a moment of intellectualism, others are still more subtle, such as in this piece of dialog from *The Great Muppet Caper*, where it is revealed that Animal has a passion for the impressionist paintings of Pierre-Auguste Renoir:

In the movie *Muppets from Space*, Animal meets his match in the form of a security guard played by Kathy Griffin—after chasing her down a hallway with his "Woo-man" call, he later comes running back around the corner, yelling "HELP HELP!" with Griffin calling after him about how they'll settle down, buy a house, and have children.

Ty Pennington commented about the possibility of Animal having ADHD when the character appeared on an episode of *Extreme Makeover: Home Edition*.

Animal's lack of social grace is on display at the very end of *The Muppet Movie*. After the credits, his face fills the screen as he admonishes the audience: "Go home! Go home!"

## Appearances in other media

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Animal was the official mascot of the U.S. Ski Team during the 1998 Winter Olympics. He was also featured in one of eleven commemorative stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service.

In 2010, Animal was featured in a viral video alongside power-pop band OK Go, where he challenged the band's drummer, Dan Konopka, to a staring contest. Animal ultimately wins and forces Dan to be his roadie for a year.

Animal and his fellow Muppets made a guest appearance on the Halloween 2011 episode of the wrestling TV show *WWE Raw*, where he was a guest timekeeper. Animal is present in the 2011 film *The Muppets*, having gone into anger management therapy since the Muppets disbanded. He also made a special appearance on *Late Night with Jimmy Fallon* as a guest drummer with The Roots house band, and on the eighth UK series of *The X Factor* in 2011, where he drummed for Olly Murs on his song "Dance with Me Tonight".

## Filmography

* *The Muppet Show* (1976–1981) (TV)
* *The Muppet Movie* (1979)
* *The Great Muppet Caper* (1981)
* *The Muppets Take Manhattan* (1984)
* *Muppet Babies* (1984–1991) (TV)
* *Jim Henson's Little Muppet Monsters* (1985)
* *A Muppet Family Christmas* (1987) (TV)
* *The Muppets at Walt Disney World* (1990) (TV)
* *The Muppet Christmas Carol* (1992) - Appearance as Fozziwig party entertainer
* *Muppet Treasure Island* (1996) - Appearance as Himself
* *Muppets Tonight* (1996–1998) (TV)
* *Muppets from Space* (1999)
* *It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie* (2002) (TV)
* *The Muppets' Wizard of Oz* (2005) (TV) - Appearance as Himself
* *Studio DC: Almost Live* (2008) (TV)
* *A Muppets Christmas: Letters To Santa* (2008) (TV)
* *The Muppets* (2011)
* *Late Night with Jimmy Fallon* (2011)
* *Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular* (2013) (TV)
* *Muppets Most Wanted* (2014)
* *The Muppets* (2015–2016) (TV)
* *Muppet Babies* (2018–2022) (TV)
* *Muppets Now* (2020) (Disney+)
* *Muppets Haunted Mansion* (2021) (Disney+) – Appearance as a member of Madame Pigota's ghost band
* *Holey Moley* (2022)