Here’s something that I was thinking about recently as I was waxing my Funko Pops: Is Animal one of the most confusing Muppet characters?
(Before I continue: Yes, Animal’s stint as the Muppet of the Week in the “70 Years, 70 Muppets” campaign already happened several weeks ago. Why didn’t I write this article then? I don’t know!)
It’s not that it’s difficult to accurately describe Animal on a basic level. He’s the drummer for the Electric Mayhem, and he has a wild personality. As Frank Oz said, he can be summed up in five words: sex, sleep, food, drums, and pain. But if you try to dig deeper, questions arise.
Is Animal human, or something else? All the members of the Mayhem appear to be humans, or at least humanoid Muppets. But Animal’s a little different. His entire head is covered with hair… but is it all hair growing out of his head, or is some of it a long beard?
He also has a row of sharp teeth, but only on the bottom. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help much with either the “Animal is human” or “Animal is not human” theories, because most humanoid Muppets — and most Muppets, period — don’t have any visible teeth. Lucky for them — they can never get popcorn kernels stuck between the teeth they don’t have!
Animal wears a collar with a chain attached to it. Sometimes on The Muppet Show, and in The Muppet Movie, Floyd holds Animal’s chain like it’s a dog’s leash. In The Muppet Movie, Floyd even announced that he has to take Animal for a walk! Is Animal some kind of dog? (I briefly discussed this aspect of Animal on a recent episode of our 70 Years, 70 Muppets podcast with my guest, my friend Allen. You can hear that wherever you get podcasts!)
So the exact nature of Animal is somewhat confusing. Another cause for uncertainty? Who, if anyone, Animal was based on. Muppet Wiki even has a page called “Was Animal based on a famous drummer?” The wiki concludes that there’s no evidence that the Muppet people had any real-life drummer in mind when they created the character, but rumors persist, even among Muppet nerds. He’s Keith Moon! Or he’s John Bonham! Or he’s Mick Fleetwood!
For some reason, the notion that Animal was inspired by a real percussionist is too tempting not to believe. For that reason, I’m going to start a new rumor right now: Animal was based on Dook LaRue, the dog drummer for the animatronic band The Rock-afire Explosion from the Showbiz Pizza restaurant chain. Yeah, I know Animal predates Dook by several years. But let’s just see if the rumor can catch on!
Some people are so confused about what Animal’s name is. Every once in a while, I’ll come across a social media post about the Muppets where somebody comments that they love the crazy drummer Muppet, “Monster.” This always makes me chuckle with a smug sense of superiority that I’m not at all entitled to, but I can see why someone with hazy childhood memories of watching the Muppets might misremember the character’s name.
It’s not that far off from “Animal” as a word that describes his general vibe. As I previously described, his appearance is quite monstrous, and so is his behavior. And there are a lot of monsters in the Muppet ensemble, so why wouldn’t one of them be named Monster?
And then there are the people who are confused about which Muppet Animal is. Not long ago I saw a Facebook post about The Muppet Show, and one commenter confidently declared that their favorite bit from the show was Animal singing “Mahna Mahna.” I’ve also seen a commenter reminisce about Animal singing “Exit,” which is a song from Sesame Street performed by Little Chrissy and the Alphabeats. Little Chrissy has a luxurious mane of hair like Animal, but his is yellow.
And get this: The Electric Mayhem played a set in the “Muppets Take the Bowl” concert in 2017, which starred the Muppet Show family of characters. I was in attendance at that concert, and when Animal started vocalizing, I overheard an audience member behind me ask her companion “Is that Oscar?”
Oscar is green! And he’s from Sesame Street! And he doesn’t have a nose! I’d love to know if that audience member had any similar moments of misidentification while watching the show. Did she think Scooter was Bert and Ernie?
So that’s my story. Animal, as hugely popular as he is, is frequently challenging to comprehend.
What do you think? Have you ever seen any evidence of people being confused by Animal? Why do you think he’s so disorienting? Let me hear your theories — either in writing or in the form of an interpretive drum solo!
Click here to remind me of that time I made a joke about Animal not being a platypus on the Tough Pigs Discord!
by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com
