Animal of The Muppets

Show me your animal side in pictures!

One of my favorite shows growing up was The Muppet Show. Animal and the Swedish Chef were my favorite characters on the show.

Animal first appeared in the 1975 pilot, The Muppet Show: ___ and Violence, chained up in a basement cell when he wasn't onstage performing with The Electric Mayhem. He later became a main character on The Muppet Show, and his unrestrained style has made him popular with young people for decades.

Animal is a crazed drummer with three styles of music -- loud, louder, and deafening. He 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, but these instances are infrequent.

Frank Oz says that he had his character down to five words: Sex, sleep, food, drums and pain.[2] Occasionally, two of those essentials, food and drums, are interchangeable. In The Muppet Movie, Dr. Teeth had to remind Animal to beat, and 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, and started eating his drum kit.

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. LaVerne is also a drummer, and it's implied that percussion skills are a family trait.