Original performer
Frank Oz has stated that Animal's character can be summed up in five words: sex, sleep, food, drums, and pain. Animal's vocabulary is generally
monosyllabic and limited to guttural shouts and 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 (1979), as the members of Electric Mayhem introduce themselves: Animal's bushy eyebrows and hair, outrageous behavior, and wild drumming has sometimes been compared to several classical hard-partying Id-worshipping 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, agreeing to a tie. Animal shows a talent for jazz in a television advert for the
Renault Clio car with French footballer
Thierry Henry. Animal has sometimes 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, who later quipped "I'm just glad it wasn't a piano contest." 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 (1984), he chases a female student out of the auditorium, chanting "Woo-maaaan!" after her. He also chases cars. While some 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 (1981), where it is revealed that Animal has a passion for the impressionist paintings of
Pierre-Auguste Renoir: In the film
Muppets from Space (1999), 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!" == Performers ==