He is a bald, yellow-green skinned, bespectacled, lab-coated scientist who presented periodic science segments from "Muppet Labs, where the future is being made today."

Bunsen's experiments usually cause great harm to his very nervous and long-suffering assistant Beaker, a nearly mute Muppet with a shock of reddish hair.

Some of the inventions that were created and tested included: edible paper clips, all-purpose tenderizer, exploding hats, a gorilla detector, hair-growing tonic, a banana sharpener, a robot politician (played by Peter Ustinov), and an electric nose warmer.

The character that owns the Muppet theatre only appeared a couple of times and I always — in looking back — wished that I had made that to look just like Lew Grade because he's very caricaturable.Bunsen's performer Dave Goelz took inspiration for Bunsen's myopic work style from colleagues he knew throughout Silicon Valley while Goelz worked at Hewlett-Packard.

[citation needed] In the Halloween 2011 episode of WWE Raw, Bunsen developed a specially formulated energy drink that provides strength, agility and fresher smelling breath to those who take it.

Howie Mandel and Dave Coulier voiced Bunsen, and Frank Welker provided Beaker's squeaky meeps.

In a 2004 Internet poll sponsored by the BBC and the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew were voted Britain's favourite cinematic scientists.