They are the house band for The Muppet Show, with personalities and appearances inspired by prominent real-life rock music and jazz performers.

They subsequently appeared in various Muppet films and television specials and have also recorded album tracks and covered numerous songs.

The band's members were originally performed by Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, and Steve Whitmire, respectively; they are presently performed by Bill Barretta, Eric Jacobson, Matt Vogel, David Rudman, Goelz, and Peter Linz, respectively.

However, the Electric Mayhem backed Miss Piggy for a song in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz and performed alongside Miley Cyrus in the 2008 Studio DC: Almost Live television special.

An Electric Mayhem "live" tour with audio-animatronic versions of the puppets and rock band My Morning Jacket performing the characters was proposed by The Walt Disney Company but ultimately abandoned.

[10] He sports a scruffy red beard with no mustache, a fur vest, a striped shirt and a floppy purple top hat.

He performed Dr. Teeth from 1991 to 2003 but made only very brief appearances with very little dialogue, some examples being the 1999 film Muppets from Space and once in the music video for the "We Are Family" charity song in 2002.

Although being the band leader, Dr. Teeth is never featured in the regular orchestra playing at The Muppet Show like the rest of the group.

In the 2023 series The Muppets Mayhem, Dr. Teeth is revealed to be an actual doctor, having worked in his family's dentistry business before leaving with Floyd to start the band.

Original performer Frank Oz has stated that Animal's character can be summed up in five words: sex, sleep, food, drums, and pain.

Some speculate the character is based on either Keith Moon, John Bonham, Ginger Baker, Mike Baird, or Levon Helm,[13][14][15] while others have suggested Mick Fleetwood.

[16] In the April 8, 2002, episode of Inside the Actors Studio, Billy Joel claimed that Liberty DeVitto was the inspiration for Animal.

This assertion has not been taken seriously as Animal's initial appearance in the 1974 pilot for The Muppet Show occurred two full years before DeVitto even made his first recording (on Joel's 1976 album Turnstiles).

At this time, Nelson retired from performing most of his characters, citing health reasons and John Kennedy took over the role beginning with The Muppets' Wizard of Oz.

[19] A battle of the egos occurs whenever he and Miss Piggy are on screen together as he loves to poke fun at her airs and graces.

Some of the songs he sang on The Muppet Show include: "New York State of Mind", "Ain't Misbehavin'", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover".

It is believed he is based on the guitarist Jeff Baxter, who is a studio musician and a former member of both Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers.

She has blonde hair, big eyelashes and lips, and usually wears a brown hat with a turquoise gem and a feather.

She also acted in sketches periodically, most notably as wisecracking Nurse Janice in 'Veterinarian's Hospital', a recurring parody of medical dramas; in the latter role, she dispenses with much of her flower child lingo.

Due to the lack of female Muppet performers, Janice has, since Ozker's departure, consistently been played by a man.

After Hunt's death, her character was faded back to brief non-speaking background appearances until 2000's Muppet Race Mania in which she was performed by Matt Vogel.

[citation needed] Zoot is a teal-colored, balding saxophone player with dark glasses and a high-crowned blue felt hat that is generally a laid-back fellow of few words.

His name refers to the 20th-century saxophonist Zoot Sims and per designer Bonnie Erickson is modeled after Latin jazz artist Gato Barbieri.

Since his eyes are hidden by his shades, he often appears oblivious to events around him—during the band's first meeting with Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear as depicted in The Muppet Movie, he briefly forgot his own name which Floyd described as Zoot "skip[ping] the groove again"—but he can be sharper than he seems.

Lips is the band's mumbling, yellow-haired trumpet player who joined the Electric Mayhem during the final season of The Muppet Show.

His name is inspired by the imagery of lips seen on posters for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, one of Whitmire's favorite films.

[21] Lips speaks frequently in The Muppets Mayhem (2023), with his dialogue mainly consisting of unintelligible mumbling and occasionally a determinable sentence.

This colorful history includes, but is not limited to, being a nursery school teacher, inspiring The Bangles song "Walk Like an Egyptian", and introducing Paula Abdul to MC Skat Kat.

His only appearances with the group were in the television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World and minor publicity material.