Aside from his trademark enthusiasm for performance art, another defining trait of Gonzo is the ambiguity of his species, which has become a running gag in the franchise.

He has been considered to be of various origins, including a Frackle in his debut appearance in The Great Santa Claus Switch, an extraterrestrial in Muppets from Space or an avian creature.

Developed and performed by Dave Goelz,[3] Gonzo made his first appearance in the 1970 special The Great Santa Claus Switch, as the "Cigar Box Frackle".

[5] Jim Henson selected this Frackle as the basis for Gonzo, and gave the character to puppeteer Dave Goelz.

[6] Gonzo was created as a character with low self-esteem,[7] as written by Jerry Juhl,[2] with Goelz acknowledging he put himself into that interpretation.

They have an awkward, non-animal-like appearance, which includes purple-blue fur, purple feathers on their head, bug-eyes, and a long, hooked nose, referred to as a "beak".

Not long afterward, the three land in a pond in front of Robert Morley who ponders if it's raining cats and dogs; Kermit and Fozzie respectively reply, "Actually, we're bears and frogs."

On a 2021 episode of Muppet Babies parodying Cinderella, Gonzo puts on the glass slipper and transforms into "Gonzorella".

[25] Gonzo is also the namesake to the CT-142 Bombardier Dash 8 used by the Canadian Armed Forces for Air Combat Systems Officer training due to the blue paint job and elongated nose housing a specialized radar.

A similar flying example is the Gulfstream IV light jetliner bearing US registration N49RF, flown for severe weather research by the US Federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and is also named for Gonzo as portside nose art.

It was used to designate an area of carrier-based naval operations by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps in the Indian Ocean during the 1979-1981 Iranian Hostage Crisis and the "Tanker War" between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Reviewing Muppets from Space in 1999, Roger Ebert found the most humorous part to be Gonzo being denied entry in Noah's Ark for not having a second member of his species, and expressed sympathy for his loneliness as an extraterrestrial, stranded since the Roswell UFO incident, adding "Poor guy (or whatever he is)".

[30] That year, The Huffington Post identified Gonzo as a popular Muppet, saying to his fans, "People just don't GET you" adding "And nothing would ever be the same without you.