Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem

The Electric Mayhem is the name of a Muppet rock band that appeared on The Muppet Show. Following The Muppet Show, they have appeared in various Muppet movies and TV specials, and have also recorded album tracks.

The band consisted of Dr. Teeth (band leader and piano), Janice (guitar), Sgt. Floyd Pepper (bass guitar), Zoot (saxophone) and Animal (drums). Animal, Floyd, Zoot and Janice also played in the Muppet Show pit band, performing the opening and closing themes and underscoring most of the Muppet Show performances. Rowlf the Dog was the pit pianist, however.

Members

Dr. Teeth is the gravelly-voiced leader of the band. He has a gold tooth, a scruffy beard, a fur vest, a striped shirt, and a floppy purple top hat.

A running gag on the show--due to the mechanics of working a puppet's arms from below, often a two-man job--was Teeth's arms stretching to ridiculous elastic lengths while playing his instrument.

Jim Henson based the character, which he designed and voiced, on the jazz musician Dr. John.

Janice (sometimes Janis) is a rhythm guitar player. She wears a brown hat with a turquoise gem and a feather. This fickle flower girl has entertained crushes on both Zoot and Floyd Pepper. She also acts in sketches periodically, particularly as an inept, wisecracking nurse in a recurring parody of medical dramas. Janice is performed and voiced by Richard Hunt; [Eren Ozker]] voiced her during the first season of The Muppet Show.

Her name is an homage to Janis Joplin.

Sgt. Floyd Pepper plays bass guitar for Dr. Teeth's band . A real cool hippie type with long reddish-orange hair, he usually wore a green army cap, or sometimes, while in the pit, a slightly fancier cap of stiffer, glittery material, and a red uniform with epaulets and ornate gold braid on the buttons. His name--though his surname was never mentioned on the show--is a reference to both Pink Floyd and the famous Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He is performed and voiced by [Jerry Nelson]].

Zoot is a bald, blue saxophone player with dark glasses and a high-crowned blue felt hat, and was generally a quiet fellow. Perhaps his best line came in Dave Goelz.

His name comes from "zoot suit", a large-shouldered, taper-waisted, gaudy garment popular in the fifties.

Animal is the drummer for Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. He has also appeared on the Muppets Tonight, as well as all the Muppet movies. He may have been "inspired" by the antics of Keith Moon of The Who. During performances, Animal is usually chained to the drum set, as his musical outbursts are extremely violent. He opts to wear football shoulder pads instead of a shirt (when he isn't in his maroon band uniform). He usually speaks in grunts and monosyllables, and has a violent temper. Animal bowls overhand. He has been depicted as a literal skirt-chaser (in Muppets Take Manhattan, he chases a female co-ed out of the auditorium, chanting "Woo-maaaan!" after her). Animal is performed and voiced by Frank Oz.

In the movie The Great Muppet Caper, it is revealed that Animal has a passion for impressionist paintings, especially those of Pierre-Auguste Renoir.