Beaker is a Muppet character from The Muppet Show. He is the shy, long-suffering assistant of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, and is also similarly named after a piece of laboratory equipment. During the first season of The Muppet Show, Dr. Honeydew presented the Muppet Labs segments by himself; Beaker was added as his lab assistant from the second season on. Beaker has bulging eyes, a shock of red hair, and a drawbridge mouth which serves as a frown. He was originally puppeteered and voiced by Richard Hunt until Hunt's death in 1992, when the role was taken over primarily by Steve Whitmire. After Whitmire was fired in 2016, David Rudman took over the character. Beaker is a magnet for disaster; he routinely experiences mishaps such as being blown up, electrocuted, eaten by large monsters, or afflicted with awkward side effects caused by Honeydew's experiments. Beaker communicates in a nervous, high-pitched squeak that sounds like "Mee-mee-mee mee". In books and merchandise, the sound is spelled "Meep". In The Muppet Movie, he "meeps" Honeydew's line "sadly temporary". Rarely he can say normal words, such as "Bye-bye." Otherwise, his tone or expression helps to communicate his meaning. This helps Beaker communicate to his viewers directly without having to speak any real words at all. Appearances Beaker rapidly became a favorite with audiences, who both sympathized with and enjoyed laughing at his humorous sufferings. Occasionally, Beaker was able to take revenge, particularly in a segment when he inadvertently made numerous copies of himself and spent the rest of the episode chasing Dr. Honeydew around the theater. (This segment of "Muppet Labs" was from the Mac Davis episode.) In the 2008 TV special, A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, Beaker is even more fortunate when he tests a wish machine and gets the company of model Petra Němcová, and not only refuses Honeydew's order to send her back, but then also successfully teleports away with her to apparently enjoy his first wish for the rest of the story. Beaker has also appeared as a musical performer, singing "Danny Boy", "Carol of the Bells", and "Habanera" with the Swedish Chef and Animal, and "Feelings" and "Dust in the Wind" solo. He also sang "Ode to Joy" with his clones who were accidentally formed by Honeydew's copying machine. The "Danny Boy" performance was marked by the Chef's singing in his trademark gibberish and Animal's inability to remember anything