explain Zoot originally having more dialogue. 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. When Floyd declared the band to be "anklin'" during its brief strike, only Zoot seemed dubious, noting "The frog's been good to us." Zoot's claim to fame was playing the final off-key note to the end theme of the show; he then looks into his saxophone with a bewildered expression, checks his music, gives a satisfied nod, looks around at the other musicians and gives the same nod. The note played is the lowest note on the baritone saxophone, while most of Zoot's other playing has the sound of a tenor saxophone and his instrument appears to be an alto saxophone. In A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, it's revealed that he celebrates Hanukkah. Lips Performed by Steve Whitmire (1980–2016), Peter Linz (2017–present) Lips joined the Electric Mayhem for several numbers during the final season of The Muppet Show, playing the trumpet. His name refers to the fact that trumpet players use their lips to play. He has yellow hair, goatee and a permanent squint. His appearances on the Muppet Show were few and far between and when he did appear in the later episodes or movies, he rarely did anything besides play the trumpet. One of his few speaking appearances was in the Shirley Bassey episode where he sang a line of "Barnyard Boogie." He was mainly created so that Whitmire could have a character to perform in the band. His lack of character development was apparently due to Whitmire's uncertainty about performing Lips. He was less experienced as a puppeteer at the time and wanted to use a voice like Louis Armstrong but was afraid of offending African Americans. After The Muppet Christmas Carol, he was not seen at all until the NBC special Christmas in Rockefeller Center. He also appeared in the movie The Muppets. He also appeared and spoke (albeit very briefly) in the 2014 movie Muppets Most Wanted. He appears (and speaks on several occasions) in the new series The Muppets having been completely rebuilt, as the original puppet from his Muppet Show days