you guys got it wrong. its is Calvin Lockhart who plays the electrician. he was also reggie in Wild at Heart. 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0516865/

mike- the two woodsman are played David Brisbin and Jürgen Prochnow. brisbin looks to do alot of TV, but prochnow is better known as the captain in Das Boot and Duke Leto Atreides from dune. i think their function has to do with the woods around twin peaks, and may be an allusion to the loglady's husband who died in a fire shortly after bring back the oil from glastonbury grove. also, he may be the spirt inside her log. that would make the josie demise, if not tolerable, as least thematically sound.

Great original post. My first reaction to the jumping man is more of fear. It kind of reminds me of my fear of clowns and Steven King's IT movie with Pennywise the Clown. I have always liked the idea of Cooper being the jumping man, but that is more just based on my self-indulgent ideas.

My most educated guess is that I just see The Jumping Man as the symbol of fear. The excited and unhinged behavior is the "getting off" or "high" that people get who use fear as drug. One might recall the white face of LP in FWWM when she gives Harold the diary and the white face of Windom Earle in a scene with Leo Johnson. The white faces and black lips are in scenes that deal with fear.

 
In the series, Mike tells Cooper, "We lived above a convenience store.  I mean it like it sounds".  Mike wants Cooper to take this statement literally.  This room truly existed in our world.   

This is substantiated in the FWWM script during the room above the convenience store scene.
With an emphasis on describing man-made and composite materials, among other elements, the author drove home the point that this is an Earthly setting.  

SIX PEOPLE in a large, barren, filthy room.  Cheap plastic storm windows flap in the cold wind. 
In the foreground the Man From Another Place (Mike) and BOB sit at a formica table. 
Behind them on plastic torn chairs huddle MRS. TREMOND and her GRANDSON.

*my underlines

Although we are to take the room setting literally, IMO some of the characters in the scene are only there symbolically.  This is actually Mike and Leland at the bargaining table, and neither the jumping man nor the Tremonds are physically present.  When Mike and Leland complete their transaction/ritual, their parallel identities, MFAP and Bob, are then shown departing the lodge to fulfill the plan.

But in a figurative sense, why wouldn't evil want to reside above a convenience store?  Convenient access to the nourishing fear that permeates our cultures and societies.

 I don't know for sure, but I've always been pretty certain that these guys are the "woodsmen" type people Laura speaks about in her diary.  (Remember one of them sings "Waltzing Matilda" to her and she has a nightmare about it).  They look like woodsmen too with the long beard and the type of hats they're wearing.

"watch out for my cousin.."

i forgot about that maddy! good call.

 while i completely about the script not being canon, since its whats in the movie that we should base our interpetations on, not whats not it or worse whats not in it that we think should be(that last one is the downfall of most film critics i read), and i see your point about the diary/cooper issue, but they were released during the series run, no? which gives them a little credence to me. but not canon, surely. what i mean by agreeing with maddy was that by the time FWWM was being made, the "fad" era of TP was over, and possibly lynch was using a detail previously written in the published diary(and possibly a detail his daughter wrote, not him) as a way of establishing a continuity. of course, only people like us would actually discuss it in detail, whereas i can see lynch just using them for the feeling they project and for the fact that the fictional laura, in the secret diary, wrote of having a strange encounter with woodsmen. i still say they have something to do with the log lady's husband, but that just conjecture on my part.

He's Black. Here's a screen shot of Carlton Lee Russell (left) from an episode of  the early 1990s comedy sketch show, "In Living Color." The actor on the right is Tony Cox.

"In the series, Mike tells Cooper, "We lived above a convenience store.  I mean it like it sounds".  Mike wants Cooper to take this statement literally.  This room truly existed in our world. "

I've never read that scene that way. My reading is that the convenience store is metaphorical. MIKE and BOB lived among the people. That is the convenience store. They had access to human victims whenever they wanted.  There was no material convenience store or Formica table any more than there was a love seat in the Red Room. Similarly, I don't necessarily believe that Phillip Gerard having one arm has anything to do with MIKE having cut off his "arm," i.e. TMFAP. I don't even see any evidence that any of that took place within the possible lifetime of Philip Gerard. BOB seems to have been on his own at least as far back as the childhood of Leland Palmer. I see no reason that MIKE's epiphany couldn't have happened 30 years before the murder of Laura Palmer or 5000 years before it. I think that a lot of people assume a short time frame because they think if MIKE and Phillip Gerard as being the same entity instead of a supernatural spirit and a human host.

I'm inclined to believe, with most things concerned with the Lodge(s), that what the human characters see and what we, the viewers, see are merely the closest approximation that a human mind can make for something outside of the laws of our universe (e.g. time and causation.) For me, it's similar to Stephen King's book, "It." People saw Pennywise as a clown, but that was merely a mask. And, when they attempted to look upon his real form, their minds showed them a giant spider to protect their sanity, because what he actually was wasn't comprehensible.

I've just written about this in the electrician thread, but it really struck me suddenly after I posted that the upturned bucket next to the jumping man has to indicate his place in the hierarchy of those present (which I'm sure there is - everyone's eyes are on the two figures at the table in the foreground, I think they're all waiting their turn to get garmonbozia, the whole scene reminds me of a drug dealer and his customers, what with the makeshift state of the room and what have you)

I thought up till just now that Bob & the MFAP had the most garmonbozia, but the jumping man clearly has the biggest container of all, and the fact that it's upside down (and that the jumping man is the most animated in the room, as if he's in a drug induced frenzy) suggests he has already eaten his share whole before the others began to divide it up.

I'm still unsure beyond that (I really liked the idea that he was cooper or jeffries) but now it seems unlikely that the jumping man is anything other than a high-up lodge spirit. It's such a confusing one though, if it was just the red suit I'd say for sure he was some part or representation of mike/MFAP  and if it was just the mask / slingshot i'd go for the grandson. The point about the grandson's mask having no eyes or mouth makes me think for some reason he is NOT connected directly to the jumping man... but I can't explain how mike could have a third entity as part of him either (or even fourth, as i swear that "one and the same" in the last episode actually meant the giant and the MFAP were the same being or on the same side)

I don't think the jumping man's ethnicity was ever a question... Even if he was wearing gloves or his hands were painted or something, his hair is clearly that of an African man.

Actually, first time I ever saw this character I thought it could possibly be a woman, and the mask and ritualistic style of dancing made me think of witch doctors and tribal stuff, like there was some kind of magic going on.

So, here's a thought. If I remember rightly, the grandson 'Pierre' is often referred to as the 'magician'? And he has the same mask and little slingshot looking thing that the jumping man does - only the jumping man is clearly an adult and has a better mask with eyes and things. What if the jumping man is some kind of magician, hence the 'voodoo/black magic' vibe, and 'Pierre' is like the junior magician, like the apprentice, who would take the jumping man's place in future generations (if such a thing as generations exist in the Black Lodge)? Could the eyeless mask 'Pierre' wears be some kind of 'apprentice' mask?

Black magic

The wooden item seems to more resemble a tree to me which could connect with Laura giving the sign language for a tree after she said “Meanwhile” to Cooper in the finale.

 The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer was made null and void by Lynch for FWWM on several points. I think it states that her parents gave it to her while in the film it suggests that Harold Smith gave it to her. Harold giving it to her makes far more sense. In the diary, Laura’s tale of Bobby murdering someone is contradicted by the depiction of Deputy Cliff’s murder in the film. To me the deleted scenes, while not to be depended exclusively on for a theory, at least have a little more credibility since Lynch wrote them even if he didn't use them later. They reveal an intention that was there and you can visually see in the film why they existed and where sometimes.

Since Pierre is not the boy's real name I like to think of him as "the boy". It's short and not strictly interpretational.

I haven't been here in almost 10 years.  I even forgot my username & had to re-join. 

 I agree with forgiveness.  Those are theories I was saying back in 2002.  To me the jumping man represents Coop, the boy represents Leland & the monkey is Laura.  First off it just makes sense.  Nothing else does make sense to me.  Also it makes the story more poignant & powerful.  I believe Twin Peaks to David Lynch was all about Laura.  If you don't get that, you can't begin to understand anything.  I know that statement may sound pompous but it's how I feel. 

We saw 2 people possessed by BOB in the series.  Those 2 people are Leland & Coop which = jumping man & little boy.  That's why they wear masks & carry tree like branches.  The monkey represents Laura.  She has not yet let Bob in but he's trying.  If BOB had gotten Laura to let him in the monkey then would have had to wear the mask.  Luckily Laura takes the ring, which protects her from possession, & the monkey is free of the mask & is greyish/bluish in color just like Laura's corpse.  During the convenience store meeting the monkey was brownish in color.

I believe it's Jeffries himself, for a pretty simple reason actually.

Where else would he be?

Okay, looking at the scene itself, though hidden in music and static and half-voice-overs, it is still pretty clear that what is happening in the scene is Phillip Jeffries telling Gordon/Dale/Albert about how he's "been to one of their meetings," IE the trial of BOB over garmonbozia by MIKE and the other spirits. He's relating it as a story that he personally witnessed. The Jumping Man is the first character we see in this "meeting" and it makes perfect sense, we go to his flashback and the first thing we see is... him. And of course later, when he says "I been to one of their meetings," we once again focus back on the Jumping Man.

Plus, just look at the picture previously linked: There's BOB and MIKE/Man from Another Place at the table, the Woodsman who is probably the Log Lady's husband far right, then on the couch another woodsman (mentioned in the script) and Mrs. Tremond/Chalfont and her grandson, and then the Electrician sitting in a chair. If the whole point is that he's witnessed one of their meetings, why would he not be there? Plus, the Jumping Man seems to be the only one doing his own thing, and not actively taking part in BOB's trial, which perfectly fits the idea of the confused and disoriented Jeffries freaking out, accidentally brought to a meeting of forces beyond his imagination.

Now WHY Jeffries looks like that, who knows? But then again Annie did appear to Laura in the clothes of a dead woman from Dale's memories, a woman who Annie never met, so stranger things can happen in the Lodge...:D

i just wanna point out that i'm quite positive that mrs. chalfont and the boy are ONE entity. 

notice the pattern in the entities with their backs to the far wall. logger on the couch, the other logger sitting in a chair next to it.  then, closer up, in between the back wall and the mfap/bob sitting at their formica table jumps the jumping man.  between the people in the back and the people in the front there is a space.

in the space is an unoccupied stool, to the right

and on the left, a bucket beside a smoking crate, apparent belonging to the jumping man.

i don't know what to make of it

Perhaps it's interesting to note that there is an EVEN number of people in the room, such that the characters can be arranged in pairs. Recall that BOB is Mike's familiar spirit (as explained on the show). The two woodsmen belong together, as do the Tremonds. That leaves us with the Electrician and the Jumping Man, both in the far left corner of the Lodge meeting. It would seem that, for each pair, we have a magician and a familiar. Since the Jumping Man wears the suit, I would posit that he is the magician and the Electrician is his familiar. Not only is the Electrician the one sitting closest to the Jumping Man but there is also some conceptual relation in the sense of smoke/electricity being involved.

Of course, this has nothing to do with theories linking the Tremonds or the Jumping Man to actual people in Twin Peaks (Leland, Cooper, etc). This interpretation really hearkens back to the more "literal" reading of the Lodge spirits as mythological dugpas (wizards).

 I just read the whole first post again and I have to say something about the "The Face of Mike" theory. I never said The Jumping Man would be the face of Mike. I just thought he could be The Face or The Mask in general, but not the face of some certain person or entity. Sure, The Arm is Mike's arm and thus a part of Mike. Mike used to kill people but after "seeing the face of God" and purifying from that experience he parted with his the part of his body he used to do evil things. So, The Arm (and LMFAP) might be a symbol for the tool people use to do evil things; their own limbs, hands, arms, their own physical force and power. After all, we see him (LMFAP, The Arm) being in action and very angry right at the same moment the murder of Laura is happening.

And if BOB could be a symbol for people's will to do evil, then The Jumping Man could be somekind of another symbol like that.

We have seen the Grandson wearing the mask in physical world. It has appeared in situations where the story has been dealing with hidden thoughts and deeds. Hidden personalities, hidden truths. Situations where there are indications of someone living a double-life, and trying to keep both lives hidden to each other.

The mask seems to be weared by this Jumping Man. But this time it's clearly not a mask that can be weared by someone. It seems to be the exact face of the Jumping Man. It seems like the mask is alive. Like Mrs. Tremod "said" in the script of FWWM: "Why not be composed of materials and combinations of atoms?" I know we can't directly connect things written in script to scenes that were actually put in the final film, but that line still seems to show how Lynch and Engels have been trying to show abstract things as persons and items; as materials and combinations of atoms. If we've seen the will to do evil as a man (BOB) and the physical "tool" we use to do evil as a man (LMFAP), perhaps there is a reason why we see this item, the mask, as a moving person. The item that's being used in scenes that tell us things about hiding things, thoughts and identities.