Though he does not appear to physically age, Mr. Popo is very old, having served Kami, the Guardian of Earth, for hundreds of years. He also served Kami's predecessor, as well as the Guardians of Earth into the distant past.[1] Being the loyal and faithful servant that he is, his vocation covers a wide variety of areas, such as tending to Kami's palace and grounds, keeping the Lookout clean, training Earthlings and other creatures to deal with especially dangerous enemies of the planet (such as Piccolo Jr. at the end of Dragon Ball, and Vegeta and Nappa at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z), taking over the Lookout when the Guardian is away, odd and interesting tasks like helping to reconstruct Shenron if needed, and most importantly, supporting, serving, and caring for the current Guardian. He always has a deep emotional bond with the Guardian of the time and will become incredibly depressed or worried if they undergo any harm. He also tends to the ancient butterfly garden that he planted thousands of years ago, and enjoys the more simple things in life. He has a large amount of patience, and doesn't become irritated at people for lashing out easily, and often attempts to calm people down.

He is one of several Dragon Ball characters who openly and greatly appreciates the natural world (other examples being Android 8 and Android 16). Mr. Popo also commonly refers to himself in the third person. While in the Funimation dub, Mr. Popo speaks eloquently with highly sophisticated sentences, the Japanese version portrays him as a seemingly primitive figure.