When I GMed it at a game store to help bring awareness of the D&D ruleset to the local gamer community - I played him as a little silly, a little obnoxius, a little big cowardly, and a little lovable. The players ended up taking care of him, helping him with the dragon and queen, and taking him with them through the rest.
Then the gameshop owners younger son wanted to play, and I knew he had a short attention span (the game store owner was one of my best friends, which is how I got the job there in the first place) and had the right personallity, so I let him play Meepo. All the other players though it was cute, and so kept helping him out.
The son kept playing, and kept Meepo for his PC. Multiclassed Fighter, Sorcerer (mainly a level or two in fighter for the low level survivability factor).
The game lasted about two other adventures, till about 5th level. Meepo stayed the whole time.