Joel Robinson

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For the American artist and designer, see Joel Robinson (graphic designer).
Joel Robinson
Mystery Science Theater 3000 character
Joel Robinson in a season 2 episode
First appearanceK00 – The Green Slime
Last appearance512 – Mitchell (original hosting run) 1312 - The Bubble
Created byJoel Hodgson
Portrayed byJoel Hodgson
In-universe information
SpeciesHuman
GenderMale
OccupationManager at a Hot Fish Shop in Osseo, Minnesota, as of 1001 – Soultaker Former Pyrotechnician for "Man or Astro-man?"

Joel Robinson is a fictional character featured in the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). He was portrayed by series creator Joel Hodgson. If counting the locally-produced episodes, Joel Robinson is the show's longest-tenured host with 107 episodes (86 if not counting the aforementioned episodes) on television. He also returned as an occasional host in the online Season 13.

Overview

The show's theme song explains Joel's backstory: Formerly a janitor and inventor for

Twin Cities
-area law firm).

As the opening theme song said, Joel generally wore a red jumpsuit during most of his time as host, but on occasion would wear other colors, such as tan (during the show's first improvisation season on KTMA) or green or bright aqua colored (often worn during Season 2). From season 2 episode 212 through his departure in episode 512, Joel wore a darker, maroon-colored jumpsuit, though the original red jumpsuit (and second season green one) remained in the show's intro and opening theme.

Joel was the host from 1988–93. Episode #512,

Mike Nelson, played by series head writer Michael J. Nelson
.

During Mitchell, Gypsy overheard The Mads talking about eliminating Mike, the temp worker who was assisting them with an "evil-scientist audit". Hearing them refer to Mike as a "be-jumpsuited fool" and thinking they were actually talking about Joel, she struggled to think of some way to help Joel escape his alleged fate. Joel escaped the

Satellite of Love (SOL) in a previously undiscovered escape pod (named the Deus Ex Machina
) mislabeled as a crate of "Hamdingers" that Mike told Gypsy about. Mike managed to override The Mads' control over the SOL so that Gypsy could get Joel into the escape pod and launch it. After Joel's departure from the SOL, the Mads tried to "rescue" him, but gave up seconds later when they discovered that he had already safely landed in the Australian Outback. Instead of killing Mike, as they initially planned, they sent him up to take Joel's place.

After Joel's departure he returned just once, in the show's final season (episode 1001:

pyrotechnics for the band "Man or Astro-man?", and that he was currently working as a manager at a Hot Fish Shop in Osseo, Minnesota. (In reality, the most famous Hot Fish Shop in Minnesota [1] had closed the weekend that episode 1001 aired, although the shop was located in Winona, Minnesota
, rather than Osseo.)

After his departure, Joel was never directly mentioned until his appearance in Soultaker. However, he was indirectly referred to in the episode Santa Claus when Gypsy gives Mike a sweater as a gift, with the word "Joike" written on it, explaining that she had started knitting it when "the other guy" was present, but finished it after Mike's arrival. He was again indirectly referenced in Time Chasers by Mike's brother Eddie (who, due to a time travel mistake caused by Crow, was now in Mike's place on the SOL), who called him the "sleepy-eyed guy". After his visit in Soultaker, he was mentioned again in episode 1004 (Future War) during the film's credits. Mike attempts to do something Joel-esque, worrying the Bots, and Crow eventually asks if this has anything to do with Joel stopping by recently. Joel was referenced again in episode 1008 (Final Justice), when Mike believed he could escape after "suffering though a horrible Joe Don Baker movie" like Joel had previously (the Bots revealed that Mike's escape pod was actually the ship's water heater).

Joel's tenure as host was marked by "invention exchanges", during which Joel and his mad scientist tormentors would come up with wacky inventions in a contest with each other. These sketches were a good match for Hodgson, who began his career as a

prop comic
; indeed, many of the inventions were items originally found in his standup act. The gag remained during the early episodes with Mike as host, but was done away with (since the writers wanted to focus on Mike's strengths in portraying various comic characters), as were any references to the Gizmonic Institute, to which Hodgson owned the rights. The in-show reasoning behind the disposal of invention exchanges was that they were part of Gizmonic corporate culture, about which Mike (having never worked at the Institute) knew nothing. Another change was the relationship between host and bots; whereas Joel was more of a parental authority figure to Crow and Servo (in keeping with his status as their creator), the pair treated Mike more as a peer, occasionally subjecting him to pranks which they never would have considered playing on Joel.

Joel's "sleepy eyed" persona was reportedly the result of Hodgson staying up all night working non-stop on the pilot, which was kept after the pilot was shot because the crew and other performers thought it was funny. Off-camera, Hodgson wears eyeglasses, which were occasionally seen when he turns his head in profile during scenes in the theater, but was very frequently seen in the Kickstarter videos and other promotional appearances.

Name

In the pilot episode of MST3K, Hodgson simply used his real name. During its run on

Comedy Channel, Joel's last name was never mentioned on air. During the second nationally broadcast season, his character began using the surname Robinson, after the protagonist of Lost in Space.[1] (When Hodgson was later interviewed on Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Space Ghost
referred to him as "Mr. Lost in Space himself, Joel Robinson".)

References

  1. ^ Jack Hagerty and Jon Rogers, The Saucer Fleet (Ontario: Apogee Books, 2008), 116, 278.

External links

Joel Robinson
Media offices
Preceded by
First
 Host/Test Subject Succeeded by
Mike Nelson
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