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Sleepy-eyed Joel Robinson

Joel Robinson is a fictional character featured in the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). He was portrayed by Joel Hodgson, the creator of the series.

Formerly a janitor for Gizmonic Insitute ("just another face in a red jumpsuit"), Joel was launched into space by Dr. Clayton Forrester as part of an experiment to see which bad movies were capable of destroying the human mind. Joel built the 'Bots Tom Servo, Crow, Gypsy and Cambot to keep him company, but used parts that apparently caused him to lose the ability to control when the films would stop and start in doing so. Though bombarded with many horrible films, he tends to take his captivity in benign stride, delivering most of his riffs in dead pan, holding no ill will against his captors and even affectionately calling them "the Mads" (among other amusing nicknames such as "the Overlords") while riffing on popular culture ("Auntie Em and Toto") or things found in Minnesota ("Milavetz and Associates", a prominent 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 teal (often worn during Season 2). From season three onward Joel typically wore a darker, maroon colored jumpsuit, though the original red jumpsuit remained in the show's intro and opening theme.

Joel and the Bots (left, Crow; right, Servo)

Joel was the host of MST3K from 1988 to 1993. Episode #512, Mitchell, was his last episode as host; beginning with the following episode (#513 The Brain That Wouldn't Die) he was replaced by Mike Nelson, played by series head writer Michael J. Nelson.

The character of Joel escaped the Satellite of Love (S.O.L.) in a previously undiscovered escape pod (named the Deus Ex Machina) mislabeled as a crate of "Hamdingers". After his departure he returned just once in the show's final season (episode 1001: Soultaker), having turned the escape pod into a homemade spaceship. He returned to the S.O.L. to make repairs and give Mike a pep talk. Joel reported that since leaving the ship, he had traveled around the Australian outback doing pyrotechnics for the band "Man or Astro-man?", and now works as a manager at a Hot Fish Shop in Osseo, Minnesota. In the real world, the only known Hot Fish Shop (motto: "Good food isn't cheap, and cheap food isn't good"), which ironically closed the weekend the episode of Joel's return aired, was located in Winona, Minnesota, not Osseo.

Joel was more a fatherly figure to the 'Bots and helped them get through all the bad movies the crew watched until Mike came along.

Joel's tenure as host was marked by "invention exchanges", where 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 early episodes with the show's second host, but was quickly done away with, as were any references to Gizmonic Institute, which Joel Hodgson owned the rights to.