Joel Robinson
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Joel Robinson is a fictional character on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). He was portrayed by Joel Hodgson, the creator of the series. Stated reasons why Joel did not use his actual last name include that Robinson would be easier to pronounce.
Formerly a janitor for Gizmonic Insitute ("just another face in a red jumpsuit"), Joel built the 'Bots Tom Servo, Crow, Gypsy and Cambot to keep him company, but lost 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 riffing on popular culture ("Auntie Em and Toto") or things found in Minnesota ("Milavetz and Associates", a prominent Twin Cities-area law firm)).
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 Astroman, and now works as a manager at a Hot Fish Shop in Osseo, Minnesota. (In the real world, the only known Hot Fish Shop, 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. This worked well for creator Hodgson, who was a gifted prop comic.