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| “ | Rigby, I'm proud of you. Not only did you last the whole day without quitting, but you applied to what you learned from your mentor to keep your job. Welcome back. | „ |
| ~ Benson when he told Rigby that he is proud of him when he passed the mentorship program |
Benson is a high-tempered gumball machine and an anti-hero but a tritagonist character of Regular Show.
When calm, he sounds almost monotone, but when mad, he turns red and screams in an ear-bleading way. He cannot stand Mordecai and Rigby's irresponsible behavior, and threatens to fire them. Next to Skips, He is also the only serious worker of the park, although he still seems to have a sense of humor.
Despite his disapproval of Mordecai and Rigby, he still considerably likes them, as he has invited them to special celebrations, and most notably in the episode Stick Hockey, he risked himself to help the two. He also admitted the two were cool in Cool Bikes helped saved them from the cool police, and in Eggscellent, after Benson helps Mordecai train for the omelte challenge, Mordecai tells Benson that even though he acts like a jerk, he's a true friend. In Think Positive, while he's yelling at Mordecai and Rigby after pops finally allows him to, he mentions he's trying to teach them responsibility. From that point, he also promised to yell less of the time. He has also admitted he does not hate Mordecai and Rigby, just some of the things they do.
Appearance
Benson is a gumball machine with pinkish purple/red gumballs enclosed by a glass dome and sunken eyes. The gumballs may act as facial hair for Benson, as noted by story boarder Benton Connor. It is also worth noting that the dispenser slot sits in a rather phallic position. The turn switch on his chest is shaped like a heart symbol, hinting that's probably where his heart is. When his latch is open, it is considered to him being naked, as well as his private area.
Personality
Benson in an angry mood.
Benson is easily the most short-tempered character of all. Whenever he is greatly upset (usually
in the form of Mordecai and Rigby slacking off), Benson loses his temper, turning varying shades of red. He'll even make big deals out of the smallest of things. Aside from this, Benson is usually calm, and in fact, enjoys being social, even with his two most disliked people. Whenever Benson is in a good mood (which happens more often after the episode Benson Be Gone), Benson rewards his employees with time off, usually in the form of nightly entertainment or dining out.
Skills/Habits
- Short Temper - Benson is characterized by his extreme mood swings.
- Determined - Benson is very single-minded, which only poses as a detriment for himself, as seen in Peeps, Fortune Cookie, and several other episodes.
- Drummer - In This Is My Jam, it is shown that Benson has a mysterious past where he was formerly a very skilled drummer.
- Stick Hockey Expert - Benson also has a mysterious past where he was a very skilled stick hockey player, as seen in Stick Hockey.
- Blame Placement - Benson blames EVERYTHING that goes on on Mordecai and Rigby, even when it's not their fault or not intentional.
Trivia
- The name Benson is of English origin. The meaning of Benson is "son of ben".
- Benson is spoofed in one episode of the TV show, MAD.
- In "Rage Against the TV", it's revealed that he lives in an apartment and not at the park with the others.
- Benson's apartment number is 1635.
- Even though Benson has anger issues, he has been shown to also have a sense of humor.
- Benson is first seen as a boring, regular manager, but then would be extremely loud and bad-tempered if ever angry.
- In both Dizzy and Benson Be Gone, Mr. Maellard says Benson's name as "Beanbag", "Bean Teen", "Beanton", "Beenson" and "Bean Bucket".
- He is a skilled drummer, as seen in the episode This Is My Jam. He says his ways of drumming are a "funny story", but was interrupted by Rigby before he could say anymore.
- In "Brain Eraser", Benson's towel fell off, revealing an open hatch (which is his possible "junkmail"); this may be his equivalent of being naked.
- On a side note, previously in Latin America, when Benson's towel falls off, that part is cut.
- Benson might be a cat person; in "Rage Against the TV," a picture with cats on it can be seen in his apartment. Also in Prank Callers, the same picture of cats appears behind Benson when he is sitting in his chair.
- In Grilled Cheese Deluxe, Benson can be seen looking at other gumball machines on the computer, a hidden innuendo that suggests that Benson was possibly looking for a date.
- The name Benson was taken from J.G Quintel's student film The Naive Man from Lolliland because the Lolliland Man's driver is named Benson, later used for the gumball machine manager in the series.
- He fired Mordecai and Rigby in Really Real Wrestling, but after Pops explained everything, he rehired them; this is the first time that Benson actually keeps to his threats, despite it being taken back after Pops explains the truth.
- After the events of Benson Be Gone, he loosened up slightly - while he still gets angry if Mordecai and Rigby mess up, he is more willing to accept their apologies, and has even taken them on nights out.
- He seems much nicer in Over The Top, due to the fact that Mordecai and Rigby don't play as the main protagonists and are not causing any chaos.
- In Karaoke Video, it was revealed that Benson turns red visibly at night.
- Benson's anger is usually directed at Mordecai and Rigby but there have been times where he has gotten angry only at Rigby; in fact, there hasn't been a time where he was only angry with Mordecai. He has gotten angry at Muscle Man at one occasion and has to of yet been angered by Skips or Hi Five Ghost (though his anger may have been directed to both Muscle Man and Hi Five Ghost when Benson got angry with Muscle Man).
- In a deleted scene from Mordecai and the Rigbys, it was revealed that Benson once had a girlfriend named Veronica, but she left him for a business man. Due to him being a hippie, it was also implied that he was in a band; however, this has to as of yet become canon (official). The fact that he plays the drums very well (This is My Jam) supports the band idea.
- There have currently been four occurrences when Benson's gumballs came out of his hatch: twice in Season One and twice in Season Three; the first instance was in Caffeinated Concert Tickets when he dropped his gumballs after almost crashing into a speeding lawn mower, the second instance is in The Unicorns Have Got To Go when the unicorn punks took two gumballs from Benson while he was tied up to a door, the third and fourth was in In the House, where he vomited up his gumballs and when he was flushed down the toilet.
- It is revealed in Stick Hockey that Benson once had hair and that he is good at stick hockey and he also has spent most of his life playing it.
- Benson's family taught him that yelling is a key to life.
- Benson's face becomes red onscreen in Prank Callers, Appreciation Day, Karaoke Video, and Think Positive in My Mom and Replaced, his face fades from red back to normal.
- Benson was the most angered in Think Positive, the second time he was angered the most was in Jinx when Rigby threw garbage at him so he can say Rigby's name three times.
- Benson's stick hockey nickname is "Death Dragon."
- In Weekend at Benson's, it's shown that he has a crush on his neighbor Audrey. At the end, he gets her number, which may lead to her being his girlfriend. Audrey is seen again in "Fortune Cookie" where the janitor accidentally sucks Benson's robe off while the two are in the hall, leaving him nude in front of Audrey. Audrey didn't have a speaking line in "Fortune Cookie", though.
- In Think Positive, when he was a child, he used to be the quiet one in his family, until his father told him that yelling is the key to get anything he wants in life.
- He knew how to break the tie in First Day, which is possibly due to him breaking a tie when he was young, or he could have had employees before Mordecai and Rigby who had to break a tie.
- Benson has fired employees seven times in the series so far: in Don (Episode), he fired Muscle Man, in Benson Be Gone, he fired Susan, in Really Real Wrestling, he fired Mordecai and Rigby, in Under the Hood, he fired Muscle Man and Hi Five Ghost, in Weekend at Benson's, he fired Mordecai and Rigby again, and in Replaced, he fired Mordecai and Rigby for the third time, and in Muscle Mentor, he fired Rigby.
- Benson usually turns red when he is angry, however, there is one exception at the end of Karaoke Video where Benson turns rather a shade of fuchsia pink.
- Benson called Margaret "the coffee girl" in Yes Dude Yes, even though he hasn't seen Margaret face-to-face, meaning he has overheard Mordecai talk about her.
- In Out of Commission, it was revealed that Benson had a dog. He let Mordecai and Rigby watch it, but it ran away when they were at Cheezer's.
- It's his own fault whenever he's mad.