Benson

Benson is the tritagonist of Regular Show. He is a gumball machine, also known as The Park's manager. As manager, he is the boss of every park worker (with the possible exception of Pops). He has a short temper and has a tendency of yelling at Mordecai and Rigby everytime they slack off. Benson made his debut in J.G. Quintel's animated short "2 in the AM PM", where one of the cashiers (voiced by Sam Marin) transformed into a prototype version of Benson after being drugged from candy. He then made his first appearance in the pilot. In the short film The Naive Man from Lolliland, proto-Pops calls his chauffeur Benson, however in the film Benson appears to be a human not a gumball machine. He is voiced by Sam Marin.

Appearance
Benson is a gumball machine (standing at 5'6"/5'7" and about 40 pounds) with pinkish purple/red gumballs enclosed by a glass dome, sunken eyes and a large, straight nose that just about overlaps his mouth. 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. If shown sick as shown in "Sandwich of Death", his gumballs will turn green. It has been hinted that Benson once had hair in "150 Piece Kit,"  when one of the band members of Hair to the Throne had insulted Benson by asking him, "What happened to your hair?" and calling him chrome-dome, with Benson responding that it's hereditary, although the band members were shown to all be wearing wigs at the end. Also, in Benson's flashback in "Stick Hockey", Benson was shown to have long black hair. But in "Peeps," he had some stubble where his gumballs were for a short period of time, which could've meant he was growing a beard, even though this was the only episode showing it in his real-life self. In total, there has been three times Benson had facial hair. As already mentioned, Benson had stubble for a short period of time in "Peeps." The other two times were in the episodes "Jinx" and "More Smarter," In "Jinx," he had a full beard in his negative demon form, and he had stubble in his barbaric form in "More Smarter," hinting he is able to grow facial hair. In the episode "Expert or Liar" Benson is shown ripping his hair out during a flashback after losing on a game show.

Personality
Benson is easily the most short-tempered character of all. Whenever he is greatly upset, Benson loses his temper, turning varying shades of red, and always threatening to fire Mordecai and Rigby, usually by yelling, although he can be sassy and sarcastic as well. 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, he'll reward 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. Some notable examples are "Think Positive", when Benson almost killed himself and others because he got so angry, that he went into a freak fireball, and when he finally cracked, he yelled at Mordecai and Rigby so hard that they temporarily became tone-deaf. Also, in "Busted Cart," he got so mad at Mordecai and Rigby for pit-stopping at an arcade while he was asleep that he actually began to cry. He is shown to be somewhat psychotic, as he has a tendency to flip out in anger, a running gag in the series. An example is in "Jinx," when Rigby threw trash at him. Benson flipped out by throwing a trash can into the sky and kicking it angrily. Benson has also gotten physical with Mordecai and Rigby in "The Best Burger in the World," when he kicked them onto the ground.


 * Determined - Benson is very single-minded, which only poses as a detriment for himself, as seen in "Peeps," "Fortune Cookie," "Think Positive," "150 Piece Kit," 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. Also, in "150 Piece Kit," he proved that he could drum better than a robot with his 150 piece kit.


 * Stick Hockey Expert - Benson also has a mysterious past where he was a very skilled stick hockey player known as "The Death Dragon," as seen in "Stick Hockey." He is shown playing stick hockey with Mordecai and Rigby in "Benson Be Gone."


 * Archery - In "But I Have a Receipt," Benson uses a bow and arrow to defeat monsters.


 * Motorcyclist - In "Busted Cart," Mordecai and Rigby ditch Benson at an arcade and drive off toward the cart dealership, so Benson asks a guy with a motorcycle how much he wants for the bike. He then takes it, and drives full speed trying to catch up to Mordecai and Rigby.


 * Bus Driver - In "Just Set Up the Chairs," Benson has to drive a bus full of kids to the park for a birthday party.


 * Stingy - Benson is shown to be an occasional cheapskate to his workers. Despite obliging everyone to show up at Karaoke Night, he only offers to treat them with one song each, so the food and drinks are on them. In the episode "Over the Top," Benson would only pay for drinks up to $1.50. He also demands Rigby to pay for the crate of eggs he took during Halloween. However, during his streak of good luck in the episode "Fortune Cookie," he buys the whole cart of food for the gang in the restaurant.


 * Cat Person - Benson seems to be a cat person, due to all the cat portraits inside his apartment. However, this could be incorrect, as seen in "Out of Commission," when Rigby tells Mordecai about a dog they took to Cheezer's, and it ran away. The dog belonged to Benson. In A Skips in Time, his check book has pictures of cats.


 * Lonely - Benson can possibly be looking for a date. In "Grilled Cheese Deluxe," there is a hidden cameo in which Benson is looking at a page on the internet with other gumball machines, but this is only shown for two seconds. He seems interested in Audrey in "Weekend at Benson's."


 * Slacker - He has only been seen slacking off in the episode, "Benson Be Gone," when he slacks off with Mordecai and Rigby instead of following Susan's commands. He also does it a little in "Skips Strikes," when he shouts "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" with the group. Benson also shouts "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" in "Benson Be Gone" after Susan fires him.


 * Pinball Expert - Benson was shown to be an expert at pinball in "The Christmas Special." He played a pinball machine so the gang could cross the bridge to the lava pit.
 * Partying - Benson finally cut loose after successfully asking Audrey out in "Party Re-Pete" after he was abducted by Party Savers and forced to serve them in clone-form as "Party Benson."  By the end of the episode, Mordecai, Rigby and the "Real" Party Pete all admit Benson is the best at partying.
 * Nauseous - Benson displays a tendency to get easily nauseated by a disgusting sight, as seen in "Peeps" and "Terror Tales of the Park".
 * Sore Loser - As shown in "Dodge This" , Benson is very competitive, and when he loses the dodgeball tournament, he doesn't take it well.
 * Drunk on Wings - Whenever Benson eats chicken wings, he tends to talk in a straight-up kind of way, as shown in Dodge This and Gold Watch.
 * Trust Issues -  As seen in "Blind Trust" Pops brings them to a forest and Mordecai and Rigby have to train him so  Benson can trust them. The training escalates when Benson tries to walk away.

Mordecai and Rigby
Benson strongly disapproves of Mordecai and Rigby, always screaming at them to stop slacking off. The pair have a talent for setting off Benson's short fuse. In the episode "Cool Bikes," however, he admits that Mordecai and Rigby are the coolest guys he knows of. Even though they rarely get along, it is shown in "Busted Cart" that Benson does not hate Mordecai and Rigby, he just wishes they would get along and listen to him so Benson doesn't lose his job. It should be noted when they're on their own, Benson seems to treat Mordecai with more respect and trust than Rigby. Anytime when Benson gets angry at them it is either as a duo, or it's just at Rigby. A good example is in, "Terror Tales of The Park 2" when he got in a pushing match with Rigby. Benson's animosity towards the duo tends to stem from Rigby's behavior. He recognizes Mordecai's ability to get his job done if not for Rigby's bad influence on him. Mordecai loses his temper with Benson in the episode "Eggscellent," after which Mordecai later apologizes and describes Benson as "A jerk most of the time but still a good friend." In general, Benson gets along better with Mordecai and Rigby than he did earlier in the series, but still must yell and threaten to fire them frequently in order to ensure that they do their jobs and clean up the chaos wrought by their misadventures. In "Blind Trust," Benson, Mordecai and Rigby all admit they love each other during a near-death experience, and in "World's Best Boss," Rigby admits that while Benson often yells at him and Mordecai, it's usually their fault. Benson even choked Mordecai in "Gold Watch".

Pops
Pops and Benson, the park managers, seem to be very good friends. Still, Pops sometimes reprimands Benson for his yelling and short temper with Mordecai and Rigby, and, rarely, Benson scolds Pops for his childish attitude. Pops once even threatened to fire Benson for his anger issues before realizing it was the wrong thing to do.

Skips
Skips and Benson are very good friends. Due to Skips' knowledge of the unknown, Benson will sometimes go to Skips for help. Since Skips doesn't slack off like Mordecai and Rigby, Benson has a lot of respect for him, never really yelling at him like he does to Mordecai and Rigby. Benson considers Skips to be very reliable.

Muscle Man and Hi Five Ghost
Muscle Man and Hi Five Ghost don't communicate with Benson much, but they usually have his trust and respect. Even though Muscle Man and Hi Five Ghost slack off more than Mordecai and Rigby, Benson doesn't seem to mind because unlike Mordecai and Rigby, they get their jobs done. But in season 3, he began to get annoyed by them. Benson seems to be annoyed with Muscle Man more than Hi Five Ghost, mainly because of his 'My Mom' jokes. In fact, Benson only showed negativity toward Hi Five Ghost when he threatened to be fired along with Muscle Man, but he still doesn't yell at him at all. He is not above getting angry with Muscle Man in the same fashion as he does with Mordecai and Rigby as he did in "Firework Run."

Dave
In "Stick Hockey," Dave was Benson's student and was killed by Chong who snapped his head off. Until then he was avenged by Benson after beating Chong in Stick Hockey game.

Mr. Maellard
Mr. Maellard strongly disproves and disgraces Benson. Just like how Benson threatens to fire Mordecai and Rigby, Mr. Maellard does the same to Benson. He calls him names such as "Bean Bag" and "Ball Bucket." He even blames Benson for everything Mordecai and Rigby did in the park. Though, in "Busted Cart," it is shown that Mr. Maellard began trusting Benson, until Mordecai and Rigby crash the golf cart. Also, in "Benson Be Gone," even after his car being totaled and a former employee being killed, Mr. Maellard shows some happiness towards Benson. Maellard also recognizes his efforts in Pops' successful inauguration of a park statue in "Dizzy".

Audrey
In "Weekend at Benson's," a woman named Audrey, who lives across the hall from Benson, appears to have a crush on him, and was greatly disappointed that Benson would be unable to attend her party (having, unbeknownst to her, been knocked out by Mordecai and Rigby), as she wanted a chance to get to know him better. Mordecai and Rigby then took Benson to the party, hoping that Audrey's interest would keep Benson from getting mad at them when he woke up. When Audrey's ex-boyfriend Chuck wanted to see how manly Benson was, he challenged him to a hot food eating contest. When Benson woke up after his injury, he wanted to impress Audrey, so he continued the challenge, despite being subjected to the hallucinatory effects of Chuck's drink "The Mississippi Queen." At the end of the episode, after waking up from his hallucinations Benson discovered that he'd finally got Audrey's number. In "The Christmas Special," Audrey attends the Park's Christmas party and compliments Benson on his fearlessness for wearing the "worst sweater ever," unaware that Benson was not wearing it ironically.

In "Party Re-Pete," Benson has successfully asked Audrey out on a date, and celebrates by impressing her with his party skills. At the end of the episode, after Benson has been rescued from Party Savers, he is seen partying with Audrey again.

In "Skips in the Saddle", Benson claims that he is taking Audrey to a jazz concert, possibly hinting that the two may be growing closer together.

However, in Real Date, it is revealed Benson is apperantly still single, meaning that they aren't dating yet, despite growing closer to one another.

Chong
His arch-enemy and rival in "Stick Hockey," He is responsible for using a deadly cheat tricks to kept him away from losing to his opponent, such as killing Benson's apprentice, Dave. Benson ultimately defeats Chong in the game and avenges his apprentice's death.

Susan
Susan replaced him in the episode "Benson Be Gone" when Mr. Maellard appointed her as park manager. He gets demoted to a park worker and as a result, he disobeys her orders and resigns from his occupation. He eventually ousts her and gets his job back.

Gene
In "Prankless," it is seen that he has a rivalry with the East Pines manager Gene. However in "The Christmas Special," Gene showed some trust to Benson and took them to the lava pit.

Family
Benson's Family are the people who encouraged Benson to yell to get what he wants - which is why he yells at Mordecai and Rigby, and has a short temper. In "Think Positive," it is shown his family was always arguing, as young Benson just sat and watched. When he wanted salt, his father encouraged him to yell if he wanted it.

In "Journey to the Bottom of the Crash Pit", towards the end, Mordecai, Hi Five Ghost, Rigby, & Muscle Man come out of the car and gave him the camera. Benson looks at them funny, asking why they risked their lives for the camera, and Mordecai says it was park property and they could not replace it, causing Rigby to add on that it was his for his family's reunion. Benson looks at them thoughtfully, telling them thank you, before looking up and wondering aloud, "Maybe now my Dad will stop yelling at me", Revealing that even though he is an adult, he is still yelled at by his elders.

Benson-Themed Content

 * Benson's Apartment (Some episodes)


 * Benson's Drum Set ("This Is My Jam")


 * Benson's Family ("Think Positive")


 * Benson's House Rules ("House Rules")


 * Benson's Office (Some episodes)


 * Benson's Outfit


 * Benson's Car ("Party Pete," "Over the Top," "Skips Strikes," "Fortune Cookie," "Picking Up Margaret" and Benson's Car)


 * "Benson Be Gone" (Episode that focuses around Benson and Susan)


 * Benson's 150 Piece Kit Drumset ("150 Piece Kit")

Trivia

 * Benson is spoofed in one episode of the TV show, MAD. In the episode, Benson appeared in a snipet called "Celebrites Without Their Make-Up", and said that actor Zack Galifianakis "looked like a regualr guy" without make-up, and a make-up brush paints Benson's face of Galifianakis' face.
 * 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.
 * It is revealed in "Think Positive" that Pops is Benson's boss whenever Mr. Maellard is not around.
 * In both "Dizzy" and "Benson Be Gone," Mr. Maellard says Benson's name as "Beanbag," "Bean Teen," "Beanton," "Beenson," and "Ball Bucket." However in "Busted Cart" Mr. Maellard gets his name correctly.
 * He was based on a convenience store clerk, named Sam after his voice actor, in J.G. Quintel's short film, "2 in the AM PM" who briefly turns into a gumball machine.
 * 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 (who looks nothing like Benson from Regular Show), 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.
 * 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 yet to become official. The fact that he plays the drums very well supports the band idea, especially since he played a legendary drum solo for a band named Hair to the Throne.
 * 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.
 * Benson's stick hockey nickname is "Death Dragon."
 * Benson has fired employees nine (technically eight) times in the series so far, in "Don," "Benson Be Gone," "Really Real Wrestling," "Under the Hood," "Weekend at Benson's," "Replaced," "Muscle Mentor," "Terror Tales of the Park II," and "Firework Run." Most of these times, it was Rigby (and often Mordecai) that was fired. It didn't count in Terror Tales of the Park 2 because everyone was dead before it could be official.
 * Benson is one of five Park Employees to get fired and then rehired. The Other four being Muscle Man, Mordecai, Rigby, and Hi Five Ghost. Out of all of them, it only happened to Benson once where he was fired by Susan but was about happen a second time when he was almost fired by Pops for his anger. Pops, Skips were the only ones who were never fired Skips helps out Benson a lot, and Pops is the other park manager.
 * Benson knew about "the coffee girl" in "Yes Dude Yes," even though he hasn't seen Margaret face-to-face.
 * In "Out of Commission" and "Blind Trust," 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.
 * In "Busted Cart," when he finds that Mordecai and Rigby have been wasting time at a video game arcade, he starts to cry very hard. This is probably the only time so far we've seen this side to Benson.
 * Benson can be crabby around kids revealed in "Fuzzy Dice," and (possibly) "Just Set Up the Chairs."
 * Benson genuinely enjoys working at the Park, even turning down the opportunity to reunite with Hair to the Throne to keep working there.
 * In "TGI Tuesday," he met Eileen for the first time, but he already knew her name. This could be because Eileen was shown in "One Pull Up" and off screen, she could have talked to Benson, but this is unconfirmed.
 * Benson is shown to be left handed. You can tell in "Just Set Up the Chairs," if you look closely during the first part. But in "House Rules," he is seen writing something down with his right hand. Either he may be ambidextrous or this could be an error on the storyboard artists part.
 * Benson has had three jobs so far. A champion stick hockey player, skilled drummer for Hair to The Throne and a park manager.
 * It is known that Benson can in fact dispense gumballs, although it has only happened once throughout the series. Evidence being in the episode, "The Unicorns Have Got to Go" a unicorn turns the dial on Benson and two gumballs are dispensed.
 * In "Busted Cart" it shows that Benson doesn't hate Mordecai and Rigby, he just hates the things they do.
 * Benson's gumballs do not move realistically when inside his head, most clearly shown in "Pie Contest" when Benson is thrown by Promise Pie and his gumballs do not move at all.
 * They can be heard rattling in his head on several occasions, however.
 * Benson looks a bit different when he first appears in "Starter Pack" in his office (his headpiece/hat is positioned and shaped a bit differently, his body and arms seem fatter, and his eyes seem bigger). However, he appears a second later in the living room looking normal.
 * For a split second in "Think Positive," Benson's headpiece/hat has a paler color scheme than normal.
 * As revealed in the episode "World's Best Boss", Benson has worked at the park for 10 years.
 * In "Guitar of Rock", it is revealed that Benson is a huge Bruce Rock fan.
 * Benson, Muscle Man, Starla, and Reginald are the only characters who seem to have anger problems.
 * Several things were revealed about Benson in the episode "Expert or Liar":
 * He appeared on an old game show called "Say That Word!"
 * He use to have a full head of hair, and he use to wear glasses.
 * This fact also proves that Benson is bald.
 * If Benson won the game, he was going to quit his job at the park, which reveals he's been working there since he was younger.
 * When he lost in the game show, he lost all of his hair, and he was humiliated and people mocked him by calling him "banana."
 * In the episode "Gold Watch", it is revealed that Benson likes to "play it safe." He even admits to setting three alarms every night and eating stale toast when he wakes up so that he isn't late for work.
 * It is also revealed in Gold Watch that Benson loves wings, although they seem to put him in a drunken state every time he eats them, which is also revealed in the episode Dodge This.

Gallery


The gallery for Benson can be viewed here.

Benson