EFFORTPOST Roosterteeth, Red vs. Blue, and Caboose: The Joel Heyman Story

Happy weekend fellow r-slurs!

Last night, while doing my regular internet perusing, I learned that Roosterteeth announced that they're finally killing off ending Red vs. Blue, the flagship show that started the company. RvB had been in its death throes for some years now, with several seasons considered subpar, including an "offshoot" season that is easily regarded as the worst of the show and made the director of that season seethe about it for months on end (worth its own post).

That being said, with this new and final season making its appearance, some fans and myself were left wondering: what will happen to Caboose?

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I'm going to apologize in advance as a chunk of this drama will be based off memory. Many of the tweets and posts referenced here are no longer readily available or easy to find online.

For our dramatards who have never seen RvB, the show and company was founded by several former college friends and coworkers who enjoyed playing Halo together. RvB was dumb but funny internet schlock about a bunch of soldiers in a box canyon getting caught up in wacky adventures that turned into a melodrama after several seasons.

One such soldier was Caboose, voiced by Joel Heyman, who quickly arose as probably the most popular character for his insanely dumb statements, such as calling another character "a gay robot," not understanding the meaning of timelines, and other wackiness.

As the company grew, Joel supposedly did a lot of work behind the scenes. It's speculated that he helped RT secure major deals and clients, as early on they made commercials for companies like Gamestop and other brands. A long since deleted tweet of his states that he brought in millions of dollars of value to the company with the deals he helped secure. How true this may be is up in the air, but I personally don't see it as untruthful.

However, as is somewhat known here, RT was never without controversy. And as time went on, it seems Joel would be one of their major controversies.

Joel was not someone who was typically in the limelight. He did have an acting background, and would act in several of the shorts RT made, one such example here:

(note that all 5 men in this short are considered the founders of the company). Other than that, he would also appear on their podcast, making rants about buying gold, indicating some sort of financial interest background (likely why he handled all these deals). When he did appear though, he too quickly became a fan favorite like Caboose.

As time went on however, and fascism returned to America with the rise of Donald Trump, things began to break down between Joel and his coworkers. You see, Joel made a tactical blunder working for an online company based in Austin, Texas. He was a rightoid. A chud, if you will. And every now and then he would get into arguments online with fans and coworkers.

After one of America's mass shootings, noted bong RT employee Gavin Free made reference as to how he couldn't believe America continued to allow guns, or something to that effect. Joel entered a bickering match with him, and stated something along the lines of how if someone ever breaks into Gavin's home he may only then appreciate the ability to own a gun. This was especially ironic when a couple of years later some dude did break into Gavin's home, jealous of how Gavin was fricking only fans slut Meg Turney, and killed himself in Gavin's driveway.

Many RT fans began to feel different about Joel after that. Joel also entered a bickering match on Twitter with noted leftist soyboy coworker Jack Patillo, and Joel stated that Jack's leftist friends would likely at some point burn his house down. Even more goodwill from RT's fanbase was dissipated by this comment.

But this wasn't the worst of it all.

John McCain. American veteran, American politician, and cancer loser.

In 2017, midway through the reign of Trump, John McCain, stricken with cancer, crossed party lines on some pretty important vote regarding Obamacare to spite Trump. As of this moment, he was no longer a rightoid ally but a darling of American leftoids. Joel was somewhat bothered by this and as McCain neared the end of his time on this earthly realm a year later, and only a day or two after Joel's house burning comment to Jack, he made some joke about how McCain's cancer should have taken him sooner.

My god, Joel? How could you be so heartless about John McCain? Wishing cancer would kill someone sooner is so heartless.

The RT community could not stand it. To this day, bringing up Joel still causes people to cite this incident along with wildly misremembered quotes of the other incidents

(Joel wished people would break into Gavin's home and burn Jack's house down!) as reasons as to why they're glad he's gone.

Overtime, Joel was seen less and it seems that sometime around late 2019, he departed (or was fired from) the company quietly. Fans on Twitter are usually able to gleam some info from him and his current feelings about RT. He's made jokes about current RT, along with defending his cancer joke.

Other RT fans have noticed that RoosterTeeth have essentially disappeared Joel from the company. New videos discussing the founders refuse to mention him, and threads on the subreddits about him always get filled with speculation. Many seem to think he also makes racist jokes, though no one is ever able to provide proof of those (lmfao).

A glassdoor review mentioned some founder was fired for bringing a gun to work, and many believe Joel was said person, which he has stated is a lie.

While he also was a founder of the company, he also noted that he was never in an executive/management level and had no clues about the controversy that @AverageBen10Enjoyer discussed in this post here: https://rdrama.net/post/113460/lets-check-in-on-roosterteeth-marseyfine

To sum up Joel, he was a funny but off kilter rightoid that was never going to last at a company that was slowly spreading more and more into leftoid American idpol.

So where does that leave us today? With the announcement of the new season, fans are left wondering what will happen to Caboose. A short RvB video involving Caboose after Joel's departure used a different voice actor, but many noted that it didn't sound right. A small portion of fans are wishing for him back, which is unlikely. Other fans make sure to soapbox about how he isn't wanted back: https://old.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/14u8ey6/to_the_vocal_minority_trying_to_get_joel_back/

And speculate about what the show will do: https://old.reddit.com/r/roosterteeth/comments/14tej10/red_vs_blue_final_the_season_announcement/jr1x1qd/

In any case, Joel Heyman was easily one of the most dramatic happenings at RT in the early Trump years, before the sexual pests and trains came out of the woodwork. Joel is still active on Twitter being a rightoid and interacting with many rightoid former RT fans. RvB fans themselves are somewhat thankful the show is finally dying and Roosterteeth still somehow chugs along on what seems to be its very long death throes.