Hodgson was born in Stevens Point, Wisconsin in 1960. He was raised in an Evangelical Christian upbringing, and later claimed that the various shows his church would put on had a profound influence on his Desire to become an entertainer. Hodgson began his career in seventh grade as a Magician and Ventriloquist. Joel performed for local events in his hometown of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and attended Ashwaubenon High School. Upon graduation, Joel moved to Minneapolis to attend Bethel University (Minnesota) to study Theatre and Mass Media. While there, Joel further developed his magic act by adding comedy and began opening for musical acts at Bethel as well as performing in coffee houses and comedy clubs. Joel cites a Theatre of the Absurd class at Bethel taught by Dr. David Horn for helping him crystallize the meaning of his comedy. In 1981 he won the Campus Comedy Contest and then the first annual Twin Cities Comedy Invitational in 1982. In November of the same year Joel moved to Los Angeles where he became a regular performer at the Comedy Store and the Hollywood Magic Castle, as well as the Comedy Magic Club. At the Comedy Magic Club, Joel was spotted by Late Night with David Letterman Producer Barry Sand and three months later at age 22 had his network television debut. He later made four other appearances on the Letterman show, as well as four on Saturday Night Live as a guest act. Joel also was a featured performer on HBO’s "Eighth Annual Young Comedians Special" hosted by John Candy along with Bill Maher, Paula Poundstone, and the Amazing Johnathan.
Between 1984 and 1988, Joel's 'official' return to comedy, he built and sold sculptures, worked at a T-shirt factory, designed toys, and began designing and building props (including robots) for other comedians. In 1986 he co-wrote an HBO special with Jerry Seinfeld. He was also considered for the role of Woody Boyd in Cheers. He met Jim Mallon in 1987, and Mallon became production manager at the St. Paul UHF station KTMA Channel 23 in 1988. Hodgson was the first choice to portray "Philo" in the "Weird Al" Yankovic film UHF, but at the time of the filming (1988), he had begun the production of a new form of television program for KTMA.
He worked at the Comedy Store while in LA, also doing traveling stand-up in San Jose, San Francisco, Detroit, Kansas City and Minneapolis. Joel left stand-up in 1985, citing the need for a creative sabbatical, and moved back to Minneapolis.
Building on his gift for designing toys and other gizmos, Hodgson built three robot puppets and created MST3K in 1988. He starred as the show's long-suffering but inventive protagonist, Joel Robinson, who in the backstory is responsible for creating his own robot companions. Hodgson has claimed that the 1972 film Silent Running influenced the premise of the show.
Hodgson surprised many fans when he left MST3K after its 107th episode, Mitchell in 1993. Hodgson's departure was scripted into the episode with the robot, Gypsy, ejecting Joel from the Satellite of Love in an escape pod after incorrectly believing Joel's captors were plotting to kill him. Michael J. Nelson replaced Hodgson on the series as host for the remainder of the series' run. In contemporary interviews, Hodgson stated he was uncomfortable with acting and being in front of the camera, citing that as the reason he quit the show. During a 1999 interview with The A.V. Club, Hodgson added that he and Producer Jim Mallon had been fighting over creative control of MST3K. His departure allowed the show to continue and gave him the opportunity to focus more on his preferred creation and production work than on performing, which he did only reluctantly.
Hodgson was featured as the cover story in the November 1996 issue of Genii magazine.
In 1999 Hodgson played a recurring role as a disco-loving clothing store salesman and DJ on the television show Freaks and Geeks.
On October 30, 2007, Hodgson announced he was starting a new show with the same "riffing on bad movies" premise as MST3K called Cinematic Titanic, together with former MST3K cast and crew members Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, Frank Conniff and Mary Jo Pehl.
In a 2008 interview with Public Radio International's The Sound of Young America, Hodgson said of his departure from MST3K, "I was, like, totally happy at Mystery Science Theater. I loved it. I wanted to stay, but I was basically having a fight with my partner, Jim Mallon. So we weren't getting along and so I just felt like -- I thought it really could possibly jeopardize the show. It would have been easy to create factions out of the group. And by that time it would not have been a fun show to work on. And so, I felt like I saw it coming and I just thought [leaving] was the best thing at the time."
In 2012, he began touring a one-man show detailing his life and career through slides, video, and live interaction titled Riffing Myself.
Cinematic Titanic completed the final tour on December 30, 2013.
On November 10, 2015, Joel Hodgson launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring back MST3K for another season. The Kickstarter closed with over $6.3 million in funding (including "add-on rewards" offered through a separate site), allowing Hodgson to plan to produce fourteen new episodes.
