As Death Battle celebrates its 10 year anniversary and nears its 150 episode milestone, it's been fun times as a hardcore fangirl looking back on the history of the franchise in general. From the first 99 episodes done before the animated segments with Wiz and Boomstick to the DBX host switch-over from Boomstick to the flashy Ringmaster to the introduction of the eternal punching bag DUMMI, I've watched it all. I even remember the short runner The Armory with Boomstick (I seriously hope that one comes back in some capacity).
However, there's another character who's been there for a decent amount of time, moreso than Ringmaster and DUMMI. Unfortunately for her, she's been pretty much shafted out of the limelight by the others for several years until she finally got her own show, and even then things haven't improved for her much. I'm talking about Jocelyn the Intern, the host of spin-off series Desk of Death Battle and possibly the only sane character in Death Battle as a whole.
So for today's post, I will be essentially paying tribute to a Death Battle character who's efforts have gone underappreciated in-universe but is still loved by fans like me in general. This is both an informational piece for newer fans who may not have watched Desk of before and a way for older fans like myself to recap on what we liked about her throughout her time in the franchise. Let's begin. X)
General Character Information
Jocelyn is an intern at Death Battle labs whose responsibility is to carry out the research that Wiz and Boomstick don't. To say that it's a hard job is a pitiful understatement - she gets no recognition or award for it whatsoever from her bosses. Instead, Boomstick squanders all the money she should be receiving on shotgun shells and beer and they constantly lecture her whenever they feel that she's not doing what she's supposed to do (which they feel is often). In fact, the only reason that they even allowed her to host her own show in the first place was so they didn't have to pay her at all. And for all you Death Battle fans out there, let's not forget this memorable bit of dialogue that occurred between Jocelyn and Boomstick one time when she demanded that he got out of her office:
Boomstick: "It's not an office. It's a closet."
Jocelyn: "Yeah, 'cause that's the only space you'll let me have."
Boomstick: *chuckles evilly* "Yeah..."
Whether a broom closet can count as an "office" or not ultimately doesn't matter. He never gives her any privacy at all, often making his presence known with a loud "JOCELYN!!!" as he comes over to lecture her yet again. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who know someone like this at work, though hopefully not in the same way that Jocelyn does.
At least Jocelyn's pretty lucky compared to some of the other interns. They've often been part of messed-up experiments where they've been set on fire, have lost fingers or have even been blown up. One particularly unfortunate intern by the name of Peanut had his brain swapped with that of a dog, with nobody showing concern about his death at all - even Jocelyn was more concerned about the dog than him.
Given the risks and some of the awful things that have occurred to other interns, you'd expect Jocelyn to meekly resign herself to her fate and live in constant fear. But no, that's not the case at all. She's extremely vocal in her opinions and has stood up to Boomstick on quite a few occasions, getting into several memorable (and often humorous) arguments with him. Sure, Boomstick may come out of these arguments as the "winner", but don't expect Jocelyn to give up anytime soon.
This passion and rage often manifests itself into the rants that she gives in Desk of. Whether it's a poorly written work or a confusing moment in a comic franchise or a gross scene in an obscure manga, she has a lot to say on these topics. Often, she will either be baffled by all this nonsense or venting out her annoyances. In a way, it's a miracle that she hasn't completely lost her mind like the other characters have and still manages to be a voice of reason.
When it's not the main topic of the episode that Jocelyn's expressing her views on, it's her internship itself. Most of the time, she simply wants an actual office for once or actual pay. But she has dreamed bigger - mainly in the form of dispatching her no good bosses. In "Adolph's Weird Comic", she fantasised about finding the Holy Grail so that she can boast about it to Wiz and Boomstick, fire them on the spot and take over Death Battle. And in "The INSANE Mishima Family", she planned to continue the Mishima's family tradition herself by throwing Boomstick off a cliff. You can't blame Jocelyn for thinking like that though. Who else hasn't fantasised about getting rid of their no-good boss after working for days in a non-rewarding job?
She's not all rage and bitterness however. When she's not getting fed up with her job, Jocelyn can be quite the dork. She has a love of cake, as "Mario's Derpy Adventure You Never Knew About" made clear and like Boomstick (sorry for the comparison), she does like to sing along to famous theme tunes, whether they be from Batman and Mortal Kombat. She also seems to be pretty unlucky in love, given that she once when on a binge eating spree after one of her boyfriends left her. And then there's her love of Japanese culture, sushi and anime that she brought up one time. Overall, I get the feeling that, if it wasn't for the place she's stuck in now, she'd be pretty easygoing to be around.
Actor Background
Obviously, a good character needs a good actor, and Jocelyn has one in the brilliant Lisa Foiles. Most people may know her from the famous Nickolodeon sketch show All That!, the show that launched the careers of stars such as Amanda Byrnes, Kenan Mitchell and Kel Thompson. Sure, her appearance was in Seasons 7 to 10, widely considered to be inferior to the Golden Age of Seasons 1 to 5, but she was certainly one of the more solid actors of the new batch. She played characters such as the hyperactive talk show host Kaffy, Hermione Granger parody Herhiney, ghost cheerleader Spirit and (my favourite of the bunch) creepy goth girl Claudia. Besides her work on All That, Foiles also played Mallory, the female counterpart of Malcolm in the Malcolm in the Middle episode "If Boys Were Girls".
Comparing Jocelyn to that lot, she feels like the odd one out. Unlike the quirky and over-the-top characters Foiles portrayed during her teens, she's the only character that makes sense in the crazy world of Death Battle. In a cast consisting of an insufferable mad scientist with empathy issues, a gun-toting alcohol redneck who's essentially an oversized kid with a deadly streak, a supposedly suave Ruby Rhod tribute who secretly has a psychotic side a complete lack of empathy towards everything else and an apathetic robot who just wants his pain to end, Jocelyn is simply a hapless intern who just wants to get recognised for her work for once.
Currently, Foiles is very active in the geek community. She had her own gaming website Load Save Point and has written plenty of articles on gaming, with one being a rant about the "fake gamer girl" stigma - both channeling just as much rage as Jocelyn does and actually being around before sexism in the gaming community became more apparent. She's cosplayed as several famous pop culture icons such as Harley Quinn, Lara Croft and Princess Peach, has done videos for The Escapist and has even guest starred on The Angry Joe Show. She's a great singer too - she provided guest vocals on Miracle Of Sound's Tomb Raider tribute "Edge of the World" and starred in the live-action music video that came later on.
Honestly, I feel that Foiles captures Jocelyn's frazzled nature perfectly with her voice work. That was one of the first things I noticed about the character when I first watched the show. And when the show started incorporating live-action, she was able to handle that too. Gotta love it when you get to see a character you like onscreen for the first time. X)
A Quick History Of Jocelyn
The first mention of Desk of Death Battle was in December 2014 when a sneak peak of the first episode was shown. Wiz and Boomstick were annoyed that Jocelyn was "bunking off" work to start her own series, but ultimately decided that this could be a good alternative to actually paying her.
Things weren't much better outside of Death Battle either. The first time Jocelyn was shown onscreen in The Industry, she was represented by a stiff mannequin. Additionally, it wasn't just Wiz and Boomstick who gave her hell. Former ScrewAttack and current GameAttack head Stuttering Craig once blew her up because of her stealing his hat. I know that Jocelyn's working circumstances were hard, but that? That's some serious Kenny McCormick shit going on right there.
As more Desk of videos were made though, Jocelyn's situation started to get better...if only a little bit. She got extra food and one time Boomstick actually looked her in the eye when she was talking to him. He even started to pay her for once - okay, it was in shotgun shells, but it's better than nothing, right? The only thing that didn't seem to change at all was the closet.
From "Superman vs. The KKK" to "Godzilla Got Dunked On By Charles Barkley?!", Jocelyn was for once treated as a real employee by Wiz and Boomstick...because they were so busy picking on the aforementioned Peanut at the time. In fact, Peanut was often used as a form of blackmail for if Jocelyn was unable to get the needed amount of views or likes on her videos - one time her bosses even threatened to make Peanut her new co-host. This would all culminate in the dog-brain swapping incident that Peanut did not survive, and not a single person at Death Battle labs was bothered at all.
It seems that after that, Wiz and Boomstick went back to treating Jocelyn as they had done beforehand. In a particularly cruel twist in "Superman Cremated Himself And Batman?!", it seemed that Jocelyn would finally get the holiday/vacation that she truly deserved after several episodes of Desk of...only for Boomstick to come in and reveal that was not the case and that she still had more episodes to do. This is probably the only time in which Jocelyn really didn't have a way of responding at all, going into a state of confusion and anxiety rather than snapping back as usual.
"The Death of Archie Sonic" from 2018 was the first time that we saw Jocelyn properly on camera (and not as a mannequin). And yes, the closet that she has been assigned to is just as cramped as expected. It's a pretty messy place with all the brooms and mildew and to top it off, Boomstick has graffitied over the walls (again, why doesn't he give her any privacy?).
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| "Hey, the closet's all I got, okay? At least you can't smell it!" |
As a result, we were not only to hear Jocelyn's reactions, but also see them as well - her reaction to the...um, "plumbing snake" incident in the Mario Kodansha comics still comes to mind. It also turns out Jocelyn smuggled some stuff into the closet too, ranging from cameras to even Boomstick's beer (he was NOT happy about that one).
Also, can I just say that I really liked seeing what Jocelyn looked like on camera for real? She's got a very geeky look with the scruffy bun, large glasses and checkered shirts, and yet she still looks very pretty despite it all (without going into the whole "sexualised geek girl" thing that happens in other media). You really get the impression that her internship doesn't really allow her to clean up much and it captures her dorky side perfectly. In fact, I feel like it would actually take away from her if she didn't dress the way she did.
Heck, she even got to wear a cute Santa hat for the Christmas special.
Unfortunately, there were no new episodes of Desk of in 2019. The most we heard from her was in episodes were where Boomstick would call offscreen to her and demand that she carry out a task for him. There were no new episodes in 2020 either. Whether it was because of other commitments the people involved had or for other reasons, I still have no idea.
Either way, despite comments from the Death Battle Cast that implied otherwise, I was genuinely concerned that she wouldn't be popping up again. Until at RTX 2021, when a DBX clip of Ringmaster angsting over not being able to find a good co-host was shown...
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| "Hey Marsh - uh, Ringmaster?" |
Yep, Jocelyn is finally making her return! And I cannot wait to see what happens with her this time, especially since that DBX episode "Goomba vs. Koopa 2" airs tomorrow and her voice actress is also signed on for the upcoming milestone episode of the main series. My main wish is for a possible Desk of revival, though anything else involving her would also be nice.
Will Jocelyn's situation get better? Is she still going to be stuck as Wiz and Boomstick's whipping girl? Either way, it's still pretty clear that she has played her part in the franchise as much as the others have and I'm still rooting for her all the way. ;)
