Geoff Peterson is an animatronic human skeleton that served as the sidekick on the late-night talk show The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. He was voiced and operated by Josh Robert Thompson and first appeared on The Late Late Show on April 5, 2010. Often referred to as a "robot skeleton", Peterson is a radio-controlled animatronic robot puppet designed and built by Grant Imahara of MythBusters. Geoff has glowing blue eyes, a metal mohawk (which is sometimes covered by a Santa Claus hat in December) and wears an oversized suit with his name scrawled on a contestant's name tag from The Price Is Right on his jacket, as well as Mardi Gras beads and a Super Bowl XLVII press pass around his neck. He serves as a co-host of sorts and Ferguson refers to him as "my gay robot pal". He was most visible during the first half of the show (the cold openings, monologues, and Tweets and Emails segments) and the final segment, "What Did We Learn on the Show Tonight, Craig?". According to a tweet from Imahara dated on December 23, 2016, Ferguson took the robot home as a souvenir after his run on The Late Late Show ended.
Creation
The idea came from Craig Ferguson's repeated tongue-in-cheek on-air complaints that his show suffered due to its lack of a house band or sidekick, and he expressed desire to have his own "Robot Skeleton Army". Robot Skeleton Army is Ferguson's name for his Twitter followers, a reference to the cybernetic creatures from the Terminator franchise. Part of the inspiration for Geoff also came from Nicolas Cage's character in the 2007 film Ghost Rider, of which Craig was a fan. MythBusters' Grant Imahara volunteered to create the robot if Ferguson could get him 100,000 Twitter followers, which he achieved within 24 hours. On the idea and development of Geoff:
Initially, I wanted something which represented some kind of deconstructionist contempt for the late-night genre and the idea of a sidekick, but [Josh Thompson] became so good at it, he just became a sidekick. According to Imahara, he worked on it on weekends and in his spare time, creating a "plastic skeleton with aluminum bones and torso" that "shares a lot with R2-D2 and the Energizer Bunny" (both of which Imahara had previously worked on). Ferguson was directly involved and "very into the design of it"; he and the show's writers "think they may want to send Geoff out into the world, interview people—things like that". Imahara says the name "Geoff Peterson" was chosen by Ferguson:
There was sort of a Twitter online poll as to what the name for the robot would be. And some people were saying "Roboskelly," some people were "Fergbot," there was probably about half a dozen names that people were talking about. And Craig just said, "No, the name is Geoff Peterson." Initially, the robot was able to say seven prerecorded phrases, triggered by buttons under Craig's desk. This was later upgraded to wireless control by one of the show's writers offstage using an iPad. Peterson was upgraded again in July 2010, allowing him to shake his head, keep his jaw open, and move his right hand up and down. Ferguson noted that this is because his "wise ass" chip was activated. On September 2, 2013, new upgrades were debuted; the right arm was given an elbow, and the previously motionless left arm was given full movement (although his left hand fell off during that night's episode). He could turn his eye lights off and on to simulate closing and opening his eyes. Thompson noted the difficulty in controlling Geoff, since he had to time his talking with pressing the button that moved Geoff's jaw.
Role Peterson made occasional comments and one-liners throughout the show and helped with the Twitter and email segment of the show. His comments were broad and often said as a segue to another joke or to make fun of something else, including Peterson himself, or as humorous non sequiturs. Thompson said that his banter as Peterson with Ferguson was heavily improvised, which occasionally led to both Ferguson and Thompson/Peterson breaking into laughter. Peterson is also sent as the show's red carpet correspondent for film premieres. He was featured in numerous videos of "Tweets and E-mails" jingles. The first three were a parody of a Bollywood Filmi musical performance, a parody of an 80's glam metal performance, and a Rick James parody. Terminator-esque robot skeletons, which pre-date Peterson, appeared in jingles that parody the musical performances of artists such as Kraftwerk, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Gary Glitter, and Johnny Cash. Peterson did not interact with the guests unless "they want to play around with him." For Peterson's first anniversary, The Late Late Show filmed a sketch in Las Vegas that aired on the April 14, 2011, show. The segment depicted Ferguson, Peterson, and T.J. the Leprechaun partaking in "hallucinogenic frozen custard" with comedian Carrot Top and their subsequent gallivanting around Vegas. The sketch also featured appearances by Grant Imahara, Donny Osmond, Secretariat (the show's pantomime horse, voiced by Josh Thompson impersonating Morgan Freeman), and Wavy and Sid (Ferguson's alligator and rabbit puppets), which culminated in Ferguson and Peterson marrying one another at a typical Vegas chapel. For the episode, Peterson's voice was performed live for the first time by Thompson. Peterson's backstory was depicted during an episode which originally aired on January 3, 2012, opening with a skit purporting to be from Ferguson's first episode.
Personality
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