Mysterious Man

Mysterious Man
Hello from the Magic Tavern character
First appearance	"Hello from the Magic Tavern"
Played by	Tim Sniffen
Information
Name	Mysterious Man
Nickname(s)	Admiral Anonymous, Mister Mystery
Species	Unknown
Occupation	Announcer, concealer of alternate dimensions
Affiliation	Space Bunker Zeta

The Mysterious Man is the enigmatic announcer who introduces each episode and reads the credits at the end. He is very insistent that the podcast is not real, and that individuals who appear on it are characters portrayed by human actors.

Our first confirmation that the MysteriousMan has a larger agenda is in episode 10, when Arnie ends the podcast from Foon early. Without the signal from Foon the feed cuts back to the Mysterious Man without his realizing it, allowing a glimpse into his world.

He lives in and operates a facility called a Space Bunker and monitors the signals, and travel, between dimensions such as Foon and Earth. He calls himself a “Bunker Guardian” and is assisted in his endeavors by his intern Tricia, and later the stranded repairman Craig.

The credits he gives at the end of each episode are a complete fiction, designed (at least in part) to protect the people of Earth from the consequences of inter-dimensional travel. The Mysterious Man has a cutting wit and while his harshest insults are reserved for the individuals Arnie encounters on Foon (the “actors” who portray them), Tricia & Craig are also subject to his snarky comments.

+ Warning! Spoilers Inside for Season One. Click to reveal

The Mysterious Man is generally aloof as far as day-to-day events of Earth and Foon are concerned, yet he has exhibited extreme concern when events with dire consequences occurred, as when Usidore said the name of the Dark Lord, and after the Dark Lord's victory at theBattle of Hogsface.

When Tricia discovers her thousands of dead clones and flees the Space Bunker, she attacks the Mysterious Man in the process, badly injuring him. He recovers slowly under the care of Craig, while concealing from Craig his(Craig’s) robot nature.

Craig becomes his primary assistant which results in the next Tricia clone (#8050) being relegated to the most menial of tasks. She eventually rebells from this mistreatment and stages an escape very similar to #8049’s, but Craig jumps in the way of her lasers and absorbs the shots meant for the Mysterious Man.

+ Warning! Spoilers Inside for Season Two. Click to reveal

The Mysterious Man continues to monitor Arnie’s signals from Foon to Earth, but two other developments complicate the job:

• Tricia-8050 returns, but posing as a new “Tricia-8051,” and conspires with Craig to over-throw the Mysterious Man. He is ejected from the space bunker and spends weeks breaking back in, only to find that Craig is listed as “Emperor” on the crew roster and thus outranks him. He spends months as “The Mysterious Intern” before convincing Tricia to join him in a coup.

• The Void that Spintax the Green was concerned about manifests, posing a real threat to not only Foon but all realities; placing it clearly under the Bunker Guardian’s purview. 
The latter causes the Mysterious Man, Tricia, & Craig to cooperate and reach out to the Space Bunker High Command, who summon the three for a report.

While there we learn we the Mysterious Man, who High Command refers to as “Admiral Mysterious,” was “allowed” to remain a bunker guardian after the current Space Bunker High Command deposed the previous galactic emperor, who the Mysterious Man held in higher esteem. The High Command includes an alternate universe version of Arnie, and the Mysterious Man’s weekly insistence that the podcast isn’t real reflects *that* Arnie’s directive that *his* reality must be treated as the definitive one.

The Mysterious Man was present at the destruction of the the Void, after which he was sent to Space Prison by the High Command. From Space Prison he hacks into the controls of Space Bunker Zeta (as his bunker is designated) to continue to comment on the transmissions from Foon.

+ Warning! Spoilers Inside for Season Three. Click to reveal

The Mysterious Man has escaped Space Prison & relocated to Earth, where he is working with a government there as “The Mysterious Consultant” with his assistant/government handler Lincoln in the Earth Bunker. He is however making an effort to keep up the pretense that he is broadcasting from the Space Bunker, to avoid catching the attention of the High Command. He’s also working to undermine Lincoln’s efforts to gather intelligence on Foon & Inter-dimensional travel.

The Mysterious Man welcomes Tricia upon her arrival on Earth, though when she becomes enamored with Chicago improv he watches with skepticism and even goes so far as to undermine her by posing as a member of her improv team. He invites her to live in Institute when her theatrics cause catastrophe for the city's theaters.

It was revealed that in 1989, the Mysterious Man was Arnie's neighbor. He was working with an evil empire to transfer an existing consciousness to a robot body. In 1989: Scary Neighbor, his experiments were successful as he was able to transfer a 13-year-old Arnie's consciousness to a robot, who does not believe that he is a robot(and who is presumed to "grow up" to be Robot Arnie). Shortly afterwards the Mysterious Man departed Earth with the 13-year old human Julie Andrews, though they were captured by B-Movie Universe Arnie, Chant, & Dr. Zadore and Julie was transformed into the High Time Queen. The Mysterious Man traded information on Krieg the Cruel's fortress in exchange for his freedom.

Back in the present day, and after accepting a gift card from Tricia, The Mysterious Man finds himself trapped in the Eataly restaurant & market complex for several weeks, and is only able to escape by getting himself named CEO of Eataly, which he rebrands as Belgiumaly.

He discovers to his dismay that new portals are being opened on Foon, which he cannot track or stop due to the Institutes limited technology. He shows even greater concern when the Dark Lord of Foon is about to gain control of the transmitter had installed in 13-year-old Arnie's head, and reaches out to Craig for assistance. Usidore's handling of the Dark Lord satisfies the Mysterious Man, but with Craig's help he learns that the Institute has misled him about their goals. Not only does the facility extend much further underground than he was aware, the cells are filled with the goblin army accidentally sent to Earth by Usidore in season one, and the Institute is planning a full-scale invasion of Foon.

Physiology

The Mysterious Man is not human, has 13 fingers and an exoskeleton. He also has body modifications related to his work on the bunker, including imperfections on his skin that allow him to interface directly with the bunkers pods, and an iron ring fused to his hip that gives him full access to the bunker's rooms(though Tricia-8049 stole said ring in her escape).
 He can survive for weeks at a time in the vacuum of space. Humans seeing him for the first time would describe him as "[having] more limbs than he should have." His also proudly sports a cape.

The Mysterious Man is played by Tim Sniffen(see below)

Notes

• The Mysterious Man has been credited as Tim Sniffen in the episode notes since the first episode, but the first time the name was said on air was in Season 1, Ep 10 - “Homesick” by the even more mysterious voice which assured listeners other worlds exist and "Tim Sniffen" is a fabrication designed to conceal that. The name is used again by the High Time Queen in Interlude — "Hello from the Future", but when the Mysterious Man must credit himself in later episodes he attributes the performance to voice-over actor Christopher Dazzles.

Episodes

• Intro/Outro of almost every episode
• Season 1, Ep 10 — "Homesick" (first Space Bunker focused episode)
• Season 1, Ep 36 — "Low Battery" (notable role)
• Interlude — "Hello from the Future" (in person outside of the space bunker)
• Season 3 Ep 69 - "1989: Scary Neighbor" (notable role)
• INTERLUDE — " 1989: Julie's Cult Watch" (notable role)
• INTERLUDE — "Hello from the Future... but Earlier" (notable role)