This was the real reason the Mads sent them into space- to get them away from the rest of the populace before too much harm could be done to those around them and then trying to break their spirit with showing after showing of bad movies. This explains how Joel could "create" a team of super-advanced Ridiculously-Human Robots in no time at all, and why characters from the movies (Torgo, Krankor) appeared in the real world. In fact, Joel escaped by subconciously creating the Deus Ex Machina and riding back to earth. Mike was less experienced with his powers, so he could not try and do the same thing.