Old Joe is a minor character in the Dickens novel A Christmas Carol.
During Scrooge's vision of the future, Scrooge notices his former maid from his mansion selling his belongings to a fence (someone who buys stolen goods to sell later) named Old Joe. It turns out that she had been stealing items beonging to the recently deceased Scrooge. As Old Joe and the maid shared some banter about a mysterious death on Christmas Day and somehow both would profit from this death.
In the Muppet Christmas Carol, he is a very large, multi-limbed spider who acts as a fence, dividing up Scrooge's belongings, in The Muppet Christmas Carol.
In the 2009 adaptation a shrunken Scrooge ends up in a bag full of stolen items after a phantom hearse chase.
In this adaptation while Scrooge recognized the stolen items as his, Old Joe started to slowly reach for a fire poker, seamingly to attack Scrooge. It turns out that he was actually aiming for a nearby rat and this ensues a three way chase between the shrunken Scrooge, the rat and Old Joe. Scrooge is sent flying after Old Joe hits a loose floorboard with the fire poker. Old Joe isn't seen again for the rest of the story.