He appeared in the mighty "DELTA Invasion" beside Tom Dyron (with no shame, and with no clue), and did even less than the original cast. Ritsuko and Misato kept noting how he was special, but since he never did anything, *ever*, it wasn't revealed what was special about him. Oh, and his EVA carried progressive grenades. *snort* Yeah.
Since our friends at Elmer Studios like to recycle jokes, it carried over to the like-situated John Ellis.
Except John gets to do things. And is actually vital to the plot, as he's revealed to be [SPOILER DELETED] and has to [SPOILER DELETED], not to mention he [SPOILER DELETED] [SPOILER DELETED] in a [SPOILER DELETED] until the word "mordling" is almost completely obscured.