“The Joker’s Last Laugh” / “The Joker’s Epitaph”
Written by Peter Rabe and Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Directed by Oscar Rudolph
Season 2, Episodes 47 and 48
Production code 9747
Original air dates: February 15 and 16, 1967
The Bat-signal: The Gotham City bank is providing counterfeit $100 bills for withdrawal, which results in law-abiding citizens passing fake money. The bills are perfect on one side, but blank on the other. Haunted by the insanity of the crime—and Joker’s laughter, which is echoing in Gordon’s office from an indeterminate source—Gordon and O’Hara call Batman, which interrupts Dick’s economics homework, to the boy’s delight and Bruce’s chagrin. (Bruce waxes rhapsodic about how awesome the subject of economics is, a diatribe that could only come from someone independently wealthy…)
The Joker’s laughter continues to echo in Gordon’s office, but Batman’s able to track the chortling to a speaker in Gordon’s cufflink, which is receiving from an antenna in Gordon’s trouser leg. Gordon insists that it must have gotten there from a weird person he bumped into on the subway, though how he got access to Gordon’s pants is a question best left unanswered on a network TV show in 1967…
At his headquarters in the former offices of Penthouse Publishing (really!), a publisher of comic books (really!!!), Joker tests two of his robots—really super-strong androids named Yock and Boff, whom Joker constructed in jail. A third robot, Glee, is working as a teller in the bank, and has been passing the counterfeit cash. Batman and Robin determine that he’s a robot (by telling what Robin describes as a “super-funny” joke (which is in fact, not even remotely funny (and even if it was, Batman and Robin told it so incredibly badly that no one would laugh at it anyhow)) and when Glee doesn’t respond, it “proves” that he’s a robot) and then they tweak his nose, which somehow makes his head explode. Sure.
They take Glee to the Batcave, though not before Batman makes some snippy remarks to the bank president on the subject of better vetting his tellers, a statement he feels that bank chair Bruce Wayne would echo. Indeed.
The Dynamic Duo toss Glee into the trunk and drive off, but Joker has a tracer on Glee, so he and his moll Josie hop into the Jokemobile and track him. However Batman knows there’s a tracker, so he deflects the signal to a decoy Batcave entrance, sending the Jokemobile there while he and Robin proceed to the real Batcave.
Batman and Robin analyze Glee, but find nothing useful. However, Alfred points out that the sleeves on Glee’s outfit were pressed unusually hard, and there are odd spots on them, which turn out to be printer’s ink, and in colors that would only be used in comic books. They discover that Penthouse was recently sold to W.C. Whiteface—a nom du plume for the Joker, though I mostly find myself wondering if the W.C. is supposed to refer to W.C. Fields or to the European abbreviation for a bathroom, a.k.a. a water closet.
They don’t have sufficient proof for an arrest, so Bruce Wayne shows up at Penthouse, pretending to be destitute, having played the stock market poorly. He noticed that Penthouse’s comics are printed using the same ink as the U.S. Treasury—and he offers “Mr. Whiteface” the position of vice chair of the board of the Gotham National Bank in exchange for providing Bruce with counterfeit currency to pay his newly acquired debts.
However, as Joker fires up the presses, Bruce signals Robin, who comes in the window. He “calls” Batman, saying he found Joker while on a routine crime patrol, and then fisticuffs ensue. Bruce tries to “help,” but his faux clumsiness just helps Robin do better in the fight (as planned), so Joker flicks the switch labelled “ROBOT SUPER STRENGTH LAST OUNCE OF ENERGY” to the “ON” side, and the robots are able to take Robin down. He’s tied to the comic book printing press, and to ensure no double cross, Joker has his robots force Bruce to pull the lever that will smush Robin.
However, Alfred has been in reserve, dressed in a Batman costume, and he Bat-climbs to the scene and tosses bat-gas, which drives Joker, Josie, Boff, and Yock off. (Bruce tries to follow in his role as Joker’s pretend accomplice, but is left behind.) Joker’s counterfeit operation is now a bust, but Bruce fears that he’ll wreak more havoc, as Joker made off with the document Bruce had prepared that made “W.C. Whiteface” the vice chair of the board of the bank.
Batman and Robin check on the bank, but while Boff and Yock are now tellers, there’s no odd activity. However, Joker announces that he’s going to visit Bruce Wayne on a business matter, so the Dynamnic Duo zip home and change back into their civvies.
Joker recorded Bruce “confessing” to speculating and soliciting illegal behavior from Joker. He tries to use the tape to get Bruce to kill Batman and Robin, but when he refuses, he goes for Plan B: forcing Bruce to marry Josie, with a three million dollar dowry. Joker even announces it on the society pages. Gordon and O’Hara are outraged; they try the bat-phone, but Batman’s public statement is that Bruce Wayne is an adult and can make his own decisions. Undaunted, Gordon gets the GCPD psychiatrist, Dr. Floyd, to declare Bruce mentally incompetent, suffering from second childhood syndrome (snorfle), which will enable them to negate his appointment of Joker to the bank board.
Meanwhile, Batman dopes out Glee’s controls and activates him in the name of justice. (Really!) He’s able to transmit instructions to Boff and Yock through Glee, but before he can implement the rest of his plan, O’Hara shows up with the lunatic squad and takes Bruce away in a straitjacket. Alfred is forced to once again don the bat-suit, and he and Robin head out in the Batmobile to track down the van that is taking Bruce to Happy Acres. They free Bruce—in total violation of a legitimate court order—and head to the bank, where Gordon is alerting Joker to the illegitimacy of his post as vice chair. Then Glee shows up and declares that Josie is his wife, just as Batman and Robin enter and accuse Joker of promoting bigamy.
Then Boff and Yock try to rob the customers, at which point Joker manages to take control of their programming once again. Fisticuffs ensue, and our heroes somehow manage to be triumphant despite the fact that three of the foes are super-strong. As he puts the Bat-cuffs on Josie, she asks him to apologize to Bruce, saying it might have been fun.
Floyd examines Bruce and declares him to be mentally competent once more. Floyd also expresses a desire to some day examine Die Fleidermaus Mensch.
Fetch the Bat-shark-repellant! Batman has a laugh-track detector, which must be handy to determine which sitcoms are filming before a studio audience and which has canned laughter. The Bat-deflector can deflect the signal of a tracer and lead it instead to a fake miniature Batcave entrance, complete with a sign under it that says, “LAUGH, CRIMINALS, LAUGH!” (Batman can be one nasty sumbitch when he puts his mind to it, can’t he?) He looks over Glee with the Integro-Differential Robot Analyzer (why it’s modified with the nonsense term “integro-differential” rather than the more traditional “bat” is left as an exercise for the viewer), which is later hooked up to the Robot Control Device. The Bat-spot analyzer can tell you what any spot is made of. The utility belt comes equipped not only with bat-gas, but also a bat-fan that will disperse it.
Holy #@!%$, Batman! Upon hearing Joker’s cackling on police HQ, Dick grabs his own elbow and says, “Holy funny bone, the Joker!” Upon realizing the lengths to which Joker went to plant a mini-loudspeaker and an antenna on Gordon’s person, Robin mutters, “Holy chutzpah!” thus injecting a much-appreciated dose of Yiddish to the proceedings. When he observes Glee counting money, he says, “Holy precision,” and when he discovers Glee has a tracker he says, “Holy hunting horn.” When they examine Glee, he enthuses, “Holy clockworks,” and when can’t find any useful clues on the robot, he grumbles, “Holy dead end.” When Bruce reveals that Joker is now the vice chair of the bank board, Robin aghasts, “Holy bankruptcy!” When the bank president says that Joker has the bank running at “apple pie order,” Robin’s response is “Holy stomachache.” When Bruce is forced to marry Josie, Robin envies, “Holy madness.” When Batman proposes taking control of Glee, Robin on-the-noses, “Holy remote controlled robot,” and then when Batman revives the artificial person, he just-as-on-the-noses, “Holy Frankenstein!” Upon the “revelation” that Glee is Josie’s “husband,” Robin jokes, “Holy wedding cake.”
Gotham City’s finest. Stymied by Batman’s unwillingness to help Gordon put Bruce Wayne away (for obvious reasons), Gordon is left to function on his own, which would seem to be dangerous, but dammit if he doesn’t actually take sensible action here, as declaring Bruce incompetent is a clever stratagem for getting Joker away from the bank.
No sex, please, we’re superheroes. Josie takes great pleasure in smooching Bruce, and promises to be faithful to him in her own way. (Cough.) Meanwhile, agreeing to marry a woman with a rap sheet is deemed sufficient to inter Bruce in a funny farm. Okay then.
Special Guest Villain. Back as the Joker is Cesar Romero, last seen in “The Penguin Declines.” He’ll be back in the season’s penultimate storyline, “Pop Goes the Joker” / “Flop Goes the Joker.”
Na-na na-na na-na na-na na.
“Once again, we take our poor cracked pitcher to the Caped Crusader’s well.”
–Truer words, Commissioner, truer words.
Trivial matters: This episode was discussed on The Batcave Podcast episode 41 by host John S. Drew with special guest chum, independent filmmaker and graphic designer Robert Long.
Two of Joker’s henchfolk have a Star Trek connection: Mr. Glee is played by Lawrence Montaigne, who played Decius in “Balance of Terror” and Stonn in “Amok Time” (he was also being groomed as a possible replacement for Leonard Nimoy as Spock if contract negotiations broke down between seasons one and two); and Josie is played by Phyllis Douglas, who played Yeoman Mears in “The Galileo Seven” and one of the space hippies in “The Way to Eden.”
Lorenzo Semple’s script is based on a story by crime novelist Peter Rabe. It’s Rabe’s only time writing for the screen—perhaps he was traumatized by Alan Napier doing a bat-climb. Rabe met Semple while the former was in Spain recovering from an illness.
The Jokemobile is a reuse of the “Mongrel T” roadster created for the Elvis Presley movie Easy Come, Easy Go.
The use of Penthouse as the name of the publisher Joker takes over is a bit jaw-dropping to modern eyes, but while the erotic magazine of the same name debuted in 1965, it didn’t start being published in the U.S. until 1969, so it’s probably a coincidence that it has the same name. Probably. (Having said that, there was a Penthouse Comix magazine in the 1990s…)
Pow! Biff! Zowie! “It’s sometimes difficult to think clearly when you’re strapped to a printing press.” So first Joker nails time travel, and now he’s mastered robotics, to the point where he’s created humanform androids (inaccurately referred to as “robots”). You gotta wonder, if he’s this kind of scientific genius, why he’s bothering to commit petty crimes, y’know, ever? I mean, it could just be that he’s nuts, though this iteration of the Joker is far saner than most of the other screen versions.
Also, how does the W.C. Whiteface identity hold up in any way? I mean, Gordon knows he’s really the Joker and it’s not a nom du plume, so why can’t he remove him as vice chair of the bank that way? Unless his real name is legally W.C. Whiteface. (Beats the heck out of “Jack Napier,” if you ask me…) And Bruce gets committed solely on the basis of getting engaged to a criminal? And he’s declared mentally sane because he has good reflexes? Buh?
Anyhow, this is all minor stuff that’s mostly just a fun hour. It’s not a top episode or anything, but it’s just fun to watch and doesn’t make you want to beat your head against the wall. I love the fact that Batman has a miniature Batcave entrance (labelled, of course, because this is Gotham) for the express purpose of trolling the bad guys. I love that Batman’s plan doesn’t entirely work (well, it mostly does—he does end the counterfeiting), and has the unintended consequence of putting Joker in charge of personnel at the bank. I love that Alfred has to pretend to be Batman, not once, but twice, and he gets to do a bat-climb! (Take that, Sean Pertwee!) I love the glee with which Phyllis Douglas plays Josie—not the best of the molls, but definitely in the upper echelon. I love watching Bruce pretend to be a klutz in order to “help” Joker by really helping Robin. I love that the GCPD, left to their own devices, actually approaches competence for once. (Though I was disappointed to see that Gordon didn’t participate in the bat-fight at the end, staying on the sidelines with Josie. He’s a trained cop for crying out loud!) And I love that Batman is a paragon of virtue and law-abiding-ness right up until the part where Bruce is put in a straitjacket and placed in an insane asylum, at which point he has no problem with Alfred and Robin violating a court order to illegally free Bruce from the paddy wagon.
Basically, this is the perfect episode to toss into the DVD player if you want to watch a Batman ’66 episode that has all the usual craziness (including a most impressive selection of Bat-gadgets) without the plot howlers to drive you, er, batty. It’s even got a decent cliffhanger, and one that relates to the original format Batman debuted in!
Bat-rating: 6
Keith R.A. DeCandido reminds everyone that Book 2 of his “Tales of Asgard” trilogy, Marvel’s Sif: Even Dragons Have Their Endings, is available for preorder from the fine folks at Amazon. It’ll be released in mid-November. And you can still get Book 1, Marvel’s Thor: Dueling with Giants at finer bookstores and online dealers.
Keith, according to The Official Batman Bat-Book, what Robin says isn’t “Holy honey corn,” it’s “Holy hunting horn.” As in, the horn blown by hunters to alert the others to the location of the quarry, analogously to a tracking device.
Plus, there’s nothing incorrect about referring to an android as a robot, since androids are a subset of robots that can pass as human. It’s just less precise — like calling a sedan a car or a recliner a chair. Indeed, Karel Capek’s original use of “robota” in R.U.R. was in reference to synthetically created biological humans, like Blade Runner replicants. The distinction between human-appearing “androids” and metallic-looking “robots” wasn’t codified until Edmond Hamilton’s Captain Future pulp stories in the ’40s. But androids can validly be called robots. Cf. Get Smart‘s Hymie the Robot, or the Oscar Goldman robot (pronounced “robut” by its creator) and the Fembots in the bionic franchise.
Anyway, this is a fun one. I love the absurdity that, after Batman reveals that the Joker happened to slip a loudspeaker cufflink onto Gordon’s sleeve, he also finds that — hey, hold on — he “slipped” a really long induction antenna down Gordon’s pants and around his waist. Great punch line! And the bit about fishing from “a shady bank” was funny (much more so than the “super-funny joke” told to Mr. Glee).
I like the miniature Batcave entrance as a fakeout for criminals. Batman sure has a cheeky sense of humor here. He’s been spending too much time dealing with the Joker and the Riddler. They’re rubbing off on him. It’s fun when he pretends to fight Robin and trips up the robots too.
Speaking of which, due to the limitations of stock music, the part where the Jokemobile was chasing the false signal was scored with the Riddler’s theme. It always annoys me when a recognizable leitmotif gets reused as stock for the wrong character or situation.
Great cliffhanger here — really suspenseful. And Alfred saves the day again! He does that a lot in Joker episodes.
How could Dr. Floyd have diagnosed Bruce Wayne without examining him? Well, there wasn’t exactly a very enlightened attitude toward mental illness here, with the “Anti-Lunatic Squad” and all. (And leaving aside the intrinsic ethical problems with that, if there is an Anti-Lunatic Squad, why aren’t they going after the Joker?)
Hmm, I wonder. Was this the only episode of Batman that directly referenced the existence of comic books? Other than glimpses of them on newsstands, say?
Okay, “hunting horn” makes more sense. *glares at the closed captioning on the Bat-DVDs*
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I wonder if Joker’s use of robots here influenced Batman: The Animated Series, where Joker has robotic henchpeople at least twice (Captain Clown in The Last Laugh and Hazel in Mask of the Phantasm).
When I first saw this as a child, I thought the twist ending was going to be that Josie was a robot herself! Phyllis Douglas wasn’t a bombshell like Sherry Jackson on Star Trek, but she would have been one very cute android. This and the first Trek guest shot were the high-water marks of her career, apparently.
I agree with krad–I liked her enthusiasm for being evil. Oh, and here’s some trivia (and budget-crunching)–her first outfit, the multi-colored one, also was worn by Octavia, the Minstrel’s moll, earlier in season 2. It would be worn by Ida Lupino as evil alchemist Cassandra Spellcraft in season 3, and also is seen in S3 in Catwoman’s lair when she is trying to corner the fashion industry. I suspect the latter was an in-joke.
@3/OverMaster: I think robot henchman are a pretty generic comics/cartoon trope that can’t be traced back to any single source. Of course they’re popular in child-oriented stories because they can be “killed” without moral qualms (cf. the Foot-ninja robots in the ’80s and current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons, or the droid army in The Phantom Menace).
@4/J.P. Pelzman: A reused costume in the background is probably just a budgetary convenience rather than an in-joke, especially in the cheap-as-hell season 3.
@5 We can agree to disagree, Mr. Bennett. I think it was an in-joke. You’re entitled to your opinion, as am I.
Switching gears, Peter Rabe’s original outline featured Two-Face as the villain, not Joker. However, it was not the Harvey Dent Two-Face, it was an original character. I’ve seen the outline and it was strange. It was never made clear whether his face was disfigured. He was kind of a weird dilettante, but he also had bank-teller robots/androids.
@6/J.P. Pelzman: Huh? I just said it seemed likely. It’s not like I have some kind of deep emotional stake in the question. I’m curious, what about the simple reuse of a costume makes you even suspect an in-joke in the first place? That’s confusing. That would imply it has some special significance or connection, but I don’t see any connection between Catwoman (or the fashion industry) and Octavia or Josie. I’m sure they recycled a bunch of costumes, so why does this one stand out to you as a possible in-joke? Not asking to start an argument, I just don’t follow your reasoning.
“I think robot henchman are a pretty generic comics/cartoon trope that can’t be traced back to any single source.”
Yeah, but it still stuck out to me because other than Joker, none other villain in Batman 66 or B:TAS (except HARDAC, who being an A.I. himself, of course would use robots) ever employs androids or robots as helping hands. Now that I remember, Joker also used robot toy soldiers in ‘Christmas with the Joker’, even! Which normally would be much more of a Toyman thing to do.
@9/OverMaster: I think the whole “Captain Clown” thing in “The Last Laugh” came from it being an early episode, before they’d quite sorted out just what the approach to the show, or at least to the Joker, would be. In production order, “Christmas with the Joker” and “The Last Laugh” were the second and fourth episode overall, and the first two of the three mediocre Joker episodes that were made before Paul Dini came in with “Joker’s Favor” and elevated the character to a new level. (“Be a Clown” was the third.) So I still think the use of robots just came from it being a longstanding cartoon trope. Maybe early on, they hadn’t quite sussed out just how adult they were able to get with portraying violence involving human beings, so they fell back on robots.
I mean, sure, the Joker uses robots in this one storyline, but he also invented a fake time machine in another storyline, a flying saucer in a third-season episode, and the like. If B:TAS had shown the Joker using something like that, then I might believe it was an homage. But robots in cartoons? Way too generic.
@8/ChristopherLBennett Listen, I’ll walk back what I said a little because I’ll admit it was a little too strident, but your comment came across as dismissive, IMO. I just re-watched (pun intended) the scene and there were at least three dozen dresses/blouses in the pan shot by director Sam Strangis, and that costume was in a prominent place. It didn’t necessarily need to be there for ‘budgetary’ reasons. And from reading Joel Eisner’s Batbook, it’s evident that the Greenway Productions boys were quite into in-jokes.
I could be wrong, I could be right. But I’m being honest when I say I don’t follow your reasoning either for saying it’s probably a budgetary convenience when I’m not sure if you are as familiar with the scene as I am. They’d already used, as I said, about three dozen outfits in the scene, most of which seemed to be ‘mod’ dresses from the overall Fox wardrobe department. There was no real need to use that ugly maroon one, which seems to me to be the only one recycled from earlier episodes.
@11/J.P. Pelzman: Okay, but like I said, generally an in-joke has some meaning to it, some reason why somebody would find it significant and amusing. I’m still not sure what about that dress would be funny to call back. Maybe they didn’t think it was an ugly dress — after all, they did keep using it. Different decades have different standards of fashion.
Anyway, given that we both agree they did recycle the dress by having several different characters actually wear it in different episodes, why would there need to be a different explanation for them recycling it again as a set dressing element? I see that as just one more instance of the same pattern. Was it an in-joke every time? Or was it just economizing? Maybe one of the producers just liked that dress.
@12 Did I note that it is the only villainess/henchmoll costume that was used in the show that is on those clothing racks? Again, we can agree to disagree. I’m not going to convince you, obviously, and you aren’t going to convince me I’m wrong, so it’s pointless to keep discussing it.
FWIW, but they didn’t re-use very many villainess/moll costumes. I can think of only one or two others with which they did so. They usually put some care into costuming female guest stars.
The ‘but’ in comment 12 was extraneous. I forgot to edit it out.
Oops, I meant to say comment 13. It’s Sunday and I’m tired. Sorry for the confusion.
@13/J.P.: It’s not an “agree to disagree” situation, because I’m not arguing with you. I’m not saying I disagree with your position, because I don’t understand your position well enough to judge it one way or the other. I’m just asking you to explain your reasoning to me more fully, so that I can understand where you’re coming from. I’m not trying to convince you you’re wrong, because I don’t know whether you’re right or wrong. I’m asking you to convince me, to explain to me what makes it an in-joke.
When Bruce is forced to marry Josie, Robin envies, “Holy madness.” When Batman proposes taking control of Glee, Robin on-the-noses, “Holy remote controlled robot,” and then when Batman revives the artificial person, he just-as-on-the-noses, “Holy Frankenstein!” Upon the “revelation” that Glee is Josie’s “husband,” Robin jokes, “Holy wedding cake.”
How did they miss out on “Holy matrimony!” C’mon, Batman writers.
@16/ChristopherLBennett: I wrote: ‘I suspect the latter was an in-joke.’
You wrote: ‘A reused costume in the background is probably just a budgetary convenience rather than an in-joke’
You later wrote: ‘I’m not saying I disagree with your position,’
Definition of disagree: ‘to have or express a different opinion.’
Again, I’m not going to continue to try to convince you. It’s pointless and guess what, as you indicated, it’s not all that important anyway in the grand scheme of things. But for you to say we don’t have a disagreement, well, it disagrees with the dictionary.
@@@@@J.P. Pelzman @@@@@ChristopherLBennett
Get a room guys! You’re bringing back memories of that con that Sharyn McCrumb so ably documented back in the 80’s!
:-)
@18/J.P.: I really don’t understand your reaction here. Yes, I have a different opinion, but I am willing to listen to yours. That’s why I asked you to explain it in the first place. For all I know, I might be missing something that you recognize, and if you explain it to me, I might just come to understand what you’re saying and agree that you have a point. I’m always willing to change my mind in light of new information. But I can’t do that if you won’t give me more information. What makes this reuse an in-joke? That means there must be something funny about it. Where is the joke? What am I not seeing? If I weren’t willing to have my mind changed, I never would’ve asked you a question at all. That’s what questions are for.
Now I want a Mattel die-cast Jokemobile to go next to my Batmobile! Caesar Romero’s head in full Joker makeup as a front grill ornament is just too much!
@21/MikePoteet: Except that ornament looks nothing like Cesar Romero’s head. It’s apparently the same Joker bust featured in his debut episode “The Joker is Wild,” the one that Batman described as a “good likeness” even though it looks more like Jack Nicholson than Romero.
“Dr. Floyd”, groan. Also, krad, you should gather these reviews up in a book and call it “Things Left As An Excercise For The Viewer”.
The fact that Gordon and O’Hara couldn’t notice that the sound was coming from Gordon’s cufflink is another example of their ineptitude.
JP and Chris: I believe the term JP wanted to use was “easter egg”, not “in joke”, as the former does not require an actual joke.
@23/MaGnUs: But then I have the same question. Calling something an Easter egg means that it’s something with a hidden significance that aware fans are supposed to recognize and respond to. What is it about this specific dress that is significant? The mere fact that it’s reused isn’t enough, because TV productions reuse props, costumes, etc. all the time. (Here’s an article about Star Trek‘s instances of costume recycling; the same site has articles about their reuses of props, consoles, and even makeup appliances.) So there would have to be some additional factor about this reuse that would make it an Easter egg rather than simply an instance of economizing, and I don’t understand what that factor would be. Or why the specific reuse in “Catwoman’s Dressed to Kill” would be an Easter egg or in-joke when its other reuses in this 2-parter and “The Entrancing Dr. Cassandra” are not.
What I mean is that putting it so prominently on screen, as JP says (I haven’t seen the episode) could be considered an easter egg; which to me, is of a lower “intensity” (so to speak) than an in-joke.
For the matter, I do agree that it’s extremely more likely to be a simple use of a pre-existing wardrobe piece.
@25/MaGnUs: Well, it’s no more prominent than in the three episodes where the female villains were actually wearing it. As I suggested before, if it kept being reused, maybe that just means the costume designer or one of the producers was fond of it.
@23 MaGnUs Thanks for the support. I guess the point I was trying to make was it somehow was funny to them, even if not to the rest of us. For instance, in the Londinium eps in season 3, there’s a dart board that shows up on every set, evne in the office of the police superintendent. What’s the point? I have no idea. But it’s there and very noticeable.
@27/J.P.: Well, that’s a more understandable in-joke. Darts are a classic English pub game, so putting a dartboard everywhere is presumably a joke about how English everything is. Similar to how the same trilogy plays up how foggy Londinium is all the time, even basing the villains on it.
I too enjoyed this episode. Certainly better than the last Joker two-parter. That said, I wonder if it says something about me that I didn’t blink at the Joker inventing perfectly anthropomorphic androids and using them to pass counterfeit money, but I did wonder why, if he had a recording device in his hideout, he doesn’t have tape of Bruce Wayne slipping into his Batman persona and ordering Robin and Alfred around.
Also: Batman says he can’t explain that incriminating tape without revealing his secret identity, but I could have sworn it was previously established to the public that Bruce Wayne is a friend of Batman’s and sometimes does him favors. Seems to me that would be an easy explanation.