Batman the Animated Series Christmas With the Joker 002

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Epitomize / Batman: The Animated Series E2 "Christmas with the Joker"

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It'southward a snowy Christmas Eve in Gotham City and all the people are getting into the holiday spirit, including the residents of Arkham Asylum. Made to sing "Jingle Bells" as they decorate an enormous Christmas tree, The Joker (gleefully serenading united states with a very special version of the song) is given the golden bell to perch atop the tree. Still, the tree is in fact a rocket and no sooner does the Joker climb the tree than it takes off and blows through the roof, taking the Clown Prince of Crime to liberty.

Joker: Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg! The Batmobile lost a bike, and the Joker got away!
Crashing through the roof, in a ane-horse open tree, busting out I become, laughing all the wheeeeeee! Ha ha ha ha!

1 human being isn't in the Christmas spirit, nonetheless: Batman. Dorsum at Wayne Manor, Dick Grayson tries to talk Batman into letting up for merely one dark and kick back to watch It's a Wonderful Life , but the Dark Knight's main concern is that Joker is on the loose once again. While Robin assumes that even the Joker wouldn't brand his movement on Christmas, Batman suspects otherwise: unlike the residual of Gotham's scum, Joker has no family to spend the holidays with. The Batmobile roars off into the snowy winter nighttime as the Dynamic Duo begin their sweep of the metropolis.

And... all is well. Musicians are playing Christmas songs in the streets as last-infinitesimal shoppers, water ice-skaters and charity fundraisers all revel in the most wonderful fourth dimension of the year. Even people who await like muggers take all of a sudden became friendly, generous people who run after old ladies who take left behind gifts for their grandchildren. Robin's protests that they aren't needed tonight still autumn on deaf ears, of course. Even back at Wayne Manor before Christmas dinner, Bruce Wayne is nevertheless sure that he should accept done ane more than sweep of the urban center. Nevertheless, Dick coaxes Bruce into finally sitting down to sentry Information technology's a Wonderful Life.

Only their movie isn't on the right channel—or any channel. Every single channel is dissemination the same images of a man standing abreast a warm fire, bathed in shadow: the Joker. Afterwards leaping back into costume, Batman tracks the Joker's broadcast signal while the deranged clown reveals that, not having a family unit to share Christmas with, he has decided to steal the "Awful Lawful Family": Commissioner Gordon (Daddy Lawful), Summertime Gleeson (Mommy Lawful) and Harvey Bullock (Baby Lawful) are all tied up and gagged with processed canes. If Batman tin't find them past midnight, Joker threatens to kill them.

Joker too has a hand puppet, through which he reveals the next stage in his plan: blowing up the President's Span, part of a railway route, and sending the 11:30 train and its passengers straight into a gorge.

Summer: My mother'southward on that train!
Joker: Your mother? Well, that'due south different then!
Joker: [via puppet] Aye—it'll exist even more exciting when it crashes! Ha ha ha!

Batman and Robin grab up to the railroad train. As the Boy Wonder disconnects the rider cars from the residue of the train, Batman makes his manner to the front railroad vehicle to save the engineer. Getting at that place just in fourth dimension, Batman and the train driver jump to safety as the train flies off the destroyed bridge in an omnipotent explosion.

With time running short, Batman and Robin rapidly race to the source of the Joker's circulate bespeak at the observatory on Mount Gotham. Joker has left them a few surprises though, including a telescope that has been reconstructed into a fully operational cannon. Every bit Batman draws its burn down, the cannon hits a nearby command tower, promptly going out of control and beginning to burn shots wildly and randomly into Gotham Urban center.

Inside the observatory, Robin finds himself face-to-face with six giggling, machine-gun-wielding Joker robots. Using their position to trick them into firing into each other, 5 are chop-chop dispatched. While nether fire from the final robot, Robin throws a bomb at the mechanisms that make the cannon operate, stopping it from firing.

With just minutes to go until midnight, the Dynamic Duo is completely out of leads. Thankfully, Joker throws them a helping paw when he gives "Mommy Lawful" her present—a wind-upwardly Betty Blooper doll, which he promptly uses to destroy a model version of Gotham Metropolis for kicks. This is all the lead that Batman and Robin crave, however, and they immediately trace the origin of the rare doll to the abandoned LaffCo Toy Manufactory downtown.

They guessed correctly and found the Joker's hideout. Joker, of grade, has a few more surprises to throw at them and activates his regular army of toys, including flying toy planes and behemothic tin can soldiers (all with the Joker'south face). After knocking down the behemothic soldiers, Batman gets to work on the flight attackers with a bat.

Resorting to far more than traditional tactics, the Joker'due south 2 goons open up fire with machine guns and send Batman and Robin ducking for embrace. Batman wraps his greatcoat around a giant teddy bear, using information technology to describe their burn before the bear falls on them, pinning them to the basis. It'due south simply then that the Joker reveals himself from behind a giant green curtain, where the three hostages are hanging precariously over a vat of bubbling, molten plastic while Joker stands beside their rope with a pair of scissors, threatening to drib them into the vat if Batman doesn't open the Christmas present he has for him.

Being out of options, Batman receives the Joker's present and tears off the bow and wrapping, and opens the box to reveal... a cream pie that springs itself into his face up. The gag sends Joker into a fit of hysterics earlier he chop-chop cuts the rope and makes a run for information technology.

Batman leaps bravely to save the hostages and grabs them in the nick of time. He then chases the fleeing Joker and manages to become a hold of him. Joker, even so, is in fact wearing a fake jacket that slides off when his arms are grabbed and, after squirming free, he makes his way upwards onto the walkway to a higher place the vat of boiling liquid. But he steps on a very fortunately placed roller skate and tumbles over the railing, near falling into the vat before Batman grabs his leg. Batman then smiles and bids the Joker a Merry Christmas. The Joker answers with "Bah! Braggadocio!"

Bruce and Dick finally go to encounter Information technology's a Wonderful Life (Gordon loaned them his copy of the tape) back at Wayne Manor, and even Bruce is in a far more cheerful mood now that Joker is backside bars. The episode ends with the Joker in his dark prison cell, cackling madly while singing "Deck the Halls".

Joker: Merry Christmas.

Tropes in this episode include:

Abandoned Warehouse: LaffCo Toy Factory, which has obviously been lying disused for fourteen years.
Adult Fear: For Summer, hearing her mother is on a railroad train that the Joker is going to crash. She can only cry while Bound and Gagged equally the Joker laughs. Luckily for her, Batman and Robin brand certain she and everyone else onboard make information technology out live.
Airborne Mook: Amidst the evil Joker toys are a squadron of tiny assail planes that dive-bomb Batman.
Ascended Meme: The "Batman Smells" version of Jingle Bells.
An Asskicking Christmas: Batman and Robin get later on the Joker on Christmas Eve, with fights against some reprogrammed Christmas toy robots and some Trainstopping for kicks.
Attack of the l-Pes Any: Assail of the 50-Foot Toy Soldier.
Bilingual Bonus: Joker calls the goons who blow up the bridge "Donner" and "Blitzen". The obvious reference is to two of Santa's reindeer, only they're besides the German language words for "thunder" and "lightning".
BFG: The observatory cannon.
Bound and Gagged: Commissioner Gordon, Bullock, and Summertime Gleeson, tied up in wrapping newspaper and gagged with candy canes. Joker releases Summer's easily then she can open a Christmas nowadays, a Betty Blooper doll.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Nearly two/3 of the mode through the show, Joker tells all the Gothamites who are watching that his Christmas special will return after "a give-and-take from our sponsor." Both the fictional program and the episode itself then cut to a commercial interruption in our own world. The gag is, naturally, ruined on DVD, where at that place are no commercial interruptions.
Christmas Episode: With a "Christmas Episode" Show Within a Show for bonus points.
Christmas Songs: The Joker and his Mooks sing a version of "Jingle Bells" ("Batman Smells") and Joker is singing "Deck the Halls" when back in Arkham.
Cranial Processing Unit of measurement: The giant robot toy soldiers promptly autumn over when Batman kicks their heads off.
Anomalous Laughter: The Joker's "program" has its own express joy rails, keyed to things he finds amusing (such as crashing a train full of passengers).
Do Not Conform Your Gear up: The Joker takes over every channel to broadcast his Christmas Special. Before he reveals his face, Robin gets increasingly annoyed as he flips through station subsequently station, looking for It'south a Wonderful Life, only to see the same epitome over and over.
Early Installment Weirdness: Harley Quinn isn't seen or fifty-fifty mentioned at all in this episode, despite subsequently appearances establishing her as a long-time minion of the Joker's that Batman and Robin are already familiar with.
Establishing Graphic symbol Moment: Canonically this is the Joker'southward get-go appearance. Then how practise yous prove the Clown Prince of Crime is an agreeable threat? Take him escape later putting a star on a Christmas tree while singing his Ascended Meme.
Expy: The Betty Blooper doll is one for Betty Boop.
Giving Them the Strip: Batman tries to catch the fleeing Joker, only to finish up holding the Joker's cardigan, complete with a false set up of artillery.
Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Averted; Mark Hamill's singing voice falls naturally flat when singing the Joker arrangement of "Jingle Bells," just missing the high notes.
Homemade Sweater from Hell: The Joker wears a rather subdued instance for his "Christmas special."
Hope Spot: At start Robin and Batman are able to trace the television set betoken back to the Joker, which would hateful they merely accept snatch him as usual. So it turns out the Joker has taken three people earnest, they accept to finish a railroad train full of passengers from careening off a broken viaduct, and the point is a trap. Batman hangs a lampshade later on Robin's line about it being "as well easy":
Batman: Information technology'southward never piece of cake with the Joker.
Earnest Situation: Joker takes Gordon, Bullock and Summer Gleeson hostage.
Incoming Ham: Or Incoming Hamill—the Joker is introduced via singing Christmas songs while escaping from Arkham on a rocket bearded as a tree.
Joker: Crashing through the roof, in a one-equus caballus open tree...
Kicking the Dog: Joker laughs at the idea of Summertime Gleeson's mother being on the train that he's trying to crash, making Summertime cry.
The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: Compared to Bullock and Gordon, who are Gotham PD, Summertime is a journalist. She's also the only one who doesn't try to oral fissure off to the Joker when briefly ungagged, but tries to shout out their location.
Laughing Mad: "Laughing all the wheeeeee..."
Laugh Track: Joker uses a laugh track in grossly inappropriate manner while discussing violence/terrorism. Information technology'due south possibly a secondary Lampshade Hanging that the "audience" he's using is revealed to be cardboard cutouts.
Mythology Gag: Joker nearly falls into a giant vat of liquid.
Prissy Job Fixing It, Villain: Batman and Robin would be stumped if the Joker hadn't produced that Betty Blooper doll. That beingness said, the Joker wants them to notice him.
Not What It Looks Like: Batman swings into action to stop an credible mugging when he sees a young man chasing after a center-aged woman. It turns out that he'due south only trying to return a package she accidentally left backside.
Offscreen Moment of Crawly: After breaking out of Arkham, Joker in a matter of hours manages to acquire plenty engineering to hack into everyone's television channels, take three hostages, and evade Batman's heavy surveillance.
Pie in the Confront: The Joker went to all that problem just to set Batman upward for this gag.
Properly Paranoid: Batman was completely right about Joker attempting a Christmas scheme. Robin admits every bit much.
The Public Domain Channel: The episode was produced and aired when It'southward a Wonderful Life , so in the public domain, could be seen on dozens of channels at any given time. (The moving-picture show'southward copyright would be re-activated the twelvemonth after the episode's broadcast.)
Remember the New Guy?: Unlike the majority of other rogues (the only other exception being the Penguin), while this is the Joker's debut, it isn't the beginning time he'due south fought Batman in the DCAU, but but the latest scheme.
Shout-Out:
- The Joker sings "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" as he escapes Arkham.
- The taxidermy equus caballus that "pulls" the Joker's sleigh in his pirate TV circulate has a single trimmed tree branch tied to its forehead with cord to pass it off as a "reindeer". Joker too knocks over a pathetic-looking bare-branched piddling Christmas tree.
- Gordon calls the Joker a diseased maniac.
- Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is referenced a few times. Robin comments, "'Bah braggadocio!' to you too!" and "He could give lessons to Scrooge!" when Batman repeatedly refuses to end their initial patrol of the metropolis. The Joker as well says "Bah humbug!" when Batman nabs him and wishes him "Merry Christmas".
Soundtrack Dissonance: Joker loves invoking this.
- He plays a The Dating Game -style arrangement of his Leitmotif afterward revealing that he took three hostages, one of whom is terrified and screaming for help.
- Music from The Nutcracker plays equally lethal mechanical toys attack Batman and Robin. It's pretty jarring to hear "Trepak" (aka the Russian Dance) played in a small-scale key.
Stating the Unproblematic Solution:
- Summer when briefly ungagged screams for help and tries to reveal the Joker's location, which would accept brought Batman sooner than later. He merely re-gags her before she can.
- Batman tries to follow the television set betoken trace, which is straightforward and "easy" as Robin mentions. They and so have to detour to stop a train from going over dismantled tracks, and it turns out the indicate is a trap.
The Stoic: Batman, even when getting a Pie in the Face or hearing that Joker has taken three hostages.
Track Trouble: Joker has his henchman blow up a railroad viaduct before the eleven:xxx express rolls through. Batman and Robin are able to save the passengers past disconnecting the passenger cars, while Batman is able to get the engineer out of the locomotive earlier it careens off the destroyed runway and explodes.
Trainstopping: Beingness Badass Normals, Batman and Robin are forced to stop the train through the relatively mundane method of disconnecting the carriages from the engine, and then leaping off the railroad train with the engineer in tow.
Unnecessarily Large Interior: The LaffCo manufactory is enormous (equally is everything in it). Information technology may be why it went out of business concern.
Visual Pun: Batman, wielding a bat.
Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: Not addressed in the episode, but you have to wonder how and when Joker managed to go the facilities to broadcast a Tv show on every channel, turn an observatory telescope into a giant cannon and construct all those giant toys with his face on them... sure fabricated for entertaining Television set, though.