B:TAS "Make ’Em Laugh" Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

Today at 5 p.m. eastern Cartoon Network airs The Adventures of Batman & Robin episode, Make ’Em Laugh as the first episode in it’s April Fool’s Day marathon.


http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/batman/btas/episodes/makeemlaugh/00r.jpg
Episode #083 - Make 'Em Laugh
Original Airdate - November 5th, 1994.

Gotham City is plagued by a rash of crazy crimes all committed by bizarre villains. Batman and Robin investigate, discovering the "criminals" are actually famous comedians brainwashed by the Joker. It seems the comedians had the disguised Joker tossed out of the annual Gotham Comedy Competition the year before and the jealous clown has sworn to destroy their reputations in return.

Comments?

[BeastBoyWonder]

"Lets find out."

"Is there a problem officers?"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


Mark Hamill is the shizzity boo bang diggity.

[JohnStewart-GL]

This wasn't my favorite episode but it was a funny.
Mighty Mom was the greatest. She spanked Robin!!!!

[Meow]

A pretty good episode. I gave it a 4 outta 5. And yes, Mark Hamill's hilarious. Just hearing the Joker's voice makes me crack up. :D

[JTurner954]

Condiment King. LOL. Everything was good except for that one woman judge who acted like a witch (I did laugh at the spanking though). 4 stars from me.

[The Penguin]

“It's not the trophy that matters, it's the title. I am the greatest clown this dismal burg has ever seen! What would the common folk do without my pranks and antics?” - The Joker, Make ’Em Laugh

A fairly funny Joker episode. I was pretty entertained by all of the comedians in their corny villain personas, especially the mighty Condiment King! There’s some really good detective work in this one as Batman, Robin and Alfred piece together the puzzle that leads them to The Joker and his need to feed his giant ego.

[JTurner954]

:eek: How could you do a April Fool's Day Joker marathon without the APRIL FOOL'S DAY JOKER EPISODE??? :confused: It's not playing. They are ruining it. :(

[Meow]

Originally posted by JTurner954
:eek: How could you do a April Fool's Day Joker marathon without the APRIL FOOL'S DAY JOKER EPISODE??? :confused: It's not playing. They are ruining it. :( I would agree with you if they hadn't already shown that epsiode a million freaking times. It's THE Joker episode that they always show. If they're gonna show constant reruns they should at least play "Harleyquinade" (sp?) again. I didn't get to see it when they show'd it last, and I haven't seen it in YEARS!! :(

[JTurner954]

Well, I remember seeing it recently on Rising Sun and that's it.

But now that I think about it, maybe that's an April Fool's joke into itself. You think they would show it, but they fooled everyone. Yep, I fell for it.

[BatKid]

I wasn't really interested in watching the episode, but there were some good, funny parts like the judges dressed up as villains, and that woman spanking Robin.

One of the parts I really liked though was a Pre-Joker trying to be a comedian, and being taken out because he sucked. :D

It was a good, funny episode, but nothing more really needs to be said about it.

[Karkull]

I watched this episode yesterday and I've got a dumb question: the writers were obviously sending up current personalities (Condiment King = Jerry Seinfeld, Mighty Mom = Rosanne Barr), but who was Pack Rat supposed to be modeled after? I couldn't figure out if it was supposed to be Rick Moranis or Jason Alexander or somebody else. Any thoughts?

[Harley_Quinn]

I watched this episode yesterday and I've got a dumb question: the writers were obviously sending up current personalities (Condiment King = Jerry Seinfeld, Mighty Mom = Rosanne Barr), but who was Pack Rat supposed to be modeled after? I couldn't figure out if it was supposed to be Rick Moranis or Jason Alexander or somebody else. Any thoughts?
I would have figured Jason Alexander

[Manhunter]

I watched this episode yesterday and I've got a dumb question: the writers were obviously sending up current personalities (Condiment King = Jerry Seinfeld, Mighty Mom = Rosanne Barr), but who was Pack Rat supposed to be modeled after? I couldn't figure out if it was supposed to be Rick Moranis or Jason Alexander or somebody else. Any thoughts?
Jerry Lewis

[Simpler Simon]

Was Condiment King created for the show, or was he drawn from some obscure villain? I was flipping through Batgirl Year One a week ago and was surprised to find a Condiment King appearance as Batgirl and Robin chase down Blockbuster.

[Karkull]

Condiment King was created for the show; I guess they decided to throw him into Batgirl: Year One.

[Batboy]

I like the scene where Joker falls off the roof and Batman shoots his grappling hook at his pants. Then he lands with the trophy over his head with his pants down. The Rat-guy was funny too. Especially when he got tied up by Batman (?) and started shooting at the floor and robin started to laugh at him. :D

[John6777]

This is probably the best Joker episode of the BTAS. I really can't think of one that was better then this one. I guess maybe Laughing Fish but not too many of the Joker's apperances come to mind where i really laughed. This one i really laughed.

[Batboy]

This is probably the best Joker episode of the BTAS. I really can't think of one that was better then this one. I guess maybe Laughing Fish but not too many of the Joker's apperances come to mind where i really laughed. This one i really laughed.

Same here, but aside from joker appearances that makes one want to laugh, I liked "Be A Clown", probably because it was the first Joker episode I ever saw when I was a little kid. Yup, Laughing Fish is indeed a good Joker episode.

Btw, after watching the last two discs of volume 3, I got a feeling that Robin behaved a little weird. Almost as if the creative team wanted him to be dumb, unable to do things by himself. Maybe it is just me...

[The Penguin]

Tonight at 12 midnight ET, Boomerang airs The Adventures of Batman & Robin episode, Make 'Em Laugh. If you do not have Boomerang, you are encouraged to follow along on disc 4 of your Batman: The Animated Series, Vol. 3 (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=141827) DVD set.


http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/batman/btas/episodes/makeemlaugh/00r.jpg
Episode #083 - Make 'Em Laugh
Original Airdate - November 5th, 1994.

Gotham City is plagued by a rash of crazy crimes all committed by bizarre villains. Batman and Robin investigate, discovering the "criminals" are actually famous comedians brainwashed by the Joker. It seems the comedians had the disguised Joker tossed out of the annual Gotham Comedy Competition the year before and the jealous clown has sworn to destroy their reputations in return.

Comments?

[Stewie]

I like this and The Laughing Fish in much the same way. Both of them show us how the Joker thinks without resorting to "because he's crazy", or even worse, "just because". It makes the Joker make sense. It's more complex than: "Bad Guy do Bad Thing. He doesn't Show Remorse, therefore he's Crazy/ReallyEvil." That's boring. The death and destruction isn't just the outcome of Joker's kind of crazy, it's a tool he uses to accomplish his goal. And such an unremarkable goal at that.
And the fact that he really wants to be known for his humor makes it entirely possible to empathize without diluting the threat he presents.

Oh, and "Roseanne" was great. Physics be damned. If the actual Roseanne could move like that, I'd pay to see her do it.

[JSmith]

This is one of the poorer Joker episodes. I loved Condiment King, but the rest of the show just kind of sat there. What I really didn't like was that this was the beginning of the end of the Joker as a villain that made the common folk wet their pants in fear when they saw him. Think of how frightened Charlie Collins was when he realized he'd just cut off the Joker. Or how terrified Sidney was when he realized Joker had paid his bail. Joker is supposed to scare and petrify the average Gothamite. Here, he was the butt of the joke, literally. They all laughed at him when he came floating down with his pants around his ankles. No one was even remotely scared of him. Bruce Timm's fears had come to pass. With the inclusion of Harley in every Joker story, Joker had lost his edge. He was no longer frightening. In Harlequinade he is twitted on as much as Batman. In Millions he's more zany and playful than scary. Joker only really had a few good episodes where he was done right. Favor, Fish, Man Who, and Almost Got 'Im showed Joker at his best. After that he lost his mojo and wouldn't get it back til Return of the Joker put the terror and bloodlust back in his eyes. Not a great episode, but not terrible either. 3 stars.

[Batman Fan]

Standard Joker episode, although it's not my favorite, there's really nothing to bad about it.

First off, the wacky villans that Joker created using Mad Hatter's microchips just show you how crazy he is, and what's going on in that twisted head of his. The Condiment King was great, loved how Batman reacted to him, "Mustard Man":D and his line about how it's gonna be one of those nights. The Pack Rat was lame, but the music that came with him was great, and Batman was pretty rough on both of these, he slugged King in the stomach, and then he falls off a building, and Pack Rat get electrocuted. Mighty Mom was also great, loved it when she spanked Robin.

The animation was nothing amazing, but it held up and was consistent, the action was nice, I just wanted to know what Batman was thinking when he was fighting those lunatics. Joker's plot was kinda lacking, but I loved how they ejected him from the contest, and he wanted revenge, and then he says it's all about the title of being the greatest comic in Gotham, which totally fits Joker's M.O., he wants everyone to recognize him. The finale was great, Mark Hamill did a terrific performance as the Joker, but Joker really didn't come off as the star comic of the episode, he had a few good moments, but the funniest parts came from the obscure villans, the end where the trophy gets stuck on his head and his pants fall down, was a nice way to humiliate him, but it wasn't that funny, still, Mark's performance was top-notch, and he pulled off every line.

Like I said, this is a basic Joker plot, while it did give us a few laughs with outrageous villans, it just isn't as funny as his other appearences, and while the episode isn't horrible as most people believe it to be, it's just not as memorable and that's why I think it's overlooked, and a bit underrated.

A solid **** episode.

[Anwar]

"Perp appears to be using...a ketchup gun..."

"It's going to be one of those nights..."

Nuff said..

[Revelator]

"Make 'Em Laugh" is the first of several episodes that nearly neutered the Joker ("Joker's Millions" and "Beware the Creeper" are the others).
That might be acceptable if the episode was actually funny, but the lines and gags are either too broadly delivered or intrisically corny. Lots of the humor is boffo to the point of making you cringe: having Robin get spanked by a Roseanne clone is some sort of new low.
And since when has the Joker become pathetic enough to crave the validation of a title, when he's always before simply assumed that he was the funniest man in Gotham? In Harlequinade he regarded the people of Gotham as little more than recipients of an atom-bomb punchline, but now he asks what Gothamites do without his antics. And sure to course he makes them laugh, though humiliatingly at his own expense. The Joker we know and love, who was above craving validation because he was egotistical enough to self-grant it, wouldn't have bothered with anything in "Make Em Laugh" besides the chance to totally wreck three people's lives for a good gratuitous laugh.
In this episode the Joker is hellbent on making other people laugh, but in the rest of BTAS he played for sick, cruel jokes for his own amusement. The character works much better that way: "Make 'Em Laugh" removes much of the Joker's mystique, and worse, removes some of the scariness we demand from a modern-day version of the character. The Joker of "The Laughing Fish" is proof of Lon Chaney's assertion that there's nothing funny about a clown after midnight. The Joker of "Make 'Em Laugh" is just a laughingstock.

[Cortez2301]

Well this episode didn't make me laugh enough.There are only a few things I liked.The condiment king's meeting with the batman,the packrats fight and seeing the mad hatter unconscious.

[ShadowStar]

This episode has really grown on me since the first viewing, when I hated it (bear in mind that I was watching it back to back with the brilliant "Harlequinade" at the time). It's got one of the best musical scores of the series outside of Shirley Walkers' work (Michael McCuiston did a terrific job here) and the "villains" were a lot of fun. Mighty Mom was probably going a bit far, though... And you've gotta love an episode with a Mad Hatter cameo; seeing him petrified like that was somewhat creepy... There was a glitch, though: when Batman begins searching for signs of something wrong with Jervis, you can see the latters' neck, which is perfectly normal. A few moments later, a bandage has appeared on it from nowhere! Oh well. A very good episode, though definitely not the best to feature the Clown Prince of Crime.

[Silverstar]

Wow, someone bumped this year-old thread.

Anyways, one technical question: Lisa Lorraine (the Roseanne-caricature judge voiced by the brilliant Andrea Martin)'s supervillain persona was called 'Mighty Mom' in the episode, yet the production credits list her character as 'Rolling Pin'. Anybody know the story behind that?

[DisneyBoy]

Didn't notice that, and thank you for saying who voiced her. I couldn't quite place it, and yet it's so clearly Andrea Martin, who rocks (GO CANADA!)

I would chalk it up to a last-minute name change, and nothing more, since Might Mom still wields a rolling pin as a weapon.

I can't remember though, does she really spank Robin on-screen?

EDIT: I couldn't help but notice that this may be the first episode where Hamill starts making a (bad) habit of rolling the Joker's "r"s.

[Stu]

I love this episode - I still site it as one of my favourites. I know a lot of people think it goes against the core of what The Joker is all about, but I always found it amusing that he would go out of his way to crown himself the king of comedy in Gotham and is genuinly offended that others would date attempt to sit in his throne.

Plus, there's a great number of classic lines in this one.

"Is there a problems Officers?"

Joker "I am the greatest clown this dismal berg has ever seen! What would the common folk do with my pranks and antics?
Batman: Let's find out!"

One of the show's better comedy episodes. Shame it's not that well liked (even by it's director!)

[DisneyBoy]

Didn't know the director didn't like it.

Pretty good animation, decent enough story and good laughs. I don't see it as a re-invention of the Joker, although it does feel a bit that way. Nothing here contradicts his past origin tidbits, so maybe Mistah J just wanted to seem "normal" for a day, and disguised himself for that flashback performance.

[Mr. Mxyzptlk]

^ Yeah, that's the only way I can bring myself to explain it. At first I thought it was actually a pre-Joker appearance, which would mean he became the Joker over the past year, not to mention the newspaper which reads 'Police Rally Held For Gordon' makes it clear that this is happening around the time of Batgirl's first appearance, which would mean Joker only became Joker less than a year before Batgirl became Batgirl, and seeing as how that's supposed to be a pretty late event in B:TAS history, it just boggled my mind forever (yeah, huge run-on sentence). But now, I realize it must have been Joker trying to claim the title normally in a regular disguise.

Anyway, onto the episode. I thought it was decent. The villains were pretty hilarious, although they went from good to worse (although I love Andrea Martin, Mighty Mom just didn't get much of a laugh out of me). Mark Hamill's always great as the Joker, but here, there was a line that was so brilliantly delivered, even for him. 'Let's cheer them up' was the line, and I don't know why it stands out, but I find myself saying that line over and over again because it was so well-delivered. Anyway, not much to say. The episode's not horrible by any means. It's just that it can't hold a candle to stuff lke 'The Laughing Fish' and 'Joker's Favor'. Overall, I gave it a ***1/2.

[ShadowStar]

Didn't know the director didn't like it.

Pretty good animation, decent enough story and good laughs. I don't see it as a re-invention of the Joker, although it does feel a bit that way. Nothing here contradicts his past origin tidbits, so maybe Mistah J just wanted to seem "normal" for a day, and disguised himself for that flashback performance.

The diguise was the very first thing I thought of when I first saw the episode. It never occurred to me that that might have been how he looked pre-chemical bath because, face it, the Joker would look and sound cooler.

And yeah, the director (Boyd Kirkland?) thinks it's one of his worst, along with "Nothing to Fear", if you read the interview with him on this site.

I'd put this episode on a par with "Joker's Favor", "Joker's Wild" and "Harley and Ivy". But by no means is it as good as "The Man Who Killed Batman" or "Harlequinade".

[Boyd Kirkland]

And yeah, the director (Boyd Kirkland?) thinks it's one of his worst, along with "Nothing to Fear", if you read the interview with him on this site.
Perhaps I should clarify: Saying this episode isn't one of my favs, and admitting that there were several other episodes I directed that I would rank above it is not saying it's bad or not entertaining. I'm proud of all my work on the Batman series. But inevitably, some shows just come together better than others. And viewer enjoyment depends on personal tastes and preferences. It's great to know that many of you enjoyed this one!

[Nygma]

"Funny thing happened to me on my way to the theater last year, seems three no talent hacks tried to stop me from winning. But guess what? (Removes make up to reveal himself as the Joker) I'm back!"

I didn't think much of this episode the first time I saw it, but every time I watch it this episode gets better and better. In fact of all the episodes, oddly enough I find myself rewatching this episode the most lately. For me Condiment King steels this episode in the first act with his classic Batman encounter. But the Joker is in great form, especially Mark Hamill as the Joker.


I love this episode - I still site it as one of my favourites. I know a lot of people think it goes against the core of what The Joker is all about, but I always found it amusing that he would go out of his way to crown himself the king of comedy in Gotham and is genuinly offended that others would date attempt to sit in his throne.

Really? I don't see how Joker trying to get revenge on a comedy competition is any different than what he did in Joker's Wild. I think Mark Hamill puts it best when he says that he played The Joker as an unappreciated genius. And I don't think the situation here really goes against that at all. I think the problem people have with this episode is the fact that this plot doesn't have that larger than life Joker feel that episodes like The Laughing Fish or Harlequinade have.


Plus, there's a great number of classic lines in this one.

"Is there a problems Officers?"

Joker "I am the greatest clown this dismal berg has ever seen! What would the common folk do with my pranks and antics?
Batman: Let's find out!"

I've got to add the ones for Condiment King here:

"I knew you'd ketchup to me sooner or later, how I've relished this meeting."

"Come Batman, lets see if you can cut the mustard?" (Batman):"Quiet (punches him in the gut)".:D

Other ones that I remember:

"It's gonna be one of those nights."

"You should've remembered the old saying. Dying is easy, comedy is hard."

"Mind if I join the party?"

I also think the ending was classic with the crowd laughing at the Joker with his pants down. On an ironic note I love how the Joker gets hauled off to jail, and the cops don't even bother with taking the trophy (the very thing he stole) back from him.

*****