Batman's village of fools 

This might be the least flattering angle I've been filmed from in a long time, and there's no-one to blame but myself. Feels right to be out doing solo videos again, though.

Of all the places for Batman to call home, the place that is known for being completely insane probably is beyond perfect.

Reminds me of the joke, where there's this "town idiot" at a bar, and if offered one dollar or five dollars, he'd always pick the one dollar note. Incredulous, a traveller asks the guy, why on earth he would do such a stupid thing. To which the guy replies: "If I'd take the fiver, then people would stop offering me money".

Talking of Batman, the Australian city of Melbourne was founded by John Batman and was initially called Batmania. Being a prominent Australian historical figure Batman had a federal electoral region named after him. As in the UK, the opposition party has a shadow ministry whose job is to criticise their government counterparts. At one stage the Member for Batman was the Shadow Minister for Justice.

*alternate timeline* Batman, Gloucestershire needs you!

The fact that comic book Gotham City is filled with crazy villains is one hell of a unintentional call back to Gotham, England.

“We're going to build a hunting lodge and the locals are going to pay for it.” -King John , circa 13th Century

In german folktales we have the fictional town of Schilda (Speak: Shillda): The men of Schilda were once very wise and thus ended up as advisors to Emperors and kings - to the dismay of their women. So they made an oath to not be smart anymore to get out of service and return home. And over the generations their offspring did end up decisively dumb. They once sowed their fields with salt, in order to grow "salt plants" since salt was expensive. They ended up killing all plants beside nettles, which they thought to be the salt plants - they ended up hurting themselves on the nettles and having to live without salt for a year. When they built their new town hall, they gathered the wood on a nearby hill. They carried all the wood down, only to let the last log fall and witness how it rolled down the hill without them having to work. They thought that this was unfair, carried all the wood back up and let it tumble down, because why should they do work the wood could do itself? There was also a fatal design flaw in their town hall: It had no windows. But instead of building windows, they caught sunlight in mousetraps, wheelbarrows, buckets and so on and carried it inside - which, of course, did not work. There is an entire book of their (mis)adventures, which ends with them burning their town to the ground because of a cat.

I love in Nottingham and drive through Gotham regularly and always thought Batman living in Gotham was coincidence. Didn’t realise there was a link.

In homage to the comic book connection, the Christmas Lights in the village are usually switched on by a costumed “Batman” and “Robin”.

Appropriate, as Batman's Gotham is also a city full of madmen

If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid

Holy interesting fact Batman!

Fun fact! Wollaton Hall in Nottingham, not far from Gotham, was actually used in the film ‘the dark knight rises’ as Bruce Wayne’s manor. I go to uni nearby.

Slightly interesting trivia: Wollaton Hall, used for Bruce Wayne’s mansion in The Dark Knight Rises is only a twenty minute drive from Gotham. It also has caves beneath it.

this is why I subscribed. getting good quality content that I can learn something new and interesting from

What I got from this video is that, as a non-American, people kept telling me that I was pronouncing Gotham wrong, and instead I've always been right at least from an hystorical point of view. Nice.

Considering the UK has places called Little piddle and Shitterton batman dodged a bullet!

"We're gonna build a hunting lodge, and Gotham are gonna pay for it." - King John

I like how the important part of this video is Batman.

So Gotham, a city of madmen, was inspired by Gotham, a town of madmen.

This is fascinating to me, but for reasons unrelated to Batman at all. My home town of Homs, a city in the middle of Syria, have a similar legend around it, and a similar heritage of its residents being the butt of jokes about stupid people. The legend involves the Mongols invasion of the Middle East at the time of the Mongolian Empire. The people of Homs heard that the Mongols have taken Baghdad and that they are marching west, so they all took pots and wore some on their heads and started banging on the others and doing a myriad of silly other things once the Mongolian army arrived, which resulted in the armies of the Mongols leaving the city alone. Edit: an earlier version of this comment used "Moguls" insted of "Mongols" due to some linguistic confusion. Those are two different human groups and the comment was edited accordingly.

Sorry, I was only half listening to the video, but I think that I can safely conclude that Batman is Robin Hood, right?

Fantastic work correctly naming Bill Finger. I wasn't expecting that extra detail.

This town deserves a hero, but doesn't need one right now

Lived near Gotham my entire life and never thought to check if it had any relation to Batman

I grew up a couple of miles away. It has a good chip shop.

Good on you!! You gave credit where credit is due, by naming Bill Finger instead of Bob Kane for coming up with all that is the Batman mythos... cheers

If one of those events had not happened, there would be tremendous consequences... Batman would live somewhere else.

So much research, time and effort all for a cony joke at the end! I LOVE IT!

Love how you framed it all at the end with the unbroken chain. Great bit of story telling!

This is where you shine Tom, emulating James Burke's Connections series. We are ALL here today through chance happenstance of innumerable odd events.

Pretending to be insane just to be left alone? Gotham village, here I come.

This reminds me of the old BBC series Connections, but with humanities instead of science. Love it, do more like it.

This was like a 3 minute episode of James Burke's Connections. I love it.

We got similar stories here in Germany, about a fictional town of Schilda, and the citizens of Schilda, the Schildbürger. They did things like trying to hide the church bell from soldiers who wanted to melt it down. So they dropped it in the middle of a lake, and to note where on the lake the dropped it, they made a small notch at the side of their boat. Or the architect of the new townhall forgot to put in windows, so the Schildbürger try to get light in by catching it in buckets.

I actually liked the 16th century joke in the beginning

Everyone I knew who went to Nottingham Trent or Uni Of Notts would always mention about how they always smirk or let out a sly chuckle when they see Gotham on the roadsigns or bus

Now I'm just picturing all the Batman movies where his city is pronounced "Goat-um" and all the jokes that name implies.

Seen Gotham in an A-Z a long time ago and wondered if it was related to batman in some weird way. This was indeed another interesting thing I did not know

This, to me, is one of the best TYMNK you’ve ever done. They’re all good but this one blew my mind.

It's simple! We make the Batman think we're crazy, then he won't come near us!

Now this is why I follow you. That was really interesting!

Can we get someone who knows a lot about 16th century English phonology to read out that book as a standup routine?

You, Techmoan and a very small group of people are what make RU-vid great. Bravo!

If one of those links had broken, Gotham's village sign would be left in peace from students trying to steal it! Another interesting link: nearby Wollaton Hall was used as a filming location for Wayne manor in the Dark Knight Rises: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wollaton_Hall#History

sometimes i wish tom would just talk for hours and hours . i learn more from tom than i did in school im sure of it

Super interesting, always love it when a new Tom Scott video drops.

Love how they have batman on that thing

I really like the way the video ended. "If one single link had failed, Batman had to live somewhere else"

I was only half paying attention to this, had a little chuckle and a smile when I heard Gotham, my family are from there. Fun fact, wollaton hall is about 15 minutes away which was used as Wayne manor in some of the films. Also you would not BELIEVE how often nerds steal the street signs.

Next week's video will be "How did Tom comment a week before his video came out?"

now it makes actual sense that there are soooo many crazy people in Gotham(Batman)

so that's why they filmed parts of the dark night rises outside wollaton hall... makes perfect sense now

Tom has really nice eyes.

Nice tie-in and lesson, Tom. Great job.

So can you say the people of Gotham, England put on a *batty* performance for the king?

Holy happenstance, Batman!

That was fantastic! Thank you for sharing made my day😄

This reminds me of the old TV show Connections. That was a great show. ;)

BUTTERFLY EFFECT

I've been to Gotham and also Wollaton Hall (nearby) which is where they filmed Batman's house in the film.

Tom, when you do stories like this it reminds me so much of James Burke's "Connections". one of my favorites

I love these fascinating facts. Will they improve my life? Nah. Am I a bit happier because I watch them? You bet. Keep at it Tom, a day without learning something is a day wasted.

I live near here and it's very funny to talk to people about this village - as no one believes me that it is actually pronounced GOAT-HAM phonetically.

Oddly, the main thing I knew Gotham for up until now was it being part of a handy traffic-busting back route into Nottingham from the south, vs the A453. Before the road was upgraded to dual carriageway and traffic calming and detours were incorporated to the back route, anyway. ...wonder if that's related to the King John story in some vague way?

In Scandinavia there are similar stories about a town in Denmark... I forget the name, but it's your usual fare of "oh gosh, aren't these people stupid."

This is my favorite “things you might not know” so far. I can’t wait for the next one.

And that, is something you might not have.. wait a minute. I feel incomplete Tom!

Videos like this are why I love your channel :)

Melbourne was almost called Batmania.

And more than a few Batman villains are themselves mentally deranged. Fantastic.

thanks for the throwback - I used to cycle through Gotham quite regularly when I lived in Nottingham.

This is the stuff I love from you. (I like citation needed too don't get me wrong) stories of random chains of events that I can impress my friends with.

I think this is my fave video you've ever done! Awesome :D

Did I just watch an episode of Connections in high speed?

Almost feels like a micro episode of James Burke's old Connections series.

Well, he certainly picked a well-suited name.

Off topic... But Tom has gorgeous eyes.

Tom, you forgot to mention that just outside the city limits of Gotham lies Wayne Manor (Wollaton Hall in Nottingham University, where some scenes for Wayne Manor were filmed in The Dark Knight Rises).

I'm a resident of a city of 5 million people founded by a bloke called Batman. When John Batman landed at Melbourne and declared "this is the place for a village", people thought he was a fool. Sadly however, Melbourne has no suburbs called Gotham.

I bet Tom was a fan of James Burke's Connections. Loved seeing that show and its successors on PBS as a kid. This video reminds me of the show.

Well I sure am pleased that tenuous chain didn't get broken because I couldn't cope with Batman living somewhere else. Great vid, thanks.

Wow! Another fabulous video. Thanks Tom.

having driven past the signs for Gotham many times, I had often wondered if there was any connection to Batman or not, but couldn't have imagined it went so far back!

I remember walking through Gotham somewhat drunk with the boys. A fantastic walk from Nottingham to Gotham to West Leake

We're gonna build a lodge, and we're gonna make the Gothamites pay for it!

Reminds me of the stories the people of Devizes in Wiltshire, used to tell about the inhabitants of the nearby village of Bishops Cannings. Most famously, of course, the tale of the Moonrakers, who were caught by the revenue men trying to rake some barrels of contraband brandy out of the local pond, the Crammer. When asked what they were doing they pointed to the reflection of the full moon, and told the customs men that they were trying to rake a big old cheese out of the pond. Probably apocryphal, but one that is definitely true is the tale of the Bishop Cannings marching band base drum. The drummer decided to build a new drum in his front bedroom, but then found that is was too big for him to get it out of the house. The band were thus reduced to marching up and down the street outside his house as he stood at the window beating out time. The drum still exists, and was in Devizes Museum last time I went there. Less likely to be true is the tale of the church spires. Bishops Cannings Church has a mighty fine spire and a tiny one in the corner next to it housing the circular staircase. The story goes that one of the churchwardens wanted to grow the little spire to be as big as the main one, so he hauled a young calf up to the top of the tower in the hope that its manure would cause the little spire to grow. Every day he would take hay up to the top of the tower, and spread the manure round the base of the small spire. Of course it didn't grow, but the cow did, and soon there was no way to get it back down. The cow apparently lived out the rest of its life up there, and grass started growing all round the base of the spire.

You went full v sauce

“Three wise men of Gotham Went to sea in a bowl. If the bowl had been stronger, My story would have been longer.”

I really like these kinds of stories. Be it Harold Bluetooth, the secret post-nuclear strike order on British submarines, Operation Mincemeat, unexploded bombs off the British coast or the illegal burning of that Christmas goat in Sweden (I think this year it is still in one piece :) to just name a few of my favorites. Thanks for all of these and many more interesting videos.

Another wonderfully engaging story, Tom. Thank you!

No way, I was there just a few days ago. Pleasant enough little place

Amazing!! Always a treat of knowledge to watch your videos!! Keep it up!!! Live long and prosper \/

I love your videos! You have something unique and fun to watch. I have learned a lot! Thanks buddy! Keep it up!

that was deep...feels all warm and fuzzy~

There's similar legends about the citizens of Schilda - however those have a bad ending, as they end up burning their city down.

Just down the road from Gotham is Woolaton Hall which just so happens to be Batmans house!

And that is something you might not have nanananananananananananananananananaknown (i'm very sorry)

Tom always has such amazing content