Has to be something from when he was a kid, because he has been emotionally stunted since his parents murder. Depending on the sliding time scale maybe Three Stooges or something he watched with Alfred. A part of me hopes it was a classic Britcom.
The answer came in an issue of _Starman,_ although it hasn't aged well: Woody Allen's _Crimes and Misdemeanors_ (1989). Of course the universe has been reborn multiple times since then, so now it's probably _Jerry Maguire_ (1996) per _The Batman LEGO Movie._
There is something really eerie about Batman uncontrollably laughing, maybe it’s the juxtaposition to his dark persona, maybe because they always overexaggerate the laughing, but there is definitely something uneasy about it
Just like when in the *Justice League Action* short "Good Cop, Bad Cop", Batman tries to play good cop, offering Deadshot a donut and coffee and smiling, and he responds with fear, asking "What IS that? Why are you showing me your *teeth?"*
It’s so eerie. It’s like hearing your parents swear for the first time or initially seeing your teacher outside of a school setting. But you’ve got to love Sasha’s Batman voice reading the jokes.
I grew up on Bronze Age Batman, and this story was always a favorite. For all that Denny O'Neil brought a sense of seriousness and darkness back to Batman, he also wasn't afraid to incorporate humor as well. I'll admit, the way Batman turns the tables on Joker at the end is a little cheesy and contrived, but I enjoyed it anyway. "Batman wins by being clever" beats "Batman wins by being tough" any day of the week.
I think Batman being turned into a laughing mad version of the Joker is a great concept, and I have no shock that its been in the comics and the animated universe. However, I've said it before, The Batman Who Laughs is the Spider-Man Clone Wars of our generation. It took an initially interesting idea and beat the dead horse until it was flat.
It is really cool to see how the batman uses the base of the original story and having the hindsight to streamline the plot points. The faces of batman laughing really make the scenes more tense.
I had an old copy of this comic book when I was a child (a German translated issue to be precise) and I used to tell the Joker‘s bad jokes from the finale to friends… still know them today… and funny enough, my wife now always chuckles when I tell this one joke from the story. Became a running gag between us (no pun intended). So this comic holds a special place in my heart. Great to see it here!
Well here goes nothing. I've been reading comics for around 50 years. And my memory is not what it used to be. I remember watching you, on a different RU-vid channel. And I've been with you ever since. You're in depth reviews are spot on. When it comes to comics, anime, art. I feel a kinship, with you. Thank you for bringing back fond memories, for me.
Sasha you should write a DC The Question (Sage or Montoya) story or script, because the way you look at things would be perfect for the character…Keep Up The Outstanding Work 🖖🏾
Denny's favorite bat-trope was gassing on about Bats' "heightened senses" and then showing him get sucker-punched by a coffee urn or canful of paint to the eyes or some other goofy attack. Heck, even in the famous "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" Bats is bamboozled into looking around a blind corner by the young punk he's taking in, who promptly brains him unconscious. Every time, Bats recovers, berates himself for being stupid, then promptly gets caught off-guard again. Denny O'Neil made his living in superhero comics but I think he didn't like them very much.
@@JonathanEzor Superheroes are just more limited versions of the regular hero archetype, needing to include more tropes like a costume, codename and secret identity.
@@ProjektTakuI dont understand what you mean by this? Characters like Luke Cage exist which which would be a superhero who doesn't fall into any of those tropes? And using those tropes doesn't make the character or story limited in the first place?
@@kyclerealman yes but he also has "powers", also he does have a codename, Power Man, and a costume. And it is undeniable that superheroes have more a strict archetype than just regular heroes.
I adore Casually Comics because Sasha digs right into my memory. When i saw the first laughing Batman video, it reminded me of this issue which I have safely ensconced in my pile of comics from when I was a kid. We didn't live close to town and I often missed issues. I think I had to trade for this issue. I do remember the joke the doctor tests Batman with at the end. The fork says to the spoon "who was that ladel I saw you with last night?" The spoon replies "That was no ladel, that was my knife."
I have very little fondness for The Batman Who Laughs, but I greatly appreciate your (and your commenter) finding this inspirational throughline. The Batman's laughing at the end of "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" works in a way that "The Batman That Laughs" doesn't for me.
I would love to see you make more videos on The Batman animated series, like the episode of the everywhere man or seconds because they feel very unique along with having one time only villains
I think this story was the first appearance of Arkham Asylum. I've read it, but it doesn't hold a torch to "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" or "The Laughing Fish"; in other words, I'd completely forgotten it.
I am so glad I found this channel. It's not only informative, the host [and writer(s)? know her/his/their stuff]. IMO some of the best contact i have found on RU-vid. In the span of 1 day.... and this has been a workday, so just pieces at a time.... your hook is in my lip. So keep on keeping on.
I thought Batman would overcome the venom by thinking about the night his parents died. Even if the venom made him think it was funny, the shame at laughing at his own parents death would guilt him into silence.
I have this original comic from '75. It's one of my favorites then and now. I didn't think about the plot holes Sasha highlighted when I was twelve but I still have a special place in he heart for the story (even though she has a point!).
This reminds me of another weird adaptation. You remember that one Joker comic where he uses a gas that causes everyboy to laugh at bad jokes as he robs them blind? Did you know this scene was adapted for the 1966 series and given to Riddler of all people? Most people know that some scenes in the episodes "Hi Diddle Riddle"/"Smack in the Middle" are based on "Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler!" from Batman #171, however, did you ever realize that the climax of the episode involves The Joker's plan from "The Joker's Last Laugh!" from Detective Comics #332? This isn't even the last time they gave Riddler Joker's stuff, because "Death in Slow Motion"/"The Riddler's False Notion" are based on "The Joker's Comedy Capers!" from Detective Comics #341.
I think that The Batman episode was a subconscious copy. This one was something the showrunners read at one time, but fleetingly remembered. Although I wonder if the Jokers Utility belt was also another inspiration?
i just wanna say thank you for your hard work and your batman voice is hilarious. And for a suggestion: Joker’s origin tend to be “multiple choice” as he would say. It would be a nice rundown of the origins the joker (and the writers) used throughout the decades.
Thank you for covering this story! This was the first issue of Batman that I ever bought, back when I was a little kid. I loved the 100 pages format, I loved the reprints, and I loved the strange and obvious presence of random heroes at the funeral. I always figured he must be the personal physician to both the Justice League and the Teen Titans.
i always enjoy your intelligent analysis and this was a nice reminder of a comic i owned as a child. i appreciate your dives into the sillier aspects of comic history and animation and the respect you have for it. However i was thinking how interesting it would be to see you take on something really meaty like Watchmen or Frank millers daredevil. i know you have done some wonderful retrospectives on astro city which i also love and it would just be good to see you take on a real analytical challenge. Any plans in the future to change things up?
I can relate to the smelling flowers part. It's how I feel about assisting to a gala; if at least one single gala, or any sort of rich people party like event within any of the comic universes, ever went well, instead of getting raided by criminals or something similar, I wouldn't feel so paranoid about attending to one. Which would be more of a problem if I ever got invited to a gala, but still...
Wow! I read this story as a kid back in the 70’s. And I had forgotten it till I saw your video The moment I saw the videos thumbnail though it all came back to me. So thank you for reviving my memory on it. What I need to see now, is this episode of The Batman you referenced. I was kind’ve "off and on" with that series, and I know for certain I have never seen it. One question (completely off topic): Can I ask what kind of microphone you are using? Thanks again for another great video.
I always liked this story, it's the first Batman story I remember reading, my cousin gave me a load of old Eagle comics and annuals and this was in one of the annuals. I also really liked The house of Daemon and The tower king, I think by the same artist in the Eagle comics. Sadly those comics are long gone.
I think this illustrates specifically the value of mining old comics and media. Clearly the original -- doubtless delivered on a tight deadline -- had some gold material to salvage but you also have to look at it past the flaws.
Wow, now that you did a video on this issue I remember reading it as a kid, but I'd completely forgotten about it. I specifically remember the sequence mentioning all the fighting styles he'd mastered.
Joker addressing Batman as "Batman Esquire" ... that brought me back to my High School days. Some of the more jovial lads would end their signature with "Esquire" when they signed a yearbook or whatever. I don't see that anymore. I think that cheese is well aged.
Batman 260 also reprints the story from Detective 112 where he gets his dollar trophy. (Quick research, the story also appears in Golden Age Omni 4.) Still have a copy of 260 floating around here somewhere. One of the few giants my 10yr-old self could afford in 1975.
I had this comic back in the day. I also wondered about all the superheroes at the funeral. It aroused my curiosity about the martial art of aikido because this was the first time I'd ever heard of it. I really wondered where Batman parked his bat-jet in London. Did he just land at Heathrow and pay a crew to maintain it? Does he have a British bat-cave to park hid vehicles when he travels?
There was an episode of Mary Tyler Moore Show in October 1975 called Chuckles Bites the Dust. In it the lead laughs uncontrollably at the funeral of a local clown. I wonder if there is any relation.
Comparing both made me think a bit if 20 minutes and 20 pages are the same amount of content. I tend to think 20 pages is less, like 10-15 minutes of content, so some solutions had to be more straightforward and less stretched out like laughing at the funeral and solving in 2 pages instead of 3 minutes of content building tension before laughing at the victim. The pacing logistic and economy between the two mediums is different given the space they have so it can create very different storytelling needs. It may be easier to stretch a 20 pages story into 20 minutes makes some scenes slightly longer but reducing 20 minutes to 20 pages can cut off a lot. For example Mad Love in comics was 60 pages. The animated version of it one episode of 20 minutes. it can change from story to story but as a rule a comic usually needs way more pages for 20 minutes than the other way around.
Considering how there instances of batman using his villains toxins to "improve" himself i wonder how long it will take for writers to make Batman willingly use the joker toxin
This comic reminded me of an old Power Records Batman story "Stacked Cards", which is another Joker venom story, unrelated to this one, but for a book and record set for kids was brutally violent. My favorite of the Power Records was "Robin meets Man-Bat" which used to scare the daylights out of me with the Man-Bat screech. If you aren't familiar you should check them out. they are basically audio plays of comic books from the late 70s that you would buy and get a little record and comic together. I'm sure they are all on RU-vid somewhere
That Doctor who sniffs the flowers is the spitting image of Graeme Garden, from classic British tv 70's comedy show the Goodies. Probably just a coincidence, but you never know...
Joker should have given Batman a diluted dose, so he just lightens up a bit. Then the Justice League would think he was an imposter and attack him! It'd be like Zemo's plan in Captain America: Civil War, except less ridiculously circuitous.
When I was a senior in high school, I attended Grad Nite at Disneyland, an event where local schools lock their seniors in the park overnight for a "unique" experience. I've always been a massive night owl, so after five or six hours of running wild in a theme park, my friends got tired before I did. We went looking for a place for them to rest, and strolled into the little nickelodeon on Main Street that was playing old Mickey Mouse cartoons on an endless loop. My friends lay down on the floor, and I sat next to them, watching the cartoons projected on the wall screens. One of them had Harpo Marx as a guest star (playing polo from atop an ostrich), and since I'd grown up on old movies, I actually got most of the jokes and was punch-drunk enough to laugh. So I sat there, alone except for the bodies of my sleeping friends, looking up at a loop of Harpo Marx and giggling like a fiend. At one point, a boy stuck his head in, saw the accidental horror tableau, and ran for his life. I never thought I'd have much in common with Batman, but "laughing creepily and using the Marx Brothers as a coping mechanism" isn't on most people's bingo cards, I guess. I choose to believe he concentrated on the ending scene of Duck Soup, where they're throwing the fruit at Margaret Dumont while she tries to sing the national anthem.
