Be A Clown
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| Batman: The Animated Series episode | |
|---|---|
| |
| "Be A Clown" | |
| Airdate: | September 16, 1992 |
| Production Number: | 9 |
| Airdate Order: | 11 |
| Animation Services by: | Akom Production Co. |
| Written by: | Ted Pedersen & Steve Hayes |
| Directed by: | Frank Paur |
| Episode images (4) | |
"Be A Clown" is the ninth episode of the first season of Batman: The Animated Series. It originally aired on September 16, 1992.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Mayor Hill is giving a speech at a construction site, saying the new block of apartments being built will herald a new, safer Gotham City. The speech is rudely interrupted by a pair of criminals who crash their getaway car and then open fire on the police pursuing them. Batman appears and takes them down. Rising from the podium he ducked under, Hill resumes the thread of his speech, railing against men who act outside the law. When Summer Gleeson sardonically asks him if he includes Batman, Hill responds, absolutely: "He and criminals like the Joker are cut from the same cloth."
The Joker happens to be watching this in his hideout, and is outraged at the comparison. He gets an idea for revenge from Hill's next statement, promising to make the city "as safe as [his] own mansion."
That weekend, the mansion is the site of a birthday party for the mayor's son, Jordan. The party is more a political media event than a real celebration, and Jordan feels overlooked and unloved. Practicing magic tricks alone in his room, he is mad when his father barges in and demands that he come out and greet the blue bloods.
However, Jordan perks up when the party's entertainment arrives, magician and jokester "Jekko the Clown" (the Joker in disguise). Jordan is awed by Jekko's act, and asks how he can become a magician like him. Jekko laughs and says the first necessary step is to run away. Then Mayor Hill insist that Jordan leave the clown and come and greet the new arrivals, including Bruce Wayne. Fed up, Jordan runs up to his room.
For his parting gift, Jekko plants a large sparkler candle on top of the birthday cake (in reality, a large stick of dynamite). As he leaves the Mayor, he lets out one of his trademark laughs. Hearing it, Bruce looks around and sees the candle. Pushing his way through the crowd, he pretends to stumble with the large present he's carrying, knocking the cake into the pool, where the bomb detonates harmlessly underwater.
Hill calls the police, who find the real Jekko the Clown tied up down the road from the mansion. As Hill demands answers, Bruce realizes, "where's Jordan?" The scene shifts to inside the Joker's van, where Jordan pokes his head up.
The Joker returns to his hideout, an abandoned amusement park. He starts to remove his makeup, but Jordan appears, saying he followed "Jekko's" advice and wants to be a magician like him. The Joker is initially enraged at having his hideout invaded, but laughs it off and says he's been thinking about a protégé.
Reviewing a home video of the birthday party, Bruce notices "Jekko" mention the name of his mentor, the "Great Prosciutto" – who was a performer at the amusement park.
He enters the amusement park, where the Joker sees him on the surveillance system. He proposes that he and Jordan play a little joke on the Dark Knight and Jordan, remembering that his father says Batman is no good, and not wanting to upset his new mentor, agrees.
Jordan appears outside an empty theatre to lure Batman in, and runs inside when Batman chases after him. When he's inside, the Joker throws a whole deck of his razor-sharp playing cards at him, which miss. Batman gives chase, but the Joker throws an exploding gas card that knocks Batman out. The Joker drops a quarter into a fortune-telling machine, which drops a card predicting Batman's fate. The Joker reads it and laughs, "You're gonna love this!"
When Batman wakens, he is upside down in a tank rapidly filling with water, bound by a straightjacket and shackles. Jordan is nervous, but the Joker tells him to watch the "show." Jordan applauds when Batman manages to get free of the straightjacket, but then realizes that Batman really is drowning. He grabs an axe and strikes the side of the tank, but the Joker plucks the ax away before he can strike again, and reveals his true identity. Jordan grabs a seltzer hose and sprays the Joker in the face, distracting him long enough to run out.
As the Joker chases after him, Batman pushes with his legs on the crack Jordan made, and manages to shatter the tank. Recovering his breath, he grabs his utility belt. ("All right, Joker – get ready for a little Bat-magic!")
As the Joker searches the amusement park for Jordan, Batman runs to the park's control room and throws the power switches, turning on the park's lights and attractions, to distract the Joker and illuminate the area.
The Joker catches up with Jordan, hiding on one of the roller coasters, just as Batman sees them. Joker starts one of the coasters and he and Jordan roll away on it. Batman jumps on the second as it starts, slightly behind the first.
As the cars speed around the track, the Joker throws grenades (shaped like Kewpie dolls) at Batman's coaster. The third lands right in the seat of the lead car, and the coaster derails in the explosion. However, Batman has managed to jump onto the rear of Joker's coaster while the Joker lunges into the back. As they wrestle, he tries to squirt Batman with his boutonniere, but Batman ducks and kicks him off the coaster, causing him to fall with a scream into a lake far below.
Looking ahead, he sees the coaster is heading for a break in the track, while Jordan is still in the lead car. Batman yells for Jordan to take his hand. Jordan hesitates for a moment, scared of Batman, then reaches, and Batman swings them both away just before the coaster goes off the rails and crashes.
At the mayoral mansion, Hill is sadly toying with his son's magic tricks, when Jordan calls, "Dad!" and runs into his father's arms. Having learned a lesson about how truly important his son is, Hill shushes Jordan's apologies and gives him "the best birthday hug" he's ever had. Over his father's shoulder, Jordan sees Batman smile and give him a thumbs-up. Jordan smiles back and returns it.
[edit] Background Information
[edit] Production Inconsistencies
- An animation goof has Batman taking a deep breath to hold after the water has passed his nose and mouth.
[edit] Trivia
- The title of the episode is taken from the song "Be A Clown" popularized in The Pirate.
- Bruce Timm claims that he had the idea for the episode when he had the image in his mind of Batman trying to save a child, but the child's too scared because of Batman's intimidating look.[1] This would later be revisited in the Batman Beyond episode "Unmasked."
- Frank Paur, the director, was having difficulties with the storyboarding crew, and when a freelancer quit, Bruce Timm storyboarded the entire second act.[1]
- The trap Joker attempts to kill Batman with is the famous water torture trap which Harry Houdini escaped out of in approximately two minutes.
- The roller coaster sequence was adapted into the third stage of the Joker level in the Super Nintendo game "The Adventures of Batman & Robin."
- The chef from "Pretty Poison" and the fat woman from "The Underdwellers" can be seen in the crowd at the birthday party.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Kevin Conroy | Bruce Wayne/Batman |
| Bob Hastings | Commissioner Gordon |
| Lloyd Bochner | Mayor Hill |
| Mark Hamill | Joker |
| Jim Cummings | Jekko the Clown |
| Mari Devon | Summer Gleeson |
| Justin Shenkarow | Jordan |
[edit] Uncredited Appearances
[edit] Quotes
Joker: What? Compare me to Batman?! I've got more style, more brains, I'm certainly a better dresser! |
Kid: What is it? |
Jordan Hill: He did it! He got free! |
Jordan Hill: He can't get out! What's the trick? |
Joker: Naughty, naughty. You're making me miss the show. |
Joker: That must have been his stop! |
Batman: He always knew how to make an exit. |
[edit] Footnotes
| Previously produced episode: "The Forgotten" | Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series | Next produced episode: "Two-Face (Part I)" |
| Previously aired episode: "Nothing to Fear" | Next aired episode: "Appointment in Crime Alley" |
