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Batman: The Animated Series episode

"Joker's Wild"
Airdate:	November 19, 1992
Production Number:	41
Airdate Order:	42
Animation Services by:	Akom Production Co.
Written by:	Paul Dini
Directed by:	Boyd Kirkland
Episode images (7)

"Joker's Wild" is the forty-second episode of Batman: The Animated Series. It originally aired on November 19, 1992.

Plot Edit

An argument over the TV erupts in the rec room of Arkham Asylum between Poison Ivy and the Joker. The nearest guard, Irving, breaks it up and changes the channel at random, hitting on a news report about the opening of billionaire Cameron Kaiser's latest luxury casino outside Gotham City. The theme of the casino has been a carefully kept secret.

Kaiser snips the ribbon, and everyone is shocked to see the new casino dubbed "Joker's Wild", complete with a laughing effigy of Joker's head on top. Kaiser laughs off the idea that he is honoring Joker, instead saying that he is paying tribute to the symbol's classic roots, not caring if it does resemble "some criminal fruitcake". An outraged Joker hurls Ivy's potted plant through the TV, raging about how someone would use his image for their own benefit.

Joker fakes an illness to be taken to the infirmary, and quickly gives his guard the slip (although Irving is actually letting him go on purpose). He quickly escapes the asylum and grabs a passing truck.

Bruce Wayne, a guest at the opening gala, quickly gives his date the push, and summons Alfred with a Batsuit. Bruce is suspicious of Kaiser's motives, as the casino's resemblance to the Joker is all too obvious. Bruce looks beneath the decor of his room, and finds the Joker wallpaper hastily laid over a medieval theme.

Infiltrating Kaiser's office as Batman, he sees a model of the proposed casino, where the Joker's head has been slipped over a building labeled "Camelot". Then he examines Kaiser's private files and sees massive construction bills for the casino, and a dossier on Joker. He is interrupted by Irving (actually one of Kaiser's security guards), who attacks him. Batman easily gives him the slip.

Joker enters the casino, and seeing all the clown-themed and suit of cards decor, gloats that he is in a place where it is all dedicated to him. Joker is mistaken for a dealer (they are all dressed as him). On a whim, he decides to spend a little time dealing at the blackjack tables. After he wins several rounds in a row, the players leave in disgust. The "eye in the sky" sees Joker's cheating, and a security guard recommends action against the suspicious dealer, but it is vetoed by Cameron Kaiser, who says "I have a feeling we have been waiting for him". Bruce Wayne is on the floor and happens to come across Joker's card table. To test whether it is the actual Joker, Bruce drops some casual comments about the kitschy decor, and to top things off, wins the round with a little sleight of hand. Joker can barely restrain his rage, giving himself away.

Bruce slips out of the casino and is back almost instantly as Batman. But when he grabs the Joker, it is revealed to only be one of the legitimate employees, causing commotion and allowing Joker to run. He disappears into the crowd and grabs a Joker-themed roadster parked in the casino, driving it into a crash and disappearing.

Kaiser watches on the video cameras as Joker rigs the basement of the casino with explosives. He prepares to leave, but Batman appears and confronts him. He's figured out that Kaiser bankrupted himself building his "Camelot" casino, so he altered it to invite the Joker's wrath, and allowing him to collect the insurance money when it's destroyed. Kaiser admits it, then disables Batman with an electric device hidden in his desk. He calls Irving and another thug, and tells them to send Batman down to the basement. As soon as he arrives, Joker knocks him out.

Batman comes around strapped to a giant roulette wheel, which Joker has rigged to detonate the explosives. Batman explains that Kaiser is playing him for a fool, and Joker is outraged. With a change of plans, Joker disconnects the explosives and resolves to catch up with Kaiser before he flees the casino. Before leaving, however, he spins the wheel, and tosses a grenade onto it. Batman manages to escape the trap by shooting the grenade away with his grapple gun.

Kaiser rushes to the helipad and boards his personal helicopter, which lifts off, then stops. Joker reveals himself to be piloting the chopper. He frankly congratulates Kaiser for the deviousness of his plot, then announces that he plans to kill Kaiser and run the casino from behind the scenes, because he thinks the Joker-themed casino is too good to destroy.

They are interrupted by Batman, flying after the chopper in his Bat-glider. Joker fires his pistol, which damages the glider, but Batman manages to grab the chopper. As he wrestles with Joker, the chopper dives toward the casino, and crashes through the front doors. Joker tries to run, but Batman floors him with a well-aimed kick, sending him crashing into a slot machine, which jackpots and covers him with quarters.

Joker is returned to Arkham, where he watches Summer Gleeson's news report on his own arrest and Kaiser's downfall. He disgustedly changes the channel, but it's now three against one—Ivy, Mad Hatter, and Scarecrow. He changes the channel back, and mutters to himself.

Continuity Edit

As Batman flips through the files on Kaiser's desk, it states the Joker's real name is Jack Napier. This is the second episode to do so (the first being "Dreams in Darkness"). Jack Napier was used for the 1989 Batman film as the real name of the Joker (Jack Nicholson); during the Batman: The Animated Series, corporate execs sought a style similar to the movies (also in Catwoman and Penguin's appearances). In The New Batman Adventures, any such influences were gone, and in "Beware the Creeper", Jack Napier was revealed to be one of many aliases.

Background information Edit

Home video releases Edit

Production notes Edit

The animation for this episode was cited by Bruce Timm as being so bad that the production team would no longer work with AKOM.

Production inconsistencies Edit

When Batman aims a flashlight at a particular area on Kaiser's desk, there is nothing. In the next frame, there are two folders.
When Joker starts his car, which is on display at the casino, he removes a placard which is supposed to say "WIN THE ORIGINAL JOKERMOBILE", but because of the unfamiliarity with English script of the Japanese animators, it says, "WAN THE CIRIN GNAL JOKERNOCILE".
The dark circles around Joker's eyes disappear several times throughout the episode.
When Batman is tied to the giant roulette wheel, he takes his grapple out of his belt. However, the compartment that opens is bigger than physically possible.

Trivia Edit

Joker changes the rec room TV channel to The David Letterman Show.
The episode of The David Letterman Show that Joker watches is later watched by the Parasite in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Double Dose".
Kaiser's henchman Irving is voiced by Brion James, who would go on to voice the Parasite in Superman: The Animated Series.
Joker uses the line of Looney Tunes character Beaky Buzzard, "Oh, no, no, no. Don't want to".
Joker also whistles the Looney Tunes theme when being escorted into the Rec Room.
Joker also says "If you try to get close to me, I'll slug ya!" to Poison Ivy, before she attempts to call over one of the guards to escort him away, referring to something Sally Brown said to Linus van Pelt in the Peanuts animated Halloween Special "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"
At the end, when Joker changes the rec room TV channel, a Looney Tunes cartoon is showing.

Cast Edit

Actor	Role
Kevin Conroy	Bruce Wayne/Batman
Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.	Alfred
Mari Devon	Summer Gleeson
Mark Hamill	Joker
Harry Hamlin	Cameron Kaiser
Ernie Hudson	Security Guard
Brion James	Irving
Diane Pershing	Poison Ivy
Roger Rose	TV Host

Uncredited appearances Edit

Quotes Edit

Joker: You hold my hand, and I'll slug you. Ha!
Poison Ivy: GUARD!

Summer Gleeson: Ugh, that is disgusting!
Cameraman: (whispering) Psst, Summer! We're on the air!
Summer Gleeson: Oh! Uh... there you have it! Let's get a reaction from the crowd. Mr. Wayne?
Bruce Wayne: (obviously nauseated) No comment. (walks away with his date)

Joker: How dare that smug, preening fool try to cash in on my image!
Poison Ivy: Now who should lighten up?
Joker: Don't get cute with me, Red! He's ripping me off! I'll protest... Yeah, I'll sue! Then I'll rip his lungs out... And I will, too.

Joker: Don't try this at home, kids.

Joker: Jumpin' Jiminy Christmas! It's an homage to me! I'm kind of sorry I have to blow it up.

Joker: Say... don't I know you? Sure, Bruce Wayne! Ah, so this is how your family made all those billions, ha!
Bruce Wayne: The secret's out. And you are... ?
Joker: Oh, just a nameless clown shuffling my life away.
Bruce: Too bad it has to be in such gruesome surroundings.
(Joker fumbles with the pack, then recovers)
Joker: Don't care for the decor?
Bruce Wayne: Not hardly. All those horrible faces grinning at me. That would do things to my mind after awhile.
Joker: (grumbling) Who says you have one.

Joker: Once I spin the wheel, you, the casino, and that strutting fool Kaiser will all be blown sky-high. Not bad, eh?
Batman: You won't get Kaiser. He's been playing you for a patsy.
Joker: Eh?
Batman: He's counting on you to blow this place up so he can collect the insurance. By the time you get clear, Kaiser will be miles away, laughing at you.
Joker: I hate it when you make sense!

Kaiser: What are you circling for, you fool?
Joker: It was a scheme worthy of me, Kaiser. The way you got me riled up and turned me loose on this place! (Sets helicopter to Auto Pilot)
Kaiser: You... you were supposed to destroy the casino!
Joker: Yeah, but then I realized it'd be more fun to get rid of you and run this show myself!
Kaiser: But you can't...!
Joker: Oh, please, Mr. Kaiser! You of all people should've realized there'd be a Joker in the deck!

Joker: Why can't he ever stay dead?!

Joker: That's right, chew him up and spit him out!

Joker: (muttering) Ah, you bunch of no-good, whacked-out losers, ya make me sick.

Previously produced episode: "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?"	Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series	Next produced episode: "Tyger, Tyger"
Previously aired episode: "If You're So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?"	Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series	Next aired episode: "His Silicon Soul"