Camp Crusaders! - The Joker is Wild / Batman is Riled

Season One, Episodes 5-6: The Joker is Wild / Batman is Riled

Personal Grade: B

Villain Spotlight:

I know lots of people love the Joker in The Dark Knight, but Romero’s Joker is genuinely creepy at times  - and I’m not just talking about the fact that he won’t shave his mustache while wearing that face paint.  Check out the laugh-growl he gives when he’s caught.  It’s not so much that this Joker is particularly sadistic (this is a comedy series, after all), he’s just conceited, ambitious, and a bit insane… but he’s having a great time through it all, as his perpetual laughter proves.

Social Commentary:

 Dick: “Gee whiz, Aunt Harriet, what’s so important about Chopin?”

Bruce: “All music is important, Dick.  It’s the universal language – one of our best hopes for the eventual realization of the brotherhood of Man.”

The Zen of Camp:

Robin: “We only have so much to give.”

Batman: “Try to explain that to little Harold, kneeling beside his bed, saying his prayers.”

Batman and Robin fighting with confetti, as though it was actually inhibiting their movements.

Other Cool Stuff:
Bat gas!

Notes:
The cliffhanger involves Joker threatening to unmask Batman and Robin on TV.  This would, purportedly, undermine their role as crime fighters.  Batman always insists that he's a "duly deputized" agent of the law, but his secret identity suggests that "the law" cannot handle absolute truth, that it is as masked as all the villains that it battles.  Law and order in Gotham depend upon a certain mythology - evidently involving bats.  And bat gas.