How About That Thing?

Batman: the Animated Series articles are always a bit of a crapshoot when it comes to my statistics. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact I pick some of the more obscure episodes to talk about. I mean I don’t see a whole lot of people talking about Zatanna or The Clock King, and I consider those to be some of my personal favorites. But they didn’t really rake in the views when I wrote about them.Only to find the opposite to be true.

I suppose if views are the only thing I truly cared about, then I’d probably write about episodes like “Heart of Ice”. But at this point, name a guy who HASN’T covered that one. But it’d rake in mad views.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that my favorite episodes don’t seem to be everyone else’s. That might not be the case today, because the episode I recently started hyperfocusing on is “Joker’s Favor”.

The episode centers specifically around this guy.

This is Charlie Collins. He’s just your average guy, living his average life. The worst thing that happens in his life is when his wife decides to make the most horrifying of dishes for dinner. MEATLOAF! OH THE HORROR!

Also, I keep forgetting to mention this whenever BTAS is the topic of the eek, so I’ll say it here. ,Another thing I absolutely love about BTAS (the early seasons at least) is the music. Every character has their own unique little theme song that follows them around, and it adds that much more oomph to their personality. From iconic theme songs like the circus like music that follows Joker around, to the haunting music that follows Two Face around.

Hell, even minor one-off characters like Chuckers here gets his own theme song, and… Well, suffice to say, it definitely leaves an impression. Despite being mostly whistling and what I assume is a tuba, it really does give you a feel for the kind of character who’s going to be the primary focus of this episode.

The episode begins with Charlie bitching about how much his life sucks. Boss turned him down for a raise, his son needs braces, and, gasp, his wife is making meatloaf for dinner. MEATLOAF!

Then, he gets into a road rage incident with none other than this guy.

“I just cussed out The Joker!” Charlie murmurs to himself.

Pff, you call that cussing someone out? Bitch please. You should share the car with my dad some time. It’s equal parts entertaining and terrifying.

The joker runs him off the road, and Charlie begs for his life. The Joker decides to swipe his wallet.

After memorizing all of his information, and most likely swiping whatever chump change he had in there as well, The Joker tells him that one day, he’ll call upon him for a favor. It might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, but it’ll be… Two years later. Yeah, let’s just rip that bandaid off right now.

Two years later, The Joker “was granted early parole”, and…

Oh, hello, Harley Quin. Fancy seeing YOU here.

Yip, if my memory is correct, this was actually Harley Quin’s first appearance ever. There’s really not much to her character at this point. As the series would progress, we get a much deeper dive into her warped dynamic with ol’ Mista J. And then the 2010s happened, and somewhere between then and there, Harley Quin became yet another poster child for hardcore misandry masquerading as feminism. Because fuck you, this is what you get for electing Trump president, you pigs!

Believe me, I could go on for hours about how much I fucking hate that Harley Quin cartoon… But I’d have to tread lightly. My time on Twitter, or X, or whatever it’s called now, taught me that the only thing more psychotic than Harley Quin herself are Harley Quin’s fanboys and fangirls. So for now, let’s just say that I don’t hate Harley Quin, but I DO hate what she’s become.

But for now, though, in this very first episode, Harley just sort of exists. There’s no real reason for WHY she exists, and why she’s aligned with The Joker. For all anyone knows, she’s just another D-list hench looking for work, and happened to find it when The Joker started recruiting. The fact she’s dressed like a clown while the other two henchmen are just your stereotypical “ME BIG!” types with trench coats implies that she’s a higher ranked hench… But that’s about it for now.

Anyway, Joker finally figures out what his favor is, gets ahold of Charlie, and gets him to come over right away. And the favor in question? Well, there’s a huge police gala happening, and The Joker plans on making a bit of an explosive cameo. Emphasis on the explosive, if you know what I mean. And Charlie’s task… Is to hold a door for Harley. No, seriously, that’s it. It’d be idiotic if it were anyone else but The Joker. Frankly, I’d be disappointed if it was anything less.

The event goes off without a hitch, and Harley even gets into character.

Before the plan can get under way, Charlie finds himself lamenting the fact there’s all those cops, and nobody there to help him. Until…

We then get that classic “No way that’d work. It’s so dumb!” trope that wasn’t such a big deal back then, but a lot of people have apparently grown tired of now. I mean depending on the topic, I can tolerate it, but I find I’m in a minority on that one. Either way, Charlie turns on the bat signal, and resumes his spot.

The time comes, and he opens the door for Harley. But, in typical fashion, the joke is on Charlie, because the door knob he turned had glue on it. Ugh, that old gag. I’ve been there. It wasn’t funny then, either, but at least there wasn’t a ridiculous amount of explosives in the room when it happened to me.

Batman sees the bat signal just in time, bursts in, and throws out the bomb. An epic battle is fought… Where in Batman handles the two “ME BIG!” types with about two moves total, and manages to subdue Harley just as quickly. He then follows The Joker to… Uh… I don’t know. Is it a museum? An exhibit? All I know is it has a fire trap, poison-tipped darts, and a fall-away floor.

Then, we get what has to be the single greatest moment in the entire episode.

Somehow, Charlie got ahold of one last Joker bomb, and manages to corner The Joker himself. Suddenly, the scary, psychotic Joker is the one cowering in fear.

“You’re crazy!” he shouts.

“I had a good teacher,” says Charlie.

Batman shows up, and tries to talk Charlie out of it. The Joker promises to give back everything he ever collected on Charlie Collins: addresses, phone numbers, the works. But Charlie doesn’t listen, and drops the bomb. Only…

Yip, that’s right, it was a gag.

Batman arrests The Joker, The Joker grumbles to himself about how Charlie isn’t any fun anymore, and Charlie gets to go home as his theme song plays in the background. He’s so happy with how this final gag turned out, he’d even put up with the horrors of his wife’s dreaded meatloaf!

And that was “Joker’s Favor”. All and all, pretty good. Then again, any episode where I get to watch Mark Hamill chew the scenery as The Joker is generally a good time. Mark Hamill’s Joker is the best Joker of all. Better than Nickelson, better than Ledger, better than Phoenix… I’d say better than Leto, but frankly, even that dude from the 60s who played Joker was better than Leto. Some of my opinion is probably based on nostalgia. Some of it is probably because the only other comparison I had for the longest time was that dude from the 1967 ambiguously gay duo era of Batman… All I know is the dude is my favorite Joker ever.

Charlie Collins may’ve only been a one-off character, but thanks to this episode, I remember him almost as if he were a regular part of the cast. And I think a lot of it is his theme music. I know I’ve kind of dwelled on it throughout this article, but god damn that music. It’s way catchier than anything that silly has any right to be.

I definitely recommend checking this episode out if you haven’t already.