- Title: Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Joker: The Vile and the Villainous!
- wiki: link
Throwback Tuesday takes us back to Gotham City where a masked detective and an assortment of partners would help save the world on a weekly basis. “Joker: The Vile and the Villainous!” is one of the show’s odder episodes as it is shown completely from the perspective of the Joker (Jeff Bennett) who “heroically” attempts to prevent Batman‘s (Diedrich Bader) construction of a machine which will be able to predict crimes and help a down-and-out villain known as the Weeper (Tim Conway), who apparently was the Joker’s idol, get back into the game.
The episode is mostly notable for flipping the show’s set-up and making Joker the protagonist with Batman framed much more as the heel than hero. It even includes an alternate version of the show’s opening featuring the Clown Prince of Crime (and several Bat-villains, including Catman, instead of the usual heroes). The Weeper is an odd character, and while I enjoyed the dichotomy of pairing him with the Joker resulting in a humorous payoff, the character’s basic shtick is just goofy (even for this show). Joker is also prominently featured in the show’s pre-credit sequence which suggests, at sometime in the future, he may be responsible for the destruction of the Earth (although the alternate universe feel of the entire episode makes this unlikely).