Since this first Batman comic on the show since his death: R.I.P Kevin Conroy

"I get to wear a cape and punch people. That's its own reward." I don't care if this is parody, that is my new favorite Batman quote.

Batman and Superman must have an annual Christmas competition to see who can kidnap the most rich boys to teach them the errors of their ways.

“Kidnapping a millionaire to make them a better person” *glances sidelong at twitter*

Eh, it was the Golden Age. As I recall, Superman also kidnapped and threatened to drop a mean 10 year old to his death from skyscraper height around the same time.

I kind of hope that Grandpa Simpson clip becomes another running gag. It's funny and could be used in a lot of ways.

Setting up a tree on Christmas Eve was the old American tradition. Partially because people used to leave it up until epiphany celebrating the 12 days of Christmas.

You never know; maybe Gotham waits until the last minute to put up their Christmas Trees after that one year Poison Ivy rigged them to get up and attack once they're decorated. Everyone's waiting for some other sap to be the canary in case she tries it again.

Don Cameron wrote this story, while Jerry Robinson did the art. Anything to give credit to those Bob Kane refused to.

I swear, Batman's insane ramblings get better every episode. It's like wine. *Bat*-wine.

Funny that you do Bale Batman voice for a 1940s comic when he probably should sound more like Adam West. Makes the whole thing more ridiculous and I love it!

Personal head cannon, the holiday intro makes me think that Santa outsources the Naughty list to Linkara to manage.

5:17 Can confirm, my family does that every year. Every other decoration? Black Friday. Christmas Tree? Christmas Eve. Every year.

And now I want a Batman/Violent Night crossover.

Old Geek, here, my good Linkara: indeed, for many families back in the 40s and 50s there was a tradition where Santa brought and set-up the tree! My father, born back in '37, told us about how his parents would always get the tree Christmas Eve, wait until he and his sister had gone to bed, and only then put it up as quietly as possible for the morning! Honestly, I don't know how my grandparents did it! It's hard enough getting all the shopping done let alone decorating a tree! :)

Sometimes I wished they made a ring Christmas special just so linkara can make fun of it. 😂 because he is so funny

My mother told me that when she was young (1950's) That yes, people didn't decorate for Christmas until Christmas Eve, with her family not doing it until after she had gone to bed, saying Santa did it.

Sasha from "Casually Comics" recently previewed some panels from this issue ( Batman and Robin kidnapping the kid while Santa guy watches) and I wondered what the heck this story was about. Now I know. Thanks to Linkara and Sasha for revealing this Bat-Christmas madness.

Actually, this IS structured rather like a Christmas Carol - a miserly rich jerk is taken on a journey to see the effects of their past actions, then stuff that's happening now, and then what will happen if they keep up their miserly ways. Heck, you could even stretch it into the symbolism of the three events paralleling the ghosts - the Ghost of Christmas Past is associated with candles and flame and light, which fits the flaming Christmas Tree; the Ghost of Christmas Present in particular is associated with charity and generosity, which fits Scranton paying for the hospital bills; and of course the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is a spectre of death, which fits the scheme to murder Scranton's uncle to cover up their scheme. Plus, Scranton's story opens with him working on Christmas Eve when he's paid a visit by a festive, pleasant relative who tries to encourage him to celebrate the holidays like Scrooge's nephew does for him, and Batman and Robin take Scranton to visit to an impoverished couple struggling to made ends meet ala Bob Cratchet. The only aspect of A Christmas Carol without a clear analog is Jacob Marley, but the rest fits.

"Ouch! I'm afire!" has the same energy as TF2 Spy saying "I do believe I am on fire."

You know, this reminds me of an old review you did WAY back when with Superman basically doing the same thing as Batman does here, except he fought a pair of rich jerks with a rocket ship that were bent on destroying Christmas because they never had a good Christmas growing up.

I don't know about Batman not minding singing "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells." If Robot Chicken taught us anything, Batman and Robin are pretty ruthless when it comes to slander.

Kicks in the face leading to indigestion honestly isn't even remotely the weirdest idea in the DC universe. Also, I was really happy to see A Voice From The Dark get referenced. It doesn't get enough love.

That "most boys my age are stupid" bit makes me howl, because there is an exchange almost EXACTLY LIKE IT in Game of Thrones Arya Stark: Visenya Targaryen was a great warrior. She had a Valyrian steel sword she called "Dark Sister." Tywin Lannister: Hm. She's a heroine of yours, I take it. Aren't most girls more interested in the pretty maidens from the songs? Jonquil, with flowers in her hair? Arya Stark: Most girls are idiots.

This has everything I love about Golden Age comics: a batshit insane plot, purple prose-y, cheesy dialogue, and the heroes engaging in highly legally questionable actions to mess with some rich fucks.

The review of the Superman golden age story featuring Dr Grouch (of the Boston Grouches, no doubt) is one of my favorite AT4W Xmas episodes, so I’m really eager to see more golden age hijinks with Batman!

Linkara's Christmas episodes are always my favorite

Welcome back to the schedule, and fun episode! Also the tree thing: considering how common it was for people to use real trees and their lifespan afterwards, it probs was pretty common to wait to get a tree till the sort of last minute. When PVC/Plastic became more common, I think it did help the attitude of "hey we can literally decorate earlier and our tree won't start to rot and stink like Marville"

6:29 "I appear to have burst into flames." "I do believe I am on fire."

Ah, the most Christmasy thing of all: BATMAN!

Ah, my favorite Holiday tradition. The yule tide kidnapping.

The joker Christmas episode of the animated series is just as annual as the grinch and Charlie brown for me lol.

Buying a tree on Christmas eve sounds odd to me but setting up the tree on Christmas eve was tradition for my parents

This golden age batman Christmas story is weird but its super fun in my opinion.

Back in the day Santa brought the tree and all the decorations. Not a surprise that didn’t last 😂😂😂

In my family, we usually buy our (real, not artificial) Christmas the day before Christmas Eve or so. Since here in Germany we celebrate Christmas actually on Christmas Eve, I guess this would be equivalent to buying a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve in the US 😀. We then let the tree stand until Epiphany. If we would buy it earlier it would be a dried husk until then, I think.

Nice to see you’ve managed to get back on schedule Lewis!

Dude, I've wondered about that whole 'getting ready for Christmas on Christmas Eve' thing too! Every year when I watch Christmas Eve on Sesame Street I tilt my head and wonder why Gordon's just NOW putting up his tree, or why Cookie Monster thought his letter to Santa was going to reach the North Pole on time, or why Bert and Ernie are just NOW getting gifts for each other. And that's just the ONE special, there's so many specials that do that and it confuses the heck out'a me! How did that become such a cliché for narratives set at the yuletide?

"I get to wear a cape and punch people. That's its own reward." This is a Batman I could get to like. No angsty moping about dead parents, no unending war on crime, no flirtations with criminals of dubious sanity, just reveling in the joy of dressing up like a bat and engaging in fisticuffs.

In many countries - like mine - people buy fresh real trees for Christmas, and if you put that up at the start of December they would probably be withered by Christmas time. In my family we put the tree up a few days before Christmas.

When my parents were young their parents would decorate the tree and set out the presents while the kids were asleep!

10:50 new running joke, I am calling it.

Funny how we both did Batman Christmas stories this year.

I want more context for that image of the Penguin running around with a bust of Shakespeare through a library

My families tradition is to put up the tree and decorate on Christmas Eve. That's just how we almost always did it. Mind you, we would actually get the tree and keep it in the barn way before Christmas eve, but yeah that is when we'd decorate for the holidays.

I think when you get a real tree for Christmas you have to get it closer to actual Christmas so it won't dry out and shed before the holiday. Still, Christmas Eve is really pushing it...

I can indeed confirm my family and I always went out and bought, then decorated our tree on Christmas Eve.

i love how jingle bells smoothly turns in to the theme song

Buying a tree last minute was very common up until the latter part of the 20th century heck it was often only kept inside until boxing day at the latest, it was still considered a seasonal novelty popularised by Charles dickins and Queen Victoria and wasn't very common outside of the UK and certain parts of America according to some histories I've read. Also your logo covered the bottom of the word peril on the title card so it looked like it was. Christmas Peru

Christmas in the Golden age means that due process and common sense can suck a candy cane! YAAAAAAAY!

Okay even though I never use Twitter and don't plan too that joke really got a laugh out of me hard.

Batman and Christmas go together like peanut butter and pickles or like batman and rock and roll lol 😆

Ok Elmer Fudd, One-Face, Bees, Rock and Roll, Happy Hogsby, The whole cast of Alice in Wonderland. These are just some of Batmans enemies.

Honestly, that reference to Voice from the Dark just proves to me that Some Jerk with a Camera had some of the more fun lines and deliveries in the drama.

The real Christmas peril was the year, Hush delivered Batman a Pat Boone VHS, the shock put Bruce out of action for 3 weeks!

Wow a Voice in the Dark refrence haven’t had those ever. The lesson is there but the execution is of the times and thus gets a pass. Next time more fun times

5:42 Tell me about it. Those trees Batman and Robin were looking at would cost $125 today.

I had internet connectionisms and forgot to post this but some times people decorate weeks before Christmas but there are people especially with live trees who will get one days before. This can make it harder to find one on time but it also sees the price go down and it gives you a fresher tree rather then a tree that dies by Christmas.

Batman + Christmas = a good time!

13:50 I think the swing through the city was what really did the job. Striking fear into the heart of criminals. Showed him what it's like to be powerless, helpless, and completely at the mercy of someone else.

That old couple must be real cutting edge to sell VHS tapes in the 40s.

5:05 As I understand that was an old tradition, I'm willing to bet it started to decline once fake trees became a thing. We had a real pine tree one year and the pine needles just kept littering the floor the entire time we had it.

A Monday At4W for a second week in a row? It’s an X-Mas miracle!

Not just you Lewis, I decorate my tree the last 2 days of November.

Seeing the Atop the Fourth Wall Christmas intro song makes me realize we haven't seen Snowflame in a while. How is the old scamp doing?

I actually enjoyed Scranton's character quite a bit. Sure, pretty hamfisted in the way he viewed life and society, but how he acted felt like hammy fun.

Christmas trees drop needles, especially the variants they had 80 years ago. It would be baren if you set it up a month before

On Christmas trees and Christmas Eve: it used to be more common in the past. In reverse it was: light the tree decorations on Xmas Eve (traditionally candles), then set up the decorations on Xmas Eve (having the tree in advance), then set up the tree on Xmas Eve. There’s no definitive date for these changes,

Buying a tree and decorating it REALLY close to Christmas was probably how most people handled it back before artificial trees really took off and commercialism really set in. I mean, would YOU want to have to keep a live tree going for a MONTH? Better to buy it as close to Christmas as possible to reduce the amount of time you have to deal with watering the thing and cleaning up pine needles. Then add in the fact that people generally had a lot less leisure time back then, so dealing with the tree for that long is even more of a hassle... Plus, they didn't have electric lights, so they used candles, which was a major fire hazard if the tree got too dry...

“Inflation is wild kids!”- Linkara 2022

This makes me smile it's one of the few things I've had to look forward to this year considering I can't afford Christmas 🎄 happy holidays everyone.

I only know this because my mother was 40 years old when I was born, but it used to be that the tree was not put up until after the kids went to bed. Santa not only delivered the presents, he decorated the house.

Linkara: how long has this fire been going? Me: oh, Linkara, my in-laws' favourite shopping mall caught fire last week and was burning for many hours...

Batman vs. Scrooge. That’s a crossover I wasn’t expecting. XD Also, I like getting a tree right after Thanksgiving, but that’s just me.

I would love to see Christmas Carol with Tommy guns.

Ah yes, Batman's solution to everything. KIDNAPPING

“Why? They’re stupid too- Doing all the things they do for nothing!” Scranton clearly only says this ‘cuz he’s jealous of Batman being smarter than him.

To be fair, considering how often something must be on fire in Gotham, it probably did take a while for the firefighters to get around to the store. Batman and Robin should still have put the fire out, of course.

My mind went to the Milo Murphy's Law episode of the same name.

Robin: "HOLY YULETIDE KZfaq, BATMAN! LINKARA HAS UPLOADED A CHRISTMAS COMIC ON SCHEDULE!" BATMAN: "Right, old chum. It appears he used the Malware Repellent Bat-Spray to keep his editing suite free of viruses."

It's another Batman Christmas video, Let's hope Rock N Roll Betamax and Bees 'my god' ain't the Ghost of Past Present and yet to come of the story, LOL.

You owe Matt McMuscles $6 for that "style at the time" clip

I mean, if not a month in advance, still not on the night of Christmas Eve. Heck, in my house, we re-use the same plastic tree every year, saving us from those high prices that Billionaire Playboy, Bruce Wayne, gives in to!

When my family used to chop down our tree and set it up, we did it like the first or second weekend in December, so it wouldn't dry out so fast

I think the reason they said this was like Christmas Carol is because of how similar the old couple was to the Cratchet Family?

Funny enough, my family does both a tree _and_ a table; we have a small artificial tree that we set up on a card table, both of which we've used for decades.

I appreciate the use of the Tony Goldmark "Eat Phone!" clip

13:44 Aw, the optimism of late 1930 to early 1950.

Happy holidays linkara

My family always got a Christmas tree less than a week before Christmas, but that's just because my mother procrastinates like crazy. Not so much in buying the tree, mind you, just cleaning out a space for it. But to make up for it, we basically had the thing up more than halfway through January.

The jokes pertaining to a certain wealthy child are particularly delightful given what else happened to him lately.

Die Hard is only a Christmas movie in that it's set during Christmas. It is not a true Christmas movie. True Christmas movies are: Miracle on 34th Street (original) A Christmas Carol (Alastair Sim version)

Surprisingly many stories with Batman set in Christmas.

Batman didn't actually care about the fire; that's just what he does to anyone that doesn't believe in Santa.

Keep up the great work, Lewis!

a new classic batkara quote NOBODY KILLS SANTA ON MY WATCH

Every time I hear "Scranton" I kept wanting to say "a noun, a disease you get from chewing too much" took a minute to remember that's the wrong word

im not sure if you're reviewing this in realtion to his death but...rip Kevin Conroy

Hey, it's actually on Monday...It's a Christmas miracle.

To answer the question at 14:49, a kick to the face actually can give you stomach upset. If you start bleeding in your mouth or nose it can run down your throat and result in nausea. Something tells me that the person who wrote that line wasn't aware of that, though.