Yeah, and that's probably something I should've made clearer - they're the worst of a pretty amazing bunch. It's like being the world's shortest giant. You're still taller than most people!

That really Speaks Volumes how LEGENDARY this series is

Someone said: this serie is Iike pizza, even when it's bad, it's pretty good.

Batman: The Animated Series sets a bar high enough that I can walk under it without hitting my head. And I'm not short.

He had me at "Everyone remember where we parked!"

The Joker begging for Batman to rescue him at the end is *chef's kiss*, especially when Batman hesitates and grins for a moment, wondering what would happen if his hands "slipped" for just a second. Extremely out of character but oh so funny.

I wish I could find an excuse to yell that at someone.

I like the line, but the delivery is terrible. I don't blame Hamill, though. He was having to overdub Tim Curry and I get the feeling Curry delivered it weird too, so Hamill had to use the same cadence. Either way, it feels off.

Yes

No I agree fully as that's what I thought was going to happen! and was dissipointed when it didn't

Corporatism at its worst.

I agree, that and there's a few really funny parts too "Remember where we parked" and "YOU KILLED CAPTAN CLOWN!" I actually quite enjoy last laugh despite it's premise

Yeah and that's the only villain he ever says that to and the delivery was great (RIP Kevin Conroy). They really wanted to drive home that Bruce does not tolerate messing with children.

The music is absolutely the best thing about even the worst episodes. The Forgotten has a great soundtrack it’s just the rest of it that I don’t like very much

The Forgotten has a nightmare sequence with Bruce Wayne realizing he can't pay his way out of homelessness. For a kid it got me intrigued about some social issues. Plus I love when Kevin Conroy changed from his Bruce voice to his Batman voice upon regaining his memory.

People that our own societies don't care about.

Same. The ending was pretty dang funny, too. Some much-needed levity after the insanity that was this episode.

I still would have hoped Basement got a bigger and better distant bittersweet sequel in Batman Beyond though.

That’s fair enough, quite a few people feel the same way as you and that’s totally cool by me 👍

Im glad you brought this up because I think it would make a good topic for a video. I’ll add it to my list!

Thing is, this is a bad version of the “civilian POV” story. “Legends of the Dark Knight” is the good version of a child centric POV story.

You’re not alone in liking The Forgotten, quite a few people cite that dream sequence as being one of their favourites. I can’t really overlook the wonky animation, talking batwing, and Boss Biggis. But it’s good that we all have different tastes. It’d be really boring if we all liked exactly the same things.

@@SerumLake True. The amazing thing about this show, though, is even at it's worst, I don't remember it ever actually being bad. Just some episodes are definitely below the rest, but when you have really high quality bar set by Heart of Ice and Two-Face (part 1), well, people are creatures of contrast. Extreme high quality can make what would be decent quality in other context seem not that great.

@@SerumLake Thinking more about it, what I actually think makes the difference for me is the context. If this had been later in the show, I'd probably not be that invested in it, because by that point, they would have established the important points this episode does. What sells it for me is not just the stuff I mentioned, but that it's a very early episode, which shows how important it was to the writers that they really establish Batman's compassion right away. By the same token, I think this is why I find myself less bothered by I've Got Batman In My Basement. It's not going in my top 20 either, but I think everybody saying it's the worst might be overplaying it. There's a lot to break down there and I can defend against some of the points you make here, I think but as I recall, this episode is placed squarely in between a couple of very heavy-hitting episodes, so a light-hearted break is a good move for the moment. Though, it is a shame that the episode they introduce the Penguin is one in which he struggles to deal with some kids. I don't actually have that much of a problem with it, because it's not just the kids easily trashing the Penguin and, in the end, if Batman hadn't recovered when he had, it's pretty clear the kids would have been beaten, if not killed, but having that be the first Penguin episode is really not his best foot forward, and an introduction to a character really does need to be that. Maybe if Penguin's introductory episode had been the one where he steals a prototype military helicopter, this one wouldn't be remembered so poorly. Context makes such a huge difference to how something is received.

The boss hog knockoff character is freaking hilarious

RIP

Or the Mad Monk.

The Cult had only released 2 years before BTAS was in production. It's likely if the show had come out a little later that they would have used Deacon Blackfire.

I would say that none of them are without merit, and being the worst episode of BTAS is like being the world’s shortest Giant. Yes, they are smaller than the other giants, but they’re still much taller than everyone else!

Moon of the wolf would be on my bottom 10, I think. It only skirts by because it’s an adaptation of an issue of Batman drawn by Neal Adams.

See, I don’t mind The Terrible Trio that much, but it may have made the list if I did picked the 10 worst episodes…

Yes I think The Forgotten was a good episode, the boss was a laugh, but I find the story behind kinda strong, it was cool to see Bruce going undercover as much as seeing him recovering his memories and going back as Batman to fix things up, I also enjoyed the ending where Bruce reveils his social status to his fellow prisoner and offered his help in case he needs it.

The theme song for the Forgotten has been stuck in my head for 30 years now, its one of my favorite songs in the show and I like the idea of "Batman without his tools trying to help people out of the situation. For me every series can do 1 Amnesia episode. I think its held back mostly by the villain and the animation. Oh i also quite like the bits with Alfred coming to save Batman in the Batwing.

You know, I was never a fan of the batwing or bat computer talking, but upon reflection I think it’s telling that Batman chose to gave it the voice of his best friend, Harvey Dent. Perhaps that’s why the computer stopped talking after a while, it was too painful to be reminded of what had happened to him. I know that the real world reason is that Bruce Timm hated the talking computer, so they stopped doing it, but I like to think of potential in-universe explanations for these changes.

@@SerumLake I never even knew he gave it Harvey's voice, never noticed it...

I think it would be a good episode of Super Friends or The New Adventures of Batman, but, as you say, it’s so tonally different to (most of) the other episodes. I will never get over the first words to come out of the Penguin’s mouth being some goofy bird caw 😂

​@@SerumLakeWhat did the Penguin say?

@@rainbowtoyfunrandomess1982 he made a bird screech sound…

@@SerumLake Are you serious?😅

It's technically the Forgotten with children. It brings up child abuse child labor, children that have been abandoned missing and exploited. It's a dark episode and the sewer King is such a vile person that you almost wanted Batman to break his no kill Rule and just kill him.

Sound Of Freedom before Sound Of Freedom...

very true!

Different strokes for different folks!

I have to say that I didn’t mind that episode as much as Bruce Timm seemed to! There are a few instances where they paint characters as part of the background (Catwoman’s Trial in Cat Scratch Fever, The Riddler’s debut in If You’re So Smart Why Aren’t You Rich) and it generally sucks! There’s only one time where I think it worked well, and that’s when they remove the bandages from Harvey Dent’s face in Two-Face Part One.

And even so, I'd rather watch British intelligence intrigue from other storylines like at least 10 James Bond flicks, the Read or Die OVAs and R.O.D the TV sequel series, and Kingsman: The Secret Service.

I think the episode suffers from bad pacing, lackluster storyboarding and Mark Hamill having to overdub Tim Curry's lines always sounds off and and weird.

@@teruienages962 Huh. Weird. I think the pacing in The Last Laugh is great, and that the episode is a ton of fun. It's The Joker being completely mad, as any sane person with enough money to buy a submarine and Captain Clown and all those chemicals wouldn't use them to try to drug Gotham into laughing forever.

As a child I may have considered that episode a favorite of mine but watching it again in my early 20s my enjoyment was far more subdued. Just an episode to relax your brain to while watching. I remember it well because it's story was adapted into the Golden Sound Story book "Batman the Animated Series Case of the Missing Egg." That was the first B:TAS merch I was gifted as a child.

Mmm, this episode managed to not be within my 9 picks of the worst animated series episodes. 100th best, outta 109.

I remember watching this with my brother for some weird reason this was our favorite mostly laugh on how weird it was

No, but "The Forgotten" is among my favorites.

@@underthepale Please tell me, you see "The Last Laugh" as the worst episode of BTAS. Or, at least the worst Joker episode.

And I also empathize with losing your cat/loved one and when you are reunited, they are completely different (when Catwoman finds out her cat in Daggots kennel).

Hmm, I actually prefer the former more over "Night of the Ninja".

That's totally cool, the world would be a very boring place if we all liked the same things. Out of curiosity, which episode would you swap it out for?

@@SerumLake Probably “Off Balance.” I will specify that really dislike the character of Talia and that effects my view of the episode. I am also not a fan of the League of Shadows. Both for similar reasons. Whenever they get involved in a Batman story it usually leads to “Batman, you should join the league of shadows and become the new leader with Talia as your Queen.” He says no, there is a fight, repeat the next time they want to do that story. But for the problems in this episode, it is largely the villain. There is really not much of a conflict like the other villains. Where you can see some of Batman in them and the struggle almost becomes him fighting an aspect of himself. Vertigo is a guy with a dizzy monocle that gets taken out by accident. Batman and Talia are forced to jump on the bell ropes, and the sound the bells make freaks him out and he stumbles off the tower. Never to be seen again. I love a good villain and there just was not one here. I love his design, but the character was lacking. The only thing I could connect batman to him is his reliance on gadgets, but that is a stretch.

@@SerumLake I do agree 100 percent about the Batman in my basement episode. What a way to make one of Batman’s main rouges into a joke. BTAS is one of my favorite shows ever made and most of the worst episodes are still better than a lot of series at their best, but that one is just bad.

Hmh, guess Kevin Conroy working as one during 9/11 left a huge positive mark on all of us, yes?

The only one I actively avoid is I've Got Batman In My Basement, but I can see how other people might have fun with it.

After all batman is still batman 😎 👌

​@@aaronatkinson177True!

It’d definitely be in the bottom 10, but it was saved from this list by virtue of being an adaptation of a comic by Denny O’Neil and Neil Adams.

That’s what I thought when I first saw the episode too

Different strokes for different folks!

@@SerumLake I love episodes that go deep in Batman's mind.

​@@alecprescott-okdisco113Like Dreams in Darkness and Perchance to Dream, for instance?

You're not a fan of Harley Quinn?

Wow.😂

That’s totally cool, we all have our different preferences!

If it’s a crime then send me to jail, your honour! 😂

Fair point!

You make a strong argument. I'm generally willing to give that episode a pass because it was an adaptation of an issue of Detective Comics, much like Moon of the Wolf, but it's clear that not everyone is willing to overlook the flaws.

Right. Adaptations are often fine, and flaws can usually be overlooked. As someone who both over-analyzes things, however, and writes stories largely as a hobby, twists like this infuriate me, because it feels like they illegitamized what I just watched or read, meaning I wasted my time and energy. It's one thing to have a weak ending, or to have it turn out the heroes or villains were so, so wrong the whole time, but it's another to have something amount to, "None of it really mattered."

I agree with pretty much everything you’re saying. The animation wasn’t too good either, now that I think about it

I don't know, gotta love heroics when they become necessarily petty, grey-morals centered, and needing the forces of evil to be eliminated even when outside slowly obsolete concepts like "jurisdiction". Brings into mind why I also have a soft spot for Project CADMUS, TMNT 2003's Agent Bishop, Universal Century Gundam's Titans, and Ace Combat's Razgriz and Grendel Squadrons.

I am both and I have! 😂

I would too after what it did to Batman...😡

Just for that Batman 😠

@@Joe_Kerr_9797 Trash in the head.

Still would have preferred a sequel episode set in Batman Beyond that nicely redeems it, not unlike how Star Wars' Revenge of the Sith got arguably redeemed by a video game adaptation and a novelization by Matthew Stover.

Phew!

I liken being the worst episode of BTAS to being the world’s shortest giant - sure, you’re shorter than all the other giants, but you still tower over everyone else

@@SerumLake Wait really? You really think so also what do you mean by that?

@@rainbowtoyfunrandomess1982 I’m saying that compared to other BTAS episodes, it’s not that good. Compared to other shows of the time it’s a lot better.

@@SerumLake Oh I see. Well I still enjoy the show no matter what plus I think your content is pretty cool so keep up with the good work.👍

For me the most egregious thing was the setting. I get they were going for a James Bond-style adventure, but that’s not my cup of tea. I like the tragic villain stories

Good thing she probably froze to death if not drowned on the North Sea after ejecting from the Batwing. The enemy knowing the Batman's identity is tantamount to a well deserved execution against them so to keep the masquerade; something Ian Peek learned too late in Batman Beyond, cathartically speaking.

I hadn’t noticed that, I’d be surprised if it was intentional, considering AKOM animated his first episode (and they made lots of mistakes) but maybe it was a deliberate choice

If I had done a bottom 10, it'd be on that list

Now that's interesting because Professor Milo was designed by Neal Adams, including that awful hair cut, and Kevin Nowlan designed Jessie and Paunch separately, labeling them as generic goons, if I remember rightly. Interestingly, the Joker also had three henchmen based on the Stooges, which seems more appropriate to me. Roland Daggett always seems to hire ineffective henchmen, see Bell and Germs in Feat of Clay, who were both neurotic messes, and the bumbling Nitro and Crocker in Appointment In Crime Alley. Daggett'd be dangerous if he had a decent team!

@@SerumLake I’m still convinced that somewhere during that process, maybe Nowlan knowing that Milo was to be involved, maybe director Kirkland or the writers made the connection, but that Three Stooges connection was obvious to me as a kid. The voice acting and broad ineptness. It just scream Stooges to me. And of course “stooge” is another word for goon, lackey, or henchman. I never thought to look it up online, but now that I have I’m not surprised to find a number of people who also think these characters are an homage to our favorite slapstick trio.

@@wellesradio oh yeah, of course, now that you’ve pointed it out it seems pretty obvious. Somebody clearly decided to make the reference, I just don’t know who 😂

No mercy!

Well that’s the beauty of art - it’ll say different things to different people