http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE34TheLaughingFish
The Joker infects fish with laughing gas. After not being allowed to copyright his Joker Fish, he targets the innocent bureaucrats who told him that copyright doesn't work that way.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Actor Allusion: While trying to "cheer up" Harley Quinn, Joker says she can be his "Little Mermaid". Mark Hamill previously had a small voice role as a sailor in the opening scene of The Little Mermaid (1989) (using a voice similar to that of Solomon Grundy).
- Adaptation Amalgamation: The episode is mostly adapted from the comics storyline "The Laughing Fish"/"Sign of the Joker!" (Detective Comics #475-476), however, the final act is largely drawn from the unrelated comic story "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" (Batman #251).
- Adaptation Distillation: This story primarily adapts Detective Comics #475-476 and cuts out pretty much all the subplots carried over in the previous issuesnote to wit: Hugo Strange auctions off Batman's secret identity, causing Rupert Thorne to murder him. Thorne is haunted by Strange's ghost because of this, and has the ire of the Joker, who wants the identity to stay secret. Meanwhile, Batman is carrying on a relationship with socialite Silver St.Cloud, who figured out Batman's identity on her own — she flees Gotham because she isn't ready to deal with having a boyfriend who could end up dead in any number of hideous ways. Notably, in the comic Batman nabs Joker during an assassination attempt on Commissioner Gordon, using a gadget handed him by Hugo Strange's ghost. The episode swaps out this climax out for the aquarium showdown from the otherwise-unrelated Batman #251.note That issue, the first outing for Mistah J after a Long Bus Trip in the comics throughout the late '60s and early '70s, dealt with The Joker revenging himself on five of his henchmen (hence "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge"), one of whom was the one who had betrayed him and sent him away to prison. The sequence in question had The Joker threatening to toss one of the henchmen (swapped out for Bullock in the TV version) into a tank in the Gotham Aquarium which held a Great White Shark. Batman is able to defeat the shark and save the victim much like in the TV episode, before chasing Joker out to the nearby beach, where Joker slips on a convenient oil-spill and is unceremoniously arrested. There are a few changes to the plot outside of the deleted subplots:
- The inclusion of Harley Quinn and Harvey Bullock;
- The clerks targeted by the Joker were killed in the original (in the adaptation, Batman was able to administer an antidote to the Joker venom in time);
- The Joker's TV hijackings are much shorter and more direct death-threats in the original, lacking the Parody Commercial angle of the cartoon;
- There was a third attempted assassination, with Joker trying to get at his target by dressing as a cop (sound familiar?). Batman foils this by use of a device dropped by Hugo Strange's ghost, leading to a fight on a construction site, where Joker gets struck by lightning seemingly falls to his death. This was the original ending, presumably changed due to it being too intense, or due to the ending wrapping up the Silver St. Cloud and Rupert Thorne subplots, and so being nonsensical to the plot of the episode (where Thorne didn't even appear) note Silver breaks up with Bruce, telling him she couldn't bear to live with not knowing whether or not Bruce would come home alive each night, while Thorne, driven half-mad by Hugo Strange's ghost, returns to Gotham and confesses all his mob crimes.
- Adults Dressed as Children: Two of Joker's henchmen are dressed as 1950s-era children (one with a beanie, one with Girlish Pigtails) for Joker's commercial for "Joker Fish" - and they did not enjoy it. Harley plays their mom.
- Artistic License – Law:
- In-universe, the Joker is mistaken when he thinks that he can patent fish because they bear his image, and when the patent clerk tells him so, he decides to kill him. Possibly an aversion, as Batman himself believes Joker knows the law doesn't work that way and is just using it as an excuse to carry out a terror campaign for his own amusement. Alternatively, Joker might be forcing the bureaucrats to write in a loophole for his fish just to stop Joker from killing them.
- Even worse, his plan was to copyright (not patent) the fish so that anyone catching them would have to pay him a royalty. That's not how copyright works. (And since the fish were going to be released into the wild, he obviously didn't have any issue with "unauthorized reproduction"...) But again, it's probable the Joker knew this all along and was just doing it all For the Evulz...
- Artistic License – Marine Biology: Some of the fish the Joker has infected with his venom can be seen with teeth to give them his smile, despite the fact there is only a few fish with teeth, including the ones mentioned in the Joker's commercial such as smelt, grouper, and haddock.
- Bait-and-Switch: For a moment it looked as though Batman was affected by the Joker venom (via cat scratch), until we see it's the second clerk wearing Batman's suit.
- Body Double: Batman tries to protect one of the Joker's targets by disguising himself as him and putting the actual target in a Batsuit. It fails because the target's cat, bearing a load of Joker venom, still recognizes its master.
- Bowdlerise: In the original comic story, the Joker toxin kills Francis and Jackson immediately. But since the network wouldn't allow Joker to actually murder people, Batman immediately administers the antidote to Joker's victims, and states they'll be fine despite remaining in a perpetual grinning state. Interestingly, this implies that Joker Venom is really lethal but takes its sweet time to kill, meaning that the victim would die a slow and agonizing death.
- Broken-Window Warning: It's not a rock, but one of the poisoned Joker Fish (a swordfish) that comes through the window of a predicted victim's home.
- Cats Are Mean: Apparently when they're infected by the Joker venom.
- Crazy-Prepared: Attempted by the Joker during his escape from the Aquarium. While he did prepare for what happened if he had to make a watery getaway, he did not prepare for his shark getting loose in the ocean during said getaway...
- Cutting the Knot: Instead of waiting for more office clerks to be targeted, Bullock went after the Joker himself after noticing the exotic fish.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The Joker introduces his "smile" toxin into the fish supply of Gotham Harbor, hoping to copyright the red-lipped, grinning ichthyoids and sell them in supermarkets. When told that he cannot copyright fish because they are a natural resource, he retaliates by carrying out an elaborate scheme to kill everyone in the Gotham City patent office until he gets his way.
- Does Not Like Spam: Harley's dislike of fish is mentioned here for the first time. It will come up again later.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: Joker launches a series of commercials to "warn" the unfortunate clerks who are being targeted, and to mock Batman. The first time it happens, Bullock orders the channel changed, but the "it's on the same channel" part happens. The second time, Batman angrily turns off the TV while Harley sings the commercial tune after Francis was attacked.
- The End... Or Is It?: Played with. The Joker falls into the ocean very close to a hungry shark. Commissioner Gordon asks Batman a bit later if he thinks the Joker's really dead. Batman says he wishes so, but that he has his doubts. The camera closes in on the Joker card that Harley has thrown into the ocean in mourning and then it's eaten by the same shark, managing to make the viewer certain both that the Joker survived and that he did so only by the skin of his teeth (so to speak) at the same time.
- Everyone Has Standards: Bullock has little love for Batman, but he thinks it's inhuman for the Joker to toss him to the shark.
- Exact Words: When Joker notices that Harley isn't having fun on the caper due to her hatred of fish, he cheers her up by promising that she can be "his own little mermaid." Cue the Clown Prince of Crime putting a fish's head costume on Harley—after all, mermaids are half-human and half-fish, and that's exactly what he promised!
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Francis is in witness protection with Gordon, Bullock and Batman, waiting for midnight to pass. Then Batman notices Francis scratching himself, which leads to this.
Batman: Feeling alright?
Francis: (calmly) Oh, sure. It's just that everything's been so crazy today, I haven't even had time to rinse off that gunk the Joker's Girl squirted on me.
Batman: (to Gordon) GET THIS MAN TO A HOSPITAL! NOW!
Francis: What?!
- Failed a Spot Check: The Joker's elevator chair might have made a better escape method if he'd checked to see if the skylight was open before activating it.
- For the Evulz:
- Given that the Joker made preparations to spray G. Carl Francis with the first part of his binary toxin even before his demands were rejected, it's implied that he expected as much and is perfectly willing to settle for killing a load of people in clever ways if he can't get his money. Batman explains this to Francis later, telling him that killing a harmless, powerless bureaucrat is just the villain's idea of a good joke.
- According to Batman, Joker's insane schemes such as the laughing fish make no sense to others except him.
- Force Feeding: A comedic example. Joker is doing a commercial for his new brand of Joker Fish, and tries to get Harley to eat one to show how good they are. Harley sheepishly protests that she's got a problem with fish, but Mr. J just shoves it in her mouth. She manages to grunt out, "Yummy-yum-yum," before running offscreen to hurl.
- Foreshadowing: Batman switching places with the second target is noticeable when you notice "Batman"'s mouth doesn't move when he exclaims "A Joker fish!". Gordon and Bullock are directed at the "second clerk" despite talking to "Batman". Then the "second clerk" tries to grab the cat despite the danger.
- Gratuitous French: Albeit mispronounced. When the Joker introduces Harley to Mr. Francis, she says, in her "Noo Yawk" dialect, "En-chaan-tee", clearly meaning to say, "Enchanté."
- Hidden Depths: Even without knowing the identity of the Japanese Tang, Bullock knows enough to make his way to the aquarium Joker is using as his base.
- Insane Troll Logic: The Joker genuinely seems to believe that poisoning fish with his toxin and thus giving them his famous grin will be enough to claim a copyright and make profits from every fish that's sold in Gotham. Of course, it's also possible that he does know that this is insane and is simply committing the grand scheme For the Evulz.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: With police everywhere, Bullock boasts that no one is getting into Francis's house tonight. Batman then immediately reveals that he sneaked in disguised as an officer and that it was easy to do so, too.
- Insult Backfire:
Bullock: Come on, he [the Joker] was a demented, abusive, psychotic maniac!
Harley: Yeah. [sob] I'm really gonna miss him.
- Lampshade Hanging: As Bullock points out, it hardly takes a supercomputer or a Sherlock Scan to realize that an exotic fish probably came from an aquarium.
- Latex Perfection: Batman's disguise as the second Joker target.
- Mermaid Problem: The Joker seems to be flirting with Harley Quinn by asking her to "be [his] little mermaid." He then puts a giant fake fish head over her head, to which Harley responds, "You're really sick, you know that, boss?" Funny this got past the censors.
- Mythology Gag: Like in the 1989 film, Joker's venom becomes effective when two or more components are mixed. Similarly, there's him making fake commercials advertising his "products."
- Never Found the Body: Joker is last seen falling near the shark. Nonetheless, Batman can't shake the feeling that he somehow survived.
- Oh, Crap!:
Joker: See, Batsy, I think of everything! Hahahahahahaha— AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
- Pragmatic Villainy: The Joker doesn't throw Bullock to the shark—at least not right away—because he realizes that if Bullock found the place, Batman will find it pretty quickly too. So he decides to keep Bullock alive a while to use as bait.
- Shark Pool: The Gotham Aquarium is closed for renovations, so the Joker takes it over so he can feed people to its sharks.
- Shout-Out:
- Joker pulls a wrench out of a box with the words "Binford Tools" written on it.
- A moment later, Joker jumps to the water to make his escape, and pulls the string on an innertube-like floatation device with a rubber ducky head colored the same bluish green as Plucky Duck.
- Joker makes two to major fast food franchises over the course of the episode:
Joker: (
revealing his next plan) Joker Burgers! Talk about a
Happy Meal! - In his commercial, Joker dresses up as the Gorton's Fisherman, albeit minus the beard.
- Signed with a Kiss: Harley tosses a joker card with a black lipstick print into the harbor where The Joker (apparently) met his demise.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- As mentioned above, the episode loosely adapts a two-part story from the comics, where Joker successfully kills the first two people he threatens. In the TAS version, since broadcasting standards wouldn't allow straight-up deaths (at least not onscreen), Batman is able to administer an antidote to both victims in time. Doesn't make the scene any less freaky, though.
- Also spared is one of the Joker's thugs, who in the comics gets pushed into oncoming traffic simply for asking the boss a question.
- In the original comic, Batman straight-up breaks the shark's neck while "riding" it (he escapes the tank by using the last victim's wheelchair as a bludgeon). The episode has the shark itself ram the way out of the tank, and survive (one hopes) to eat the Joker out in the harbor.
- Squee: Harley, when Joker says he's gonna make her his little mermaid.
- Dude, Not Funny!: ...which is followed by the Joker putting a giant fish head over her and laughing at her expense due to her dislike of fish. Harley isn't amused.
- Talk Like a Pirate: Joker indulges in this during his commercial.
- Threatening Shark: Bullock's suspended over a Shark Pool and then Batman has to fight the shark. At the end Joker is apparently eaten by the shark, but we all know how that turns out.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: During the Joker's commercial for his fish, Harley takes a bite of the fish, then goes to puke off-screen.
- Xanatos Gambit: It is unclear if the Joker really thought this is how patent procedures work, if he intended to murder bureaucrats until they made it legal to save themselves, or if he's just looking for an excuse to kill people, but the two possible outcomes benefit him regardless. If the department agrees to his illegal demands, then the Joker will get money to finance his future schemes. If not, well he can just simply have his fun with the standard routine of killing people and daring Batman to stop him.
- You're Insane!:
- When discussing why Joker's Joker-fied the local fish population, Batman comments, "Normal criminals usually have logical motives. The Joker's insane schemes make sense to him and him alone."
- The Joker actually gets it from Harley this time, who takes it as a compliment. (Right after the Squee part.)
- Also, Mr. Francis' reaction to his first encounter with the Joker, all said in quaking fear; "He's crazy..."
