Bat Deduction: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|<poem>'''Batman:''' Pretty fishy what happened to me on that ladder.
'''Gordon:''' You mean, where there's a fish, there could be a Penguin.
'''Robin:''' But wait! It happened at sea! See? "C" for Catwoman!
'''Batman:''' Yet -- that exploding shark was pulling my leg!
'''Gordon:''' [[The Joker]]!
'''O'Hara:''' It all adds up to a sinister riddle... Riddle-er. Riddler?</poem>|''[[Batman: The Movie]]'' }}
So you have the average detective story, with a huge, widely spanning mystery that has both the detective and the viewers stumped. You've got it going, but, now that you're in the thicket, you've run yourself into a corner. It would take more space than available to connect the pieces, and you don't want to drag the viewer along with boring step by step exposition, so what are you going to do?
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The [[Trope Namer]] is [[Batman]], specifically the 60's [[Adam West]] ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'', who, given his title as the World's Greatest Detective, can easily fall into this when a writer gets into a rut (or is [[Rule of Funny|playing it up for laughs]]). Can also be interpreted as "batshit crazy deduction," or, less often, "lazy writer deduction."
Compare [[Eureka Moment]], where the seemingly illogical leap actually does have a logical explanation - it just doesn't get explained at the time in order to keep up the suspense; when the last clue is a [[Smoking Gun]], making the previous ones redundant, it's [[Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun]]; [[Conviction by Counterfactual Clue]], where the logic is based on faulty deduction; and [[Right for the Wrong Reasons]], where the logic is (usually) correct but the premises are mistaken. Also see [[Only the Author Can Save Them Now]]. This is a natural result of having [[Super Intelligence]]. May look a lot like [[Insane Troll Logic]], except in this case the deduction is correct. [[Epileptic Trees]] are fan theories that look like this. Contrast with [[Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun]] where no deduction is really needed.
Not to be confused with chiropteran tax savings.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* This is a key feature of ''[[Case Closed]]'', owing to difficulty translating. In the original Japanese version of ''[[Detective Conan]]'', an unfortunately large number of clues rely on Japanese puns and cultural references that can't really be translated, so non-Japanese readers/viewers can't fit the clues together.
** Though the case involving {{spoiler|Kan'o (spelt using the characters 'ka' + 'n' + 'o') referring to the person Kano (spelt using the characters 'ka' + 'no')}} was easier to solve for Western audiences.
* ''[[Death Note]]''
** Near does this, especially in the anime, which compressed a 5 volume arc into 11 episodes. The manga explains his deductions a lot
** In early episodes of the anime, L does a bit of this but it drops off as enough clues are established for the audience to follow what's happening. The bilinear narration between Light and L only makes it all the more obvious.
* This is how Lucy deducted where Mavis' grave was in the exam arc of ''[[Fairy Tail]]''. We have six hours to find the grave? The only six letter word related to death is "demise"… and it is the only one that has the letter "E" twice… so the grave is somewhere in the E route of the first exam!
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==
* Justified in ''[[Grant Morrisons Batman]]'', where Batman points out that he ''needs'' to use half-mad logic and bizarre connective leaps to "match wits" with a rotating group of homicidal, delusional sociopaths, or people will die. Likewise, the Joker himself admits that Batman may have driven him to [[wikipedia:Apophenia|apophenia]], as he has to constantly wonder whether or not the Bat will solve anything he plans, no matter how random everything seems.
** Taken still further during Morrison's [[Justice League]] run by [[Martian Manhunter]] who shapeshifts his brain to make the irrational intuitive regions big and the logical regions small so he can think like the Joker. The chaotic maze he and Superman are trapped in [[Translation Convention|suddenly appears to have a straight path from entry to exit.]]
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== Fan Works ==
* Parodied in ''[[
{{quote|'''Joseph:''' Nrg! I don't have time for this. Wait, Time. Chronos was the god of time in Greek mythology. Greece won the Euro cup in 2004. George Bush was re-elected in 2004. George Bush was impersonated in ''[[Harold & Kumar Escape from
* ''[[The Darker Knight]]'' takes this to an extreme.
* Played straight for laughs in ''[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11806414/1/Amy-Potter-is-Batgirl Amy Potter is Batgirl!]'' by "Philosophize", a ''[[Harry Potter]]''/[[Batman (TV series)|1960s ''Batman'' TV show]] crossover with a fem!Harry. Amy, trapped in the Triwizard Tournament, deduces the purpose of the golden egg thusly:
{{quote|"I think the screeching is what we need to focus on," Remus said at one point, having just shot down an elaborate theory of Sirius' that the egg represented an enormous golden snitch and that I'd spend the second task playing Quidditch with giants who used boulders for bludgers. Only too happy to give ''that'' one a miss, I stood up and started pacing — I always thought better that way.
"Screeching... screeching... What else screeches?" I asked, and when no one answered, I said, "Owls!"
"Okay..." Sirius said slowly, trading a puzzled look with Remus.
"And what's an owl's favorite food? A mouse!" I was on a roll now. Normally I was able to bounce ideas off of Bruce or Dick, so I was disappointed that Sirius and Remus weren't helping, but at the moment it didn't seem to matter. "And at one time, 'flittermouse' was another word for a bat!"
"So?" Remus asked.
"Well, what else begins with B?" Suddenly it all fell into place. "Black Lake!" I exclaimed, snapping my fingers. "Obviously the second task will be held in the Black Lake, so I'll need to submerge this egg in some water to get the clue!" I rushed over and hugged an oddly baffled Remus before grabbing the egg from him. "Thanks, Remus, you're a genius!"}}
==
* In ''[[Batman: The Movie]]'', the entire universe runs on Bat-Logic, in the name of [[Rule of Funny|fun, though]]. For example, at the beginning Batman gets a series of "joking" riddles that vaguely talk about birds and the sea. Batman reasons out that the riddles must be from Riddler (fair enough), but the joking style is a sign he's working with the Joker (makes some sense) and the reference to birds is the Penguin (OK, I guess) and the reference to the sea... well, C as in Catwoman ([[Visible Silence|...]])! Meaning the four of them are working together. ''And Batman is absolutely right.''
** There is
** Two riddles have the answers "egg" and "make applesauce". This means the villains are going to attack the [[Expy]] for the UN. You see, applesauce is a single unified mixture (like the UN), and the egg is a capsule (like the UN).
* In ''[[Batman Forever]]'', upon discovering that [[Meaningful Name|Edward Nygma]] was the one sending him creepy riddles anonymously (which to the untrained eye, probably looked stalkerish but harmless), Batman instantly deduced that Nygma had actually killed a co-worker who was thought to have committed suicide. With ''no evidence whatsoever.''
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** The movie does show that Bruce Wayne is dubious about the supervisor's apparent suicide from day one, so much so that he ordered full benefits be paid out to the man's family even though their insurance doesn't cover suicide (he's versed in psychology and must have observed that the supervisor didn't seem suicidal). Put that together with the scene Bruce had witnessed earlier with the belligerent supervisor humiliating the clearly unstable Nygma and its not so big a leap for Bruce to conclude that Nygma murdered his boss once Bruce knew that Nygma was a supervillain.
*** For what it's worth, the riddles in the movie were devised by ''New York Times'' puzzlemaster Will Shortz.
** In fact, one of the reasons the Riddler was never used that much in comics even before he reformed was that it's hard to get around this trope where he's concerned without making the riddles insultingly
* In ''[[Evolution (film)|Evolution]]'', the scientists reason that, since arsenic is poisonous to carbon-based life forms, the nitrogen-based aliens must be poisoned by selenium. How do they reach this deduction? Because arsenic is two spaces up and one space to the right on the periodic table, so this pattern should hold true for nitrogen.
* In ''[[Superman]]'', Lex Luthor somehow reasons that kryptonite is lethal to Superman just because he is from Krypton and that pieces of Krypton must have fallen to Earth just because of the location and time of Krypton's explosion in 1948 (which he knows from reading details in Superman's interview with Lois Lane, which Superman never actually provides in the interview
** He gets one pass in the director's cut, however. He tried EVERYTHING ELSE first, with fire, ice, lightning, etc.
* ''[[Black Dynamite]]'' brilliantly parodies the entire concept [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PSueHOY-Jk here].
* Subverted in ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'': Vezzini uses this to "deduce" which glass contains poison ("Iocane comes from Australia, as everyone knows, and Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them...") Arguably, he isn't actually trying to Bat-Deduce the location of the
* Subverted with Jason in ''[[Mystery Team]]'', who sometimes makes assumptions based on the smallest pieces of evidence. Played straight later with Jason connecting the murders to {{spoiler|Robert}} when he tells him to "Take a chill pill."
* In ''[[Without a Clue]]'', lampshaded. A mysterious number is given, and Sherlock Holmes uses a few long and complicated leaps of logic to deduce that it means a specific warehouse. {{spoiler|At the end Holmes and Watson explain to the person who left the clue how they figured it out, leading to a sudden [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] - the victim reveals that the number was simply the address of the warehouse he was being held at.}}
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== Literature ==
* Deconstructed in a scene in Paul Auster's ''[[The New York Trilogy|City of Glass]]'', where it is used to show that the character doing it completely insane.
* Joyfully inverted in Sherlock Holmes' ''The Adventure of the Yellow-Face''. The title detective extrapolates a complex theory involving murder and foul-play to explain the case without having so much as set foot in Norbury to Watson. And then, rather than every leap of logic/intuition being
** Holmes himself was invented, in part, because Arthur Conan Doyle was sick and tired of seeing detectives in fiction who ''always'' solved the case via this trope.
* Harry's deductions about the Deathly Hallows in ''[[
* Sir Nathaniel in [[Bram Stoker
* In ''[[Book Girl]] and the Famished Spirit'', the Literature Club receives a mysterious letter written in a number code; Tohko immediately deduces the meaning based on what seems to be free-association.
{{quote|"4 symbolizes death, so 4-5 obviously means 'death finds you'[...]" {{spoiler|Ultimately subverted, as she's completely wrong.}}}}
* Early in ''[[Journey to the West]]'', Sun Wukong's teacher decides to tell Sun Wukong to meet him at the third watch through the back door to his chambers in order to learn the secret to immortality and Kung Fu superpowers. He communicates this by smacking him three times and then leaving the room through the main door with his hands clasped behind his back. Sun Wukong figures it out, naturally.
* In ''[[The Lost Fleet]]'' captain Geary reasons why Syndics would delete software from evacuated base is the {{spoiler|existence of until now unknown and unsuspected aliens}}
* The Department of Dead Ends in the work of Roy Vickers was described in its first appearance as an attempt to weaponise this trope. On one occasion, they caught a murderer by punning on his name.
* [[Dirk Gently]]. He once came to the correct conclusion as a result of the insurance people describing an explosion as an "act of God".
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*** Also the IUPAC naming convention places Sodium's symbol as Na not S (which is Sulphur/Sulfur). So N, U, Na ...or Na-N-U: It's Mork!
** The series was so aware that it was going to rely on this sort of thing that [[Invoked Trope|invoking the trope]] formed the backbone of the plot of the ''very third episode''. The Penguin, being out of ideas for a heist, sends a random umbrella to Batman. His plan: Batman will analyze the "clue", use
*** The series actually got worse as time went by. Batgirl once deduced the plot of an entire episode based on the fact that her father was late getting home and that a new singer was in town.
*** In another episode, Riddler [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|knockoff]] "The Puzzler" left a clue that "will make Batman and Robin ''really'' put on their thinking caps": a piece of paper with the single word "Puzzles". Cue extraordinarily [[Egregious]] use of this trope.
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* Even worse in L.A.Noire where in one case Cole deduces that {{spoiler|from the corpse of a recently stabbed victim he finds a ticket, therefore the fighter you were looking for is in the theater.}} Wait what? Even your Partner lampshades this.
* A good portion of the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series is based on this. The player often figures things out before the lawyer, and vice versa. The hilarious bit is that it's acknowledged, multiple times, that Phoenix Wright is basically BSing furiously.
* ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'': This is how Battler {{spoiler|figures out Beato's game and becomes the new Game Master}}. One of the clues that Battler used was {{color|red|Knox's 6th: It is forbidden for the case to be resolved using accident or intuition}}, so
* In ''[[The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police|Sam And Max Save The World]]'': "Bright Side of the Moon", Sam figures out Roy G. Biv's identity through a long chain of reasoning that has nothing to do with the actual clue in his name (a mnemonic for the colours of the rainbow).
{{quote|'''Max:''' We're detectives, Sam, not mind-readers! Maybe we should ask Hugh Bliss.
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'''Sam:''' No, chucklehead, it's Hugh Bliss!
'''Max:''' Never! }}
* This is lampooned in ''[[Space Quest|Space Quest V]]''. When Beatrice is infected by [[The Virus]], Roger and his crew have no idea at first how to cure her, and can only use a cryogenic chamber to slow the infection. Later, however, Spike - a [[Face Hugger]] Roger befriended earlier - starts hopping on the chamber, and then the transporter; Roger somehow surmises from this that Spike is telling them to "initiate a manual control bypass to reverse the phase polarity of the interface grid and then use the transporter to reintegrate Beatrice's molecules." Cliffy seems to think that's [[Crazy Enough to Work]] and it does.
== Web Animation ==
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{{quote|'''Sam:''' Helix, why is it every time ''you'' think, it's ''my'' head that hurts?}}
* Deconstructed humorously in [http://nonadventures.com/2011/04/16/another-mine-mess/ this] episode of ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]'', in which we see what happens when you overestimate your opponent's deductive skills.
* ''[[Chainsawsuit]]'' has a character guessing what another
* ''[[Shortpacked]]'' shows [http://www.shortpacked.com/2008/comic/book-6/03-gritty-and-adult/rareflower/ a possible exploit].
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'''Riley:''' ''Outstanding''. }}
* Morgan Freeman uses this in ''[[Celebrity Bric-a-Brac Theater|Bric-A-Brac Burning Man]]'' to determine who killed Dennis Hopper and how. {{spoiler|"[[Bee-Bee Gun|Bees...]] ''[[Bill Cosby|Cos-Bees!]]'' It's obvious!"}}
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20100305081343/http://dozerfleetwiki2.wiki-site.com/index.php/When_Bikes_Argue_2 When Bikes Argue 2]'' has the following exchange:
{{quote|'''Hilo:''' Here's the battle map!
'''Ackro:''' All I see, are, grease smudges!
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And the mushroom cloud-like [grease smudge] next to you... is the end of Muhammy al-Dracula!
'''Ackro:''' And where are we gonna get plutonium to nuke Mecca from, a DeLorean???
'''Hilo:''' [[Gosh Dang It to Heck|Snagnabbit]], that's it! If we can't find plutonium for the bomb, we'll never convince the werewolves to come out during a crescent moon!
[[Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?|Because they'll be showing]] ''[[Yogi Bear]]'' reruns if that happens!!! This completely ruins the whole plan! }}
::Hence, Hilo realizes that Ackro is right in saying that it's preposterous for bicycles in a pole barn to nuke Mecca. But his reasoning doubles as both [[Right for the Wrong Reasons]] ''and''
* [http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/021649.html This] ''[[Overheard]]'' bit of navigational wisdom.
* [[Seanbaby]], on Batman and the Riddler (in the animated ''[[Superfriends]]'' cartoon):
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{{quote|'''Tom Hanks:''' Let's see here... we're in a tomb. Tomb... like Tombstone pizza, which is circular. Circular is the opposite of square... of course! To Saint Peter's Square!}}
* Ranger in ''[[Comic Fury Werewolf]]'' has an unusual brand of "logic". His deductions rely on a series of jumps in logic which qualify as this more often than they don't.
* Facebook answers the [[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy|Question]] in [https://web.archive.org/web/20120618082234/http://www.unfriendable.com/view/Facebook/38862 this way].
== Western Animation ==
* [[Batman]], in the 1970s ''[[Superfriends]]'' cartoons, would routinely come up with some extremely convoluted link between the clues and the crime. It became especially pronounced if the Riddler was involved.
* This is one of [[Darkwing Duck]]'s signature detective skills: for instance, finding the location of the Fearsome Five's hideout from a
* In the ''[[Justice League]]'' episode "Legends", the [[Expy|Justice
** The earth crime being the trophy for the clay court tennis championship makes a ''bit'' more sense when you consider that the criminal who commits it is The Sportsman.
* In the episode "Cancelled", ''[[South Park]]'''s parody of ''[[Independence Day]]'', the scientist (Jeff, for Jeff Goldblum) would fixate on a random element and follow a completely nonsensical chain of reasoning to come up with the solution. For example:
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'''Chef:''' ... Who's having butt sex?
'''Jeff:''' There's a huge ship of some kind in Earth's orbit! But why? Wait a minute: chaos theory! Chaos theory, it was first thought of in [[The Sixties]]. Sixty. That's the number of episodes they made of ''[[Punky Brewster]]'' before it was cancelled. Cancelled... Don't you see? The show is over! The aliens are cancelling Earth!
'''Jeff:''' Whoever they are, if they're receiving messages, they might be sending them, too. Wait a minute: candy bars. They usually come in a wrapper. Just like you... wrap a Christmas present. Christmas happens when it's cold. Cold, as in Alaska - that's... with polar bears. Polar bears... pola... polarity! I can [[Reverse Polarity|switch the polarity]] to see what transmissions are coming from the location this one is being sent to!
'''Chef:''' ''THAT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO FUCKING SENSE!!'' }}
** If it wasn't obviously intended otherwise, you might think he'd already subconsciously come up with the right answers in a more logical intuitive way and needed to babble randomly until he managed to get a hold of them consciously.
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** And then he interprets the flag sticking out of the holes as signs of a race of mole men who are plotting to create mole-human hybrids so they can [[Take Over the World]].
* Professor Farnsworth of ''[[Futurama]]'' uses this a lot in "The Duh-Vinci Code":
{{quote|'''Professor Farnsworth:''' Animatronio mentioned a fountain. That's a statue of Neptune, god of water. The number of points on his trident is three, or "''tre''". [[Canis Latinicus|The "u" in his name is written like "v".]] "''Tre''", "V". "''Tre''"... Trevi! It's the Trevi Fountain! There can be no question!
'''Leela:''' [[Lampshade Hanging|But, Professor]]--
'''Professor Farnsworth: ''THERE CAN BE NO QUESTION!'' ''' }}
** Even better is the fact that he ignores the more obvious deduction, the Fountain of Neptune, also in Rome.
* Naturally, episodes of ''[[Batman: The
** This exchange between Batman and Alfred in the Batmobile, where Batman has a handful of coins and the clue "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no tales. It all makes sense when you add it up."
{{quote|'''Batman:''' Penny... Penny... Cent... Red cent... Copper! It's made of copper!
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::: The silliest thing about this? ''Batman was going to go back there eventually anyway''.
** Same episode, leads into the above one. Three computers crash around Gotham, displaying only a riddle on screen: "Where does a 500-pound gorilla sleep?" "What's worse than a millipede with flat feet?" "How do you fit 5 elephants into a compact car?" Train of logic: the Riddler doesn't usually use such commonly known riddles meaning the answers to the riddles are a red herring. The riddles themselves all contain numbers: 500, 1000, 5. Convert to roman numerals and get D,M,V... ''the Department of Motor Vehicles!!!''
* ''[[Underdog (animation)|Underdog]]''. Apparently, "A rhyme/In time/Saves nine" means "Underdog should come to the town's diamond store to stop a heist." Ah, yes. "
== Real Life ==
* [[ARG
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[[Category:Logic Tropes]]
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