Batman: The Brave and the Bold/Shout-Out

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Arguably the very first Shout-Out is the Plastino Cat Snacks in reference to Al Plastino, who drew the syndicated Batman comic strip during The Silver Age of Comic Books. And the cat looks just like Streaky the Supercat.
  • "Invasion of the Secret Santas!" had shout outs to A Charlie Brown Christmas, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, It's a Wonderful Life and the old 1960s Batman TV series. There's also subtle reference to MST3K when Fun Haus mentions a Robot Santa being Nightmare Fuel.
  • Sportsmaster wears a purple and black padded suit which bears a passing resemblance to the Globogym's uniforms in "Dodgeball"
  • After coming back up from being electrocuted by Black Lightning, Wildcat tells Batman that it'll take a lot more than "a little Static Shock" to get rid of him.
  • Kill Bill: Katana is visually very similar to crazy assassin chick Gogo Yubari.
  • Speedy seems to be based on Burt Ward's portrayal of Robin in the 60s show, from his general gee-whiz attitude to lines like "Holy involuntary acrobatics!".
  • A British fortune teller tells Thomas Baker that his nephew Colin is calling to him.
  • From the same ep: "This quill has signed a thousand death warrants!" And then he draws a Pokémon Stadium with it...
  • Chemo utters Godzilla's signature roar whenever he spews chemicals from his mouth.
  • There are mutated turtles in the sewer in "Enter the Outsiders!".
  • The Western-themed cold open of "Return of the Fearsome Fangs!" is set at Sergio Station.
  • One of Wong Fei's students wonders if he'll get the temple if he beats the master. After knocking him around, Wong Fei's response is "No temple for you!"
  • In "Deep Cover for Batman!", Blue Bowman finally delivers the setup line we've been waiting for. "Who is this guy?" SMACK! "I'm Batman." And the musical score goes appropriately crazy.
  • "Game Over for Owlman!": "Stop."
  • The Death Traps on display in the Batcave's "Joker Wing" were taken from the original Adam West TV series.
  • In "Night of the Huntress!" the Batmobile transforms into what looks very much like one of the Bat-Knight robots from Kingdom Come.
  • Speaking of giant robots, the one female member of Babyface's gang just happens to end up in a yellow exoskeleton.
  • The show continues the trend of the comic by having streets or place names in Gotham and Bludhaven named after influential Batman writers and artists. In "The Color of Revenge!", Batman mentions the intersection of Haney and Aparo, a reference to the writer and artist of the original The Brave and the Bold comic that heavily influenced this show.
  • "Legends of the Dark Mite!" is one giant Shout-Out episode, including but certainly not limited to:
    • The title is a massive mythology gag referencing primarily the BTAS Legends of the Dark Knight which itself references the varying portrayal of Batman over the years.
    • Among other Batman fanboys at a convention held by Bat-Mite is one is a Batman costume identical to the one worn by Hank Venture. Which itself was based on a real-life Batman Halloween costume sold in the late 60s and the 70s.
    • The episode also contains blatant visual references to The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, one of the most popular Daffy Duck cartoons ever made.
    • Bruce Timm and Paul Dini (creators of the DCAU) are also present at the convention, in costume as the Joker and Harley Quinn (well, Harley WAS Dini's creation!) respectively. For added humor, Dini actually wrote this episode.
    • Bat-Mite ends his episode like an old Looney Tunes cartoon, waving and saying "That's all, folks!" while the Looney Tunes theme song plays. Weirdest Shout-Out in a Batman show ever.
    • That's NOT all—Bat-Mite also gives a shout-out to Bewitched, wiggling his nose to disappear at the fade-out. Earlier, to transform into Batman, he crosses his arms and nods his head a la I Dream of Jeannie. Paul Dini also wrote the admitted Bewitched homage episode This Little Piggy for Justice League Unlimited.
    • Bat-Mite's description of Batman as a tortured avenger "crying for mommy and daddy" is an Ironic Echo of one of The Joker's darkest lines in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker used to emphasize the differences between the Brave and the Bold version and the Animated Series version of the character.
  • Dick Sprang-inspired designs for Two-Face, Catwoman, Penguin, Joker, 60s Mr. Freeze (or Mr. Zero, as he was called then)... The list goes on and on.
  • Dr. Canus' attire from "The Last Bat On Earth!" looks awfully similar to a certain Scruff McGruff, complete with green trenchcoat.
  • Bane's first appearance on the show had him lifting Batman up just like he was about to break his back over his knee like he is famous for doing in the comics. Luckily Wildcat was there to save Batman.
  • The theme song itself could arguably be inspired by "Tank!" the Cowboy Bebop opening
  • In "The Super Bat-Man of Planet X!", Rothul's combat robots look 'uncannily' like the Fruit Fucker 2000.
  • Beloved DC humor characters Sugar and Spike appear in the comic as allies of a de-aged baby Batman. The same issue also features a time machine that is best known to fans of Superdickery as Lois' time travel popemobile.
  • In "Mayhem of the Music Meister!", Calendar Man is seen strapped to a dolly with a muzzle over his mouth like Hannibal Lecter, probably in reference to the Lecter-inspired portrayal of him in The Long Halloween.
  • The Music Meister's frequent costume changes involve homages to(among others) KISS, the Phantom of the Opera, Elvis Presley, Liberace and Elton John. They also reference various types of music, from generic band geek to opera.
  • Black Manta refers to the infamous "shark repellant" from Batman: The Movie in the "Drives Us Bats!" number. The Batusi gets mentioned too.
  • The walls of the deathtrap in "Mayhem of the Music Meister!" are plastered with names of various DC teams:

Trenchcoat Brigade
Inferior Five
The Great Ten
Metal Men
Female Furies
Injustice Gang
Tornado Twins
Challengers of the Unknown
Monster Society of Evil
Fearsome Five
Revenge Syndicate
Rocket Rollers
Atomic Knights
Awesome Threesome

Robin: Sit, Ubu, sit!

  • In "Hail the Tornado Tyrant!", Red Tornado's son is called Tornado Champion and Tornado Tyrant, both nicknames Red Tornado had over the years. Likewise, Champion's design before his Face Heel Turn resembles Red Tornado's original look in the comics.
  • The "Batman doesn't eat nachos!" line in "A Bat Divided!" definitely seems to be a reference to one of the nitpicks fans made about an early episode of The Batman, which showed Bruce eating nachos in the Batcave. Not to mention, the cheese sauce Slacker!Batman pours on his nachos has a picture of Little Cheese on it.
  • The sound effect Starro makes is the same sound as Martian ships from the 1953 film adaptation of War of the Worlds. The Faceless Hunter's narration in "The Power of Shazam!" of how Starro identified Earth as its target is a shout out to the open narration of the film as well.
  • In "The Siege Of Starro" Part I:
    • There's a moment the screen freezes for a second. This is to showcase an homage to the cover of the issue of Brave And The Bold (the original comic) where the Justice League debuted, fighting—Starro!
    • It also features B'wana Beast riding a dead ringer for Kaboobie, the flying camel.
    • The diaper truck Booster Gold gets flung into shows the DC kiddie comic characters Sugar and Spike.
  • In The Mask of Matches Malone, we get this gem:

Matches: I'll whack him, and bada-boom, bada-bing, I'll have complete control of Gotham!

  • Poison Ivy's Man-Eating Plant, Georgia, is obviously a shot out to Audrey from The Little Shop of Horrors.
  • The Haunted Tank cold open is basically a two-minute episode of The Dukes of Hazzard. Right down to the slo-mo jump and car horn that plays "Dixie."
  • During "Requiem For A Speedster," Barry Allen and Professor Zoom duel while running at super speeds around the world - at one point they pass through a suspiciously familiar stylized desert, and their "superspeed" sound effects briefly become the same as the one used for The Roadrunner.
  • The same episode has what is arguably a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe reference as Zoom and Allen fight each other in free fall, each attempting to turn the other into the fall in the same way Free Fall Combat worked in that game.
  • While the Harley Quinn in "Emperor Joker" looks more like a Roaring Twenties flapper (she is probably based on silent comedienne Mabel Normand), when Joker puts Bat-Mite into a Jester outfit, it's the Jester outfit the classic Harley wore in her original Batman the Animated Series appearance.
  • That episode is all about paying homage to the classics. Joker's show-stopping song takes its refrain, "Smile, darn ya, smile!", from the title of one of the very first Merrie Melodies cartoons.
    • Also, Harley and the rest of the Joker's henchmen start doing the Time Warp during the final chorus!
  • "The Criss Cross Conspiracy!" references Batman Forever, of all things!

Batman (Katrina Moldoff): Riddle me this, riddle me that. Who's afraid of the big black bat?

The ending references Some Like It Hot. You can guess which scene.
  • Proto in "Plague of the Prototypes!" does two homages to the GoLion version of Voltron: with his sword, and his pose in space in the end.
  • In "Cry Freedom Fighters", Batman is given the power of patriotism by Uncle Sam, and his costume gets a more patriotic makeover. He then proceeds to throw a shield at a fleeing enemy, which bounces off the walls several times before finally hitting the baddy.
  • Towards the end of "The Color of Revenge!", the mostly red-clad Robin takes down Crazy Quilt's blue-clad, bald and BFG-wielding Mook with a stick. Say it with me - BONK!
  • In "Game Over For Owlman!", the apparent references to The Killing Joke in "Deep Cover for Batman!" are subtly confirmed when the Joker uses the words "killing" and "joke" in quick succession.
  • In "Emperor Joker" there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to The Tick (animation) - during the "Where's the Fun in That" sequence, a gigantic Joker can be seen walking through the city, while the buildings around him burst to life. One of them sports a face and "teeth", like the buildings, that Tick hallucinated in one of the episodes. Those buildings can be clearly seen in the intro to the show.
  • The iconic Hindu poster from Watchmen (most prominently seen in the "Fearful Symmetry" chapter) is very briefly shown in the Doom Patrol episode.
  • In "Gorillas in Our Midst!" Gorilla Grodd ties Batman and Detective Chimp into the infamous crotch-laser death trap.
    • The episode's title is a pun on the movie Gorillas in the Mist.
  • In the cold open of "Night of the Batmen!", a character (Vigilante) who was voiced by Nathan Fillion in JLU sings a song about Batman's "Hammers of justice", just after saying A man's gotta do what's a man's gotta do.
  • In "Darkseid Descending", Skeets is "well versed in over six million forms of refrigeration."
  • In Aquaman's Sitcom - styled opening, Black Manta complains that Fluke has wrecked his "octopus garden".
  • In the opening for "Triumvirate of Terror", Batman's Rousing Speech to the Justice League mentions "little Julie Schwartz and Frankie Miller from Gotham".
  • The end of the episode jumps 50 years into the future; Batman is gray-haired, wearing what looks like an exoskeleton, and riding in a motorized wheelchair. The reference is completed when the chair transforms into the armored Batsuit from Kingdom Come.
  • In "Battle of the Superheroes", Batman fights Superman. Bats wears an armoured suit that's an obvious visual reference to the fight at the end of The Dark Knight Returns, and several stills echo panels from DKR. There's also a bit where Supes punches Bats through a building, superspeed-intercepts him on the other side, and then smashes him down into the ground. It's almost a shot-for-shot recreation of the Superman/Darkseid fight from the finale of Justice League Unlimited.
  • Wonder Woman's appearances are punctuated with the use of the theme from the 70s series.
    • The sound effect of her weaponized tiara is lifted straight from the series.
  • Aquaman's Rousing Song Of Heroism mentions wallcrawling among the many superpowers possible. The guy he's dressed as is the Tarantula, a Golden Age hero retconned into a Spidey knockoff in Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron.
  • In "Powerless", the setup for Captain Atom's Public Service Announcement is taken straight from G.I. Joe.
  • In The Eyes of Despero, Batman lays out Guy Gardner in a nod to a classic scene from Justice League International, complete with G'nort providing the "One punch! One punch!" line.
  • The voice of Batman's talking street luge in Mitefall is an obvious impression of William Daniels as KITT from Knight Rider.
    • The premise of the episode is Bat-Mite trying to get the show canceled by having it Jump the Shark (explicitly using that phrase, even) as Ambush Bug tries to stop him. Ambush Bug is voiced by Henry Winkler—the original Shark Jumper, Fonzie from Happy Days.
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