To the Bat Noun

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"To the Bat-Poles! First we'd better get outfitted with our Bat-...Stuff."
—Ryan Stiles, Whose Line Is It Anyway

Few Bat-things can seem so anti-climactic as characters going Bat-somewhere or entering a Bat-vehicle, but there's always a way of doing things dramatically. Simply make a character yell (with or without his arm up):

"To the car!"

or

"To that place!"

The first usage of this trope was on 1960s Batman series (Does "To the Batmobile!" sound Bat-familiar?), and it was parodic even then. Most appearances of it nowadays are even more so, as the character will be overly dramatic about, say, going Bat-downstairs to eat bat-something. Thus, it's a Dead Unicorn Trope.

Rest assured if there's anything distinctive about someone's car, fans will dub it the InsertNameHere-mobile.

Not to be confused with To the Batpole. Can be confused with What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?. Also distinct from using a car's (or anything else's) trade name- that's Product Placement.

Now, to the Bat-examples!:

Examples of To the Bat Noun include:

Comic Books

Film

  • Used at the end of Young Frankenstein, when the rehabilitated Monster accidentally rips off Inspector Kemp's wooden arm while shaking hands:

Kemp: Oh, shit... [Points dramatically with the arm] To the lumberyard!!

  • During It's a Very, Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, after Kermit's little nephew Robin suggests him to call one of his famous friends after Miss Piggy leaves the Christmas play, Kermit says "To the starphone!" accompanied by Batman-sounding music.
  • Flushed Away: "Enough games. To the ratmobiles!
  • Hogfather: Onwards, Binky, to the Hogfather's Castle of Bones

Literature

  • Discworld
    • In Hogfather, Archchancellor Ridcully shouts "To the laundry!" and points dramatically towards the ceiling, only to have his colleagues remind him that the University's laundry is in the basement. He then refines his battle cry to "Down to the laundry!"
    • The Light Fantastic: Possibly a follow-up to a more played-straight example occurs when Archchancellor Galder Weatherwax keeps dramatically pointing at the ceiling to follow the path of the spell that turned the Librarian into an orangutan.
  • Used straight several times in The Lord of the Rings:
    • Gandalf: "To the bridge of Khazad-dûm!"
    • Éomer: "Rohirrim! To the King!"
  • Captain Underpants:

Captain Underpants: To the underwear cave!
Harold: There is no underwear cave!

Marco: To the Bat-morph, Robin!

Live-Action TV

  • The Trope Namer: Batman.
    • Alfred even took a leaf. Alfcycle, anyone?
  • Parodied in Angel when Spike mocks the title character's hero complex by narrating as Angel saves a woman from being mugged. We can't hear the real dialogue between Angel and the woman, but we hear Spike speak for Angel, "Evil's still afoot, and I'm almost out of that nancy-boy hair gel I like so much. Quickly! To the Angelmobile! Away!"
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 uses this trope to mock the title character of Puma Man when he attempts a heroic cape swish.

Tom: Into the Effeminate Mobile!

Crow: This looks like a job for Weenieman! Into the Weeniemobile... Weenieman away!

Mike: Into the Cupcake Mobile!

  • Parodied in Mock the Week with Scenes We'd Like To See, "Lines you wouldn't hear in a superhero film"

Frankie Boyle: To the Bat-Caravan!

  • How I Met Your Mother: "To the Willowbrook Mall!"
  • I'm in The Band: Usually, though not always, "To the band van!"
    • Although it can deteriorate all the way to "To the that way!"(sic).
  • Seinfeld: "To the Idiotmobile!"
  • In one episode of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, during one scene, Ned says, "To the library!"

Music

  • The song "One More River" by James Reyne has the line, "Pick up the Batphone and dial my number."
  • Eminem: To the Rapmobile! Let's go! (Guess who's back guess who's back guess who's back guess who's back)

Newspaper Comics

  • In a memorable Calvin and Hobbes strip, Calvin wonders out loud why his heroes don't fight realistic villains. Hobbes suggests that the fights would involve writing letters to the editor and so forth. As Calvin says that he sees the problem, Hobbes ends the strip with the line "Quick! To the Bat-Fax!"

Professional Wrestling

  • WWE wrestler The Hurricane used to do this as a parody of Batman, saying things like "To the Hurricave!" and "To the Hurricycle!"

Video Games

  • The Red Baron in Empire Earth: To the skies!
  • Professor Layton: Unfortunately, this never happens, despite him calling his car the Laytonmobile.
  • Some variation of "To the Freedom Flyer!" appeared in Freedom Force.

Web Comics

Web Original

  • Homestar Runner: Used in the Strong Bad Email ghosts (followed immediately by a Batman-style scene transition):

Strong Bad: The Cheat! Meet me in the Strong Bad Cave!
The Cheat: [quizzical noise]
Strong Bad: Erm, well... meet me in the closet and, uh... we'll put on some costumes.

    • Also used in an Easter Egg in love poems, where Strong Sad expects to be called on the Strong Badphone.
  • Parodied in Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series: "Into the Kaibacave!"
    • Not to mention the Kaibacopter! (Trademark)
    • "To the Mokubamobile!"
      • There isn't a Mokubamobile.
  • Lampshaded in PS238, where one of the problems with the school is that the superpowered students respond to going on lunch breaks by declaring in unison: "To the cafeteria -- For Justice!".
  • In The Nostalgia Critic review of The Wizard (film) "To the shit-mobile!". Followed by a shot of the shit-mobile in action, complete with music from Batman.
  • 'Weebl and Bob: In the Team Laser Explosion episodes, Captain Exploserous Laser (Weebl) always responds to calls from the mayor with "To the skies!"
  • The Nostalgia Chick: The Chick, in one of her rare Large Ham moments: "To Wikipedia!"

Western Animation

  • Batman the Brave And The Bold
    • The Joker, of all people, does this in : "To the Batmobile!"
    • Plastic Man spoofs this as well. "Quick! To the Plas-Cave!"
  • As a direct Batman parody, Adam West/Catman in The Fairly OddParents.
    • "To the Crocker Cave!"
  • As always, The Simpsons did it:
    • Bart was accused of stealing from the church collection plate, Lisa accuses Reverend Lovejoy's daughter of taking the money and framing Bart, and explains that they'll find all the stolen funds in her room. Homer stands up, points dramatically, and shouts, "To the little girl's room!"
    • Another time, during Dial Z For Zombie, a Treehouse of Horror segment, when Springfield was in the midst of a Zombie Apocalypse, Lisa suggests using the library to find out a way to stop them. Homer pulls a shotgun out of nowhere, gives a Dramatic Gun Cock while pointing with it, and declares: "To the Book Depository!"
    • And in the episode where Sideshow Bob tries to kill Selma, Homer actually says, "To the Simpsonmobile!"
      • To make even more like the trope namer, next to the garage there was a sign next to their garage telling the distance between them and their intended destination.
    • Beekeeper: "To the Beemobile!" "You mean your Chevy?" (Beat) "Yes."
    • An uncharacteristically moving performance by Ralph Wiggum, playing George Washington, motivates the school bullies to learn about his history. Dolph shouts "To the library!", to which Jimbo enthusiastically agrees.
    • The time Marge gave Wolfgang Puck an idea for a new dish: "To the Puckmobile!"
  • Parodied several times in Jimmy Neutron with Jimmy's semi-catchphrase"TO THE LAB!" Sheen eventually got in on the act by trying to insert "To the lab!" every time they would go anywhere, eventually settling for "To this place first, and then... the lab!" After that, they occasionally shared the use of the phrase, though Sheen's uses were always more of the Lampshade variety.
    • For further parody, the time that Sheen got in on the act, they ended up not going to the lab.
  • Futurama has played with it a few times. Professor Farnsworth shouts "To the laboratory!"... only to have everyone walk there at their normal pace.
    • And of course, the mandatory employee meeting called with "To the Mandatorium!"
    • And in case of emergencies, "To the Calamitorium!"

These are all the exact same place, obviously.

    • Bender exhorts the others to get on the Planet Express Ship with "To the Flying Machine!"
  • Family Guy plays with this three times:
    • In an early episode, Peter shouts, "To the Batcave!" and slides down a pole to Batman-sounding music, only to end up in a cave filled with bats, who swarm on him.
    • In a later episode, he shouts, "To the Peter-copter!" and appears in a helicopter shaped like his head, which promptly crashes on Joe's lawn. Then he shouts, "To the Hinden-Peter!" and appears in a dirigible with his face on the front, which crashes in flames into his neighbor's house. Joe's outraged cry: "How can you afford these things???"
    • In yet another episode, Peter shouts, "To the Pope-Mobile!" This is followed by a Batman-style scene transition, and a shot of Peter chauffeuring the Pope out of the Bat Cave, while the Batman music plays.
  • In the Drawn Together episode "Captain Girl", Wooldoor, in his role as Captain Hero's new sidekick, repeatedly shouts phrases like "To the Wool-noun!", culminating in the "Wooldelorean", his time machine.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants; Elderly Batman parody Mermaid Man is fond of these, but, due to his advanced age, occasionally requires a moment to catch his breath before finishing the declaration. The drama is also undercut by his tendency to shuffle off slowly and lose track of his Invisible Boatmobile.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender: Sokka invokes this trope when he picks where to spend his mini-vacation. He always did have a flair for the dramatic.

Sokka: I'd like to spend my vacation At The library!

Super Chicken: "To the super coop, Fred!"
Fred: "Roger wilcox!"

Now, to the Stinger-Page!

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