Radar / Batman: The Animated Series

It looks like these two have been together for a long enough time for this to happen.

Batman: The Animated Series tended to use Censor Decoys, and quite a bit ended up getting through (makes you wonder about the stuff that got cut). On top of that, the show had quite a bit of clout in its heyday and was able to push through some images and dialogue that would normally throw up a red flag (and sometimes did).

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• In "Fear of Victory", Batman crashes through a window into a bathrobed woman's apartment. At first she exclaims, "Oh my!" in surprise, but when she realizes who it is, she repeats, "Oh, my," as if she expects something to happen. Batman certainly recognizes it as he gives her a flirtatious smile on the way out. Side note: This was a reference to a similar moment in North By Northwest.
  • In the same episode, the effects of the Scarecrow's fear toxin are very similar to LSD, especially when tested on a cat.
• At the end of "Last Laugh", Bruce Wayne walks out onto a reflective marble floor, in an extremely short robe.
• "The Underdwellers" has a LOT, similar to "Mad Love" but with reference to parental abuse. But when the Sewer King gives his monologue about no one taking the kids in, he caresses a little girl's chin while talking about people hurting them, and the girl looks away. Batman touches the same girl's shoulder when furious over the children's treatment.
• Harley Quinn slowly emerges from a gigantic pastry, singing a Marilyn Monroe-esque Happy Anniversary song, and invites the Joker to "try some of her pie". They even animated it to showcase that she was rising from the pie ass-first. To top that off, during the song, she kicks the cherry on top at the Joker's chest. Then Joker kicks her out and the hyenas start licking her, while she's on all fours.
  • In the same episode "Beware the Creeper" the Creeper is very, very interested in Harley. After he chases her through Gotham, she says, "You're agile, I'll give you that." His response. "What else are you going to give me?" Complete with suggestive eyebrow wiggling!
  • "That's right, mama. Hurt me. I've been bad."
  • This dialogue:
  The Creeper: I like a girl who plays rough!
  Robin: But... she just tried to kill you!
  The Creeper: You're young, you'll learn.
  • Then at the end, when Batman sedates the Creeper, he collapses right on top of Harley, and his face lands right in her boobs. She is not amused.
• In "Mad Love," Harley asking Mr. J if he wanted to "rev up his Harley". Though this apparently was the censored version!^note Bruce Timm admitted the original line was "ride his Harley!" (The sexiness of her posture being the issue.)
  • The line comes straight from the comics, where it's even more obvious what she meant being that a few pages back they not-so-subtly implied that back in school she was seducing her professors in order to boost her grades. It's censored from the comics where both her posture was more open-legged (as though sitting on a Harley Davidson style bike) and her nightgown more see-through.
• In one episode involving Harvey Bullock having a murderous stalker after him, Batman and Bullock check out what is explicitly stated to be a crackhouse at a time when explicit drug references were generally a no-no.
  • In the same episode, "A Bullet for Bullock", it's heavily implied that Bullock and Summer have had an affair.
  • Arnold Stromwell's son in "It's Never Too Late" is also explicitly in drug rehab.
  • Harvey got another getting crap past the radar moment of glory - in the episode that introduced Harley, when Harley walks in disguised as a cop, Bullock isn't fooled - his reaction to her makes it pretty clear he thinks she's a police-themed stripper.
    "Baby doll! Entertainment!"
  • In "The Man Who Killed Batman," Harley comes into the police station in disguise, claiming to be a lawyer. Bullock notes she looks familiar. Her response is "I think I served you a subpoena once." Glancing down she adds "It was a small subpoena."
    • Bullock's toothpick gives us another nonsexual one as well...the way he uses it makes it fairly obvious that he is either an ex-smoker or still smokes offscreen.
• In the Superman/Batman crossover episode "World's Finest", when asked by the Batman on where the Joker was, a henchman answered with, "I dunno, making ha-ha with Harley Quinn!"
  • The same crossover has an extended sequence in what is clearly meant to be a strip club, complete with scantily-dressed dancing girls in cages. Seriously.
  • Upon discovering Batman using a jetpack, the Joker asks if he has propulsion envy.
  • Lois Lane is very taken with Bruce Wayne (until she discovers his secret) to the extent that she is getting ready to move to Gotham. In the comic version, Clark Kent comes to Lois' apartment early one morning, and finds Wayne already there, and Lois in a very fetching housecoat, getting breakfast.
    • And much later, in Batman Beyond, Lois shows up among the photos of Bruce's exes...
• In "The Man Who Killed Batman", the Joker delivers an eulogy for Batman... just before dropping the man that killed him into a vat of acid. The Joker notably calls Sid the Squid a gunsel, a Yiddish word for "effeminate homosexual" (or "catamite") that evolved, through false cognates, into a term for a gunman.
  • This time, the crap had long since been snuck past the radar. Dashiell Hammett had used the word to describe the young hitman in The Maltese Falcon, out of annoyance that his editor kept demanding more gangland lingo in the books. He used the word fully knowing what it meant, when obviously the editor (nor the Fox censors, and maybe even the writer of The Man Who Killed Batman...) didn't.
• The episode "The Ultimate Thrill" features the villain Roxy Rocket, a former stuntwoman who commits crimes for the thrill of the chase. During the final scene, she and Batman are playing chicken on a rocket racing for a canyon wall. All the while, she is gushing over how Batman is the perfect man for giving her so much excitement. As the rocket crashes and they both seem to be plunging to their deaths, she screams out "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" in a manner very reminiscent of orgasm. According to Word of God, this is exactly what it was. She makes similar cries through the chase. It doesn't help that her straddling her rocket while facing Batman adds to the image. Seen here.◊
  • It doesn't help that she describes her attempted escape as the "third act climax."
    • Or that she turns around and starts stripping off her clothes in front of a distinctly ruffled Batman.
  • Earlier on, Batgirl tells Batman: "Now that she's had a taste of you, she's not going to settle for anything less".
  • The entire episode is full of double entendres and straight-up sexual advances, both from Roxy to Batman and from Penguin to Roxy.
    Roxy: I love a man with staying power.
  • Also from that episode, Batgirl consults a couple of "sources" who are very clearly prostitutes◊. Even better is the fact that one of said girls is modeled on Black Canary.
  • The two hookers show up again in the uncut version of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (the edited version replaced the two hookers with a black-haired street punk and an older man who may or may not be related to her), though Freckles has apparently gone brunette.
• "Robin's Reckoning" features a prostitute as a minor character rescued from her angry pimp by a young Dick. They tried to hide it by having the pimp yell about how he taught her to "grift".
  • A rather bizarre example from the same episode, an undercover Batman is shown gambling with some criminals to get information. The Moral Guardians were very upset that this scene got through. Timm and Dini were baffled that that was what upset them.
• Speaking of prostitutes, check out the company◊ Croc keeps in "Love Is a Croc".
  • How about this exchange between Batgirl and Batman, in reference to Baby Doll and Croc teaming up?
    Batgirl: What do you suppose they do on a date?
    Batman: I don't even want to think about it.
  • A smaller point from the same episode: while they don't exactly come right out and say it, the loose-tongued tourist husband at the beginning of the episode is clearly "setting sail with Captain Morgan" drunk; he blames his weaving walk on the (quite level) floor's tilting upward everywhere he walks and speculates that he must have lost his room key when the sidewalk hit him. No wonder he starts babbling about the midget hotel clerk's checkered past (as Baby Doll) when he really ought to shut his trap the way his irritated wife keeps telling him to.
• On one of the episode commentaries, the creators mentioned that in the original script for "Harley and Ivy", Joker said to Harley and Ivy, "haven't you been busy little beavers"; this actually made it in, but the staff decided they'd gone too far and chose to alter at the last minute.
  • A scene in the same episode has the two walking around wearing nothing but a T-shirt and (maybe) panties each. They spend much of that scene talking about how men are worthless. Was the radar even on here?
  • In the same episode, the Joker pushes Ivy's head down onto his flower corsage before gassing her in a way that is reminiscent of forceful fellatio.
  • Ivy's retaliation also managed to slip by the censors due to careful execution. She kicks Joker in the balls, but the angle of the scene prevents the viewer from seeing exactly where her foot landed. To cement the idea that he was just kicked in the groin, Joker's subsequent cry of "get her!" comes out in a high pitched squeal. In the commentary on the episode, Timm and Dini even say they used that angle so they could say, "No, really, she kicked him in the stomach," to the censors.
  • At one point three men (who resemble the show's creators) drive up next to Harley and Ivy's car and hit on them, with one of the characters slapping his ass and asking if they're going to spank him.
• In "House and Garden" Poison Ivy is describing the help that she had from Steven to make her plant babies. She says he provided her with certain "raw materials". She even elaborates later on that they have his DNA. It's doubly squicky when you remember he was under mind control, so Poison Ivy actually stole his reproductive matter. Ew...
  • And the way Steven reacts is very similar to that of a rape victim, with him completely traumatized, using Robin's cape as a blanket to cover himself up, and speaking of how he trusted her and let her get too close in a shaken voice.
  • At the end of the episode, we get one of the sweetest and funniest things of the whole series: Ivy going over the albums from her recent marriage that she'd arranged (seemingly quite happily)... with half the album full of shots of Harley in her work clothes.
  • And in the same episode, Batgirl is riding Supergirl.
• In "Pretty Poison," the design of Ivy's carnivorous plant resembles a giant vulva. Bruce Timm admitted that at first he had not intended for this, but liked the metaphor and decided to go along with it anyway. Obviously, this was never caught.
  • The place where she stored her poisoned lipstick.
  • At the end of the same episode, when Poison Ivy is in a jail cell, you can see graffiti that reads "Warden eat sh-" and "Kiss my a-".
• In the episode "Showdown", Jonah Hex talks with a woman who obviously looks like a madam, and complains about the villain hurting "one of her girls".
  • Not only that, Hex is after Duvall for crimes committed against a girl "back east". We never learn what they were, but the implications are clear.
• In "Critters", after Batgirl and Robin take down a genetically modified giant cow:
  Robin: That's a lot of bull.
  • The farmer's daughter uses "beef steroids" to make herself stronger and impervious to pain.
• In "Cult of the Cat", Batman returns to the Batmobile to find Catwoman lounging on the front seats.
  Catwoman: *stretches and moans* About time you got here.
  Batman: Let me guess, you needed a warm place to spend the night.
  Catwoman: Kind of.
  Batman: I know of one...
  Catwoman: *grins and eyes widen*
  Batman: ...jail.
  • Same episode, after being caught by the leader of the cult:
    Thomas: I should kill you, you know. There's no reason not to.
    Catwoman: *seductively* I could give you one...or two.
  • And later, when he leads her into a guest bedroom:
    Thomas: You won't regret joining us.
    Catwoman: Yes, I'm certain I'll be getting a lot out of it.
    Thomas: You know, it's a two way street, and an hour is a long time...
    Catwoman: Thomas, I need that time to get into the mood...for the initiation.
    Thomas: I'm sure there will be opportunities later...lots of opportunities.
• In "Joker's Favor", after Joker leaves a man he manipulated to die in an explosion, he comes away with this little gem:
  "Guess I'll need a new hobby now that old Charlie is... ffft." *mimes mushroom cloud*
• In "Cat Scratch Fever" when Selina tells the catnappers to stop, she's told to "kiss off" and the delivery makes it pretty clear what it was supposed to be.
• In the episode "Riddler's Reform", a girl asks Edward Nygma, in a sultry voice, "Mr. Nygma, can you show me how these work?" and holds up two ball-shaped walky talkies. Eddie blushes.
  • Even before that, when said girl approaches, the Riddler stares at her and a very soft "boing" sound can be heard.
  • In Riddler's last commercial where he sets the trap for Batman, there is a woman who hands him a toy wearing a leotard with a question mark on her crotch. Also counts as In-Universe Getting Crap Past the Radar because this is an advertisement for children.
• "Animal Act" features the Mad Hatter disguised as a clown doing a rather phallic Trouser Space gag where he pulls sausages out of his pants.
• "Feat of Clay" has Teddy, Matt Hagen AKA Clayface's "best friend" who is very devoted to him, physically comforts him, and after finding out Hagen can change shape says "We can go on!". When Clayface yells at him, it's very similar to a domestic argument. Teddy's pink shirt didn't help.
  • It's also a harrowing example of an unstable drug addict, which they presumably got away with since he didn't actually shoot anything up or consume it. Willingly anyway, since Dagget's thugs try to kill him with an overdose.
• In "Mean Seasons", Calendar Girl's henchmen are definitely Chippendales Dancers.
  • In the same episode, Batman and Batgirl interrupt a sleazy agent who is clearly trying to pressure a girl into having sex with him in exchange for getting her into movies.
  • Another one from "Mean Seasons". Listen closely and you can hear a man in the crowd saying "What the hell?" when Calendar Girl and her goons toss the gas eggs during their first attack. Especially if you're wearing headphones.
• Used to great effect in “Over the Edge”. Originally Batgirl was to be run down after falling off the building. The censors didn't like it, so the writers changed it to having the perspective be from inside the car when she hits, making the scene far more shocking (Timm had a habit of doing this; request that something be censored and he'll figure out a way to follow the letter of the request, while making the replacement even worse).
• A similar case in “Robin's Reckoning”. The scene of Dick's parents dying was originally going to be more graphic, showing the rope breaking, them falling, and Dick staring up horrified. The included scene merely has them leaping out of the frame, Dick staring in shock with horrified eyes, the frayed rope swinging back, and the audience gasping as the music came to a climax. Though initially angry at the censors, Timm since acknowledged that this way was far more powerful.
• When the Joker hires a new Harley Quinn, she shoves Joker's face on her chest.
• From "Harley's Holiday":
  Boxy Bennett: "Sorry doll. As we gamblers say, you just crapped out."
  • When the car chase goes through "Gotham Square" — their equivalent of Times Square — the show titles on theater marquees clearly mean Burlesque shows (or even more risqué stuff).
  • At the end of the same episode, Batman has to save Harley from falling to her death. Afterwards she just says "I think I made a mess on your cape", and faints.
• In "His Silicon Soul", a group of thugs investigate a warehouse of crates containing tech from Karl Rossum's company Cybertron, one of them stating that the warehouse could be full of useful gear. Another crook remarks "This place is full of something, alright, and so are you!"
• Montoya mutters "Madre de Dios" at least once. This translates to "Mother of God". Oaths are usually not allowed in kid's shows, especially in the '90s.
• The Man-Bat (Kirk Langstrom) always appears shirtless in the comics and animation, but the twist in "Terror in the Sky" that this time it's a She-Bat (Francine Langstrom) means the episode exposed a woman's chest and nipples. Francine must have already had a very petite bust, since her She-Bat looked exactly the same as Kirk's Man-Bat. At least she still had on the torn-up remnants of her blouse to cover her when she transformed back.
• During the beginning of Harley's Torch Song in "Harlequinade", she turns her back towards her audience and sheepishly points her butt at them. The moment she does this, the guys in the crowd suddenly start cheering and whistling loudly. It's brief, but at one point during the song, she crawls on all fours.
• In "Chemistry," Dick is clearly drinking a mug of beer at Bruce's wedding.