Tropes in this episode include:
- The Alleged Car: While we don't see much of the first Batmobile, it was clearly on its last legs by the time Batman commissioned Earl for a new car.
- Bad Boss:
- Earl’s bosses tried to have him killed because he was going to expose a dangerous flaw in a car design.
- Penguin, of course, is a rotten bastard. He rewards someone for getting him crucial information on how to track down Batman's mechanic by immediately putting him on a slow ride to death.
- Bland-Name Product: Global Motors is a not-so-subtle rebranding of General Motors.
- Bound and Gagged: Marva is given this treatment by one of the Penguin's henchmen when she becomes the villains' hostage.
- Cool Garage: The episode is devoted to the character Earl Cooper, who is not only the Batmobile's mechanic, but its designer. Cooper has a hidden Cool Garage where Bats takes the Batmobile after its front end is crushed under a closing drawbridge. It also contains a hilarious flashback to when Batman first "hires" Cooper as his mechanic. He pulls his clunker of a Batmobile up alongside Cooper on the sidewalk and explains "I need a new car."
- Finger Wag: Batman issues one to the Penguin after catching him toward the end of the episode, which prompts Penguin to throw a little tantrum.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Earl says the alignment and the suspension system of the Batmobile have been "shot to heck."
- I Have Your Wife: Penguin holds Cooper's daughter hostage to ensure his cooperation.
- Murder by Remote Control Vehicle: The Penguin holds Earl's daughter hostage and forces him to booby-trap the Batmobile, including giving Penguin the ability to control it remotely. After having some fun with it, he tries to kill Batman and Robin by steering the Batmobile off the roof of a multi-story car park.
- Mythology Gag: In the flashback showing Batman asking Earl to design a new Batmobile for him, the old Batmobile is based on a design used in the early years of the Batman comics.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Earl Cooper was an automobile engineer who was nearly killed by his bosses for trying to go public about a potential lethal safety defect in his company's newest model of car, and was saved by Batman. He lost his job, was unjustly blacklisted from the industry, and lived on the streets when Batman saved him again... by tracking him down and hiring him to design the Batmobile.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Earl's daughter, Marva, is kidnapped. With the bad guys listening in, Batman asks where she is, and Earl responds that she's "in the basement," which is apparently racetrack slang for in big trouble. He also mentioned that he "fixed the air conditioner," hinting that he'd installed an ejection mechanism in the air conditioner controls so that Batman and Robin could escape the hijacked Batmobile.
- Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": The Penguin's goon after the Batmobile explodes: "B-b-b-b-bat's all, folks!"
- Shooting Superman: The fleeing criminals try to shoot the bulletproof, practically-indestructible Batmobile with a Thompson submachine gun.Robin: Is he kidding?Batman: Maybe he's new in town.
- Shout-Out: One of the Penguin's henchmen celebrates their apparent victory against Batman by saying "B-b-b-bat's all, folks!"
- The Stool Pigeon: Earl Cooper was a Whistleblower William who was nearly killed by his bosses for trying to go public about a potential lethal safety defect in his company's newest model of car and was saved by Batman. He lost his job and was living on the streets when Batman saved him again... by tracking him down and hiring him to design the Batmobile.
- Vanity License Plate: The end of the episode shows Penguin making license plates in prison after his scheme failed. Penguin loses it when he sees one of the plates reads "1 BAT 4 U" and snaps it in half.
- Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: The episode introduces Earl Cooper, the Batmobile's designer/mechanic, who performs the necessary repairs that are beyond Batman's time or ability. The Penguin is able to find Cooper after he orders a series of dead-giveaway parts that could only be for the Batmobile, in his own name. Batman responds by having his "backers" set up "dummy corporations" for Cooper to order through so that no one will track him down again. This is probably just a euphemism for hiding more crimefighting behind Wayne Enterprises expenditures.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The premise of Penguin hijacking the Batmobile is a reference to the scene in Batman Returns.
