“Jingle Bells/Batman smells/Robin laid an egg/the Batmobile/lost a wheel/and The Joker got away” – The Joker’s version of “Jingle Bells"

Once again, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that no other actor, not even Heath Ledger or Jack Nicholson, ever captured the insanity and sheer malevolence of Batman’s arch-enemy The Joker as well as Mark Hamill who voiced the character on Batman: The Animated Series. (Yes, that’s the same Mark Hamill who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films back in ancient times when Star Wars films were actually entertaining.)

Directed by Kent Butterworth and scripted by Eddie Gorodetsky (who got his start writing for SCTV), Christmas with The Joker (originally broadcast on Nov. 13, 1992) begins with The Joker escaping from Arkham Asylum on Christmas Eve by riding on a Christmas tree that is actually a rocket in disguise. Meanwhile, back at Wayne Manor, young Dick Grayson (Loren Lester) is trying to convince his mentor Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) to watch It’s a Wonderful Life with him. (It seems Bruce has never seen it. “I could never get past the title,” he says.)

They sit down in front of the TV to watch the movie, but it turns out that all of the channels are being jammed by a pirate broadcast. The show is called Christmas with The Joker and guess who the host is? (You gotta love the sight of The Joker in a Perry Como cardigan sweater.) Looks like a job for Batman and Robin!

As they hop into the Batmobile, they see on the car’s TV monitor that The Joker has hostages: Commissioner Gordon (Bob Hastings), Summer Gleeson (Mari Devon) and Police Detective Harvey Bullock (Robert Costanzo). He then gives his ultimatum: if Batman doesn’t discover the location of the phantom broadcast by midnight, he’ll kill the hostages. But wait, there’s more! The Joker and his minions have planted booby-traps all over Gotham City to distract Batman from his mission...

Batman: Christmas with The Joker can be viewed for free on-line at Kids WB and is also available from Netflix (Volume One, Disc One) and Amazon.