Batman: An Egg Grows in Gotham & The Yegg Foes in Gotham

An Egg Grows in Gotham

"All the King's horses and all the King's men won't be able to put you together again!"

This is one of the best two parters so far with a sparkling and gloriously silly script and a splendidly camp and charismatic Vincent Price as the eggceptionally pun-tastic Egghead. I enjoyed it hugely. Eggcept... I have to be that person who points out that something from decades ago is a little bit incredibly racist but, well, look at the portrayal of Chief Screaming Chicken here, a whopping big "Red Indian" stereotype played by an eighty year old white man.

But there’s no denying how eggstremely fun this is, from the shameless puns coming to the extremely silly idea of Gotham City only being leased from the Mohicans with nine raccoon pelts as rent each year. And of course the Wayne’s are one of the founding families. Unfortunately the one remaining Mohican in Gotham, Chief Screaming Chicken, is said outrageous stereotype (“How?” “When?” “Where?”) and is credulous enough to be manipulated by Egghead. Yes, there’s a line from Batman acknowledging that “Indians” have a lot to be aggrieved about, but you certainly couldn’t show this on telly today.

Annoyingly, though, this is brilliant. All the nonsense about “fish” being spelled “ghoti” and the superb comic acting from Adam West and Burt Wars as they counteract the laughing gas with sad pills Is hilarious.

The cliffhanger is delightfully silly- Egghead draining the mind of Bruce Wayne to discover whether he’s Batman is refreshingly unusual.


The Yegg Foes in Gotham

"I guess I laid an egg..."

So what’s a “yegg” then?

Ok, the cliffhanger resolution is rubbish, but they often are. Conveniently Egghead gets just enough info from Bruce to discover that he has “a mind full of trivia” and it’s “inconceivable that he could be Batman”.

Unfortunately, the raccoon pelts have not been paid over by midnight, so the lease of Hotham has reverted back to Screaming Chicken- whose new police commissioner is Egghead. The Dynamic Duo are exiles while the police are comical unable to stop the ensuing crimewave. Fortunately, there’s a loophole, and this plotline is abandoned the moment full comic effect has been reached. Now Egghead is robbing the Treasury (did American cities in the ‘60s not just deduct taxes from salaries?)  followed, of course, by the robbery of eggs from Old MacDonald’s Chicken Farm. Because of course. And the episode ends with the most pun-tastic fight ever.

Take away the dodgy racial bits, and this would be a contender for best story yet. Unfortunately the dodgy racial bits (“My face is so red.”)  can’t be ignored.