Batman: The Brave and the Bold is one of the most overtly silly adaptations of the Caped Crusader in the history of television. The Batman series is a joyful and cartoonish take on the Dark Knight that introduced plenty of DC deep-cuts and goofy gags amidst some occasionally very adult humor.
The Batman: The Brave and the Bold Season 2 episode "The Mask of Matches Malone!" features a pretty fun musical number by the Birds of Prey -- a trio comprised of Catwoman, Huntress and Black Canary. The song also a series of double innuendos about the Justice League's bedroom inadequacies that are blunt enough to make even the more adult-targeted Harley Quinn blush.
How The Birds Of Prey Came To Batman: The Brave And The Bold
"The Mask of Matches Malone!" -- directed by Michael Chang and written by comics legend Gail Simone -- largely focuses on the show's version of the Birds of Prey. While in disguise as Matches Malone, Batman is struck in the head and suffers from amnesia. This results in him believing he truly is Matches Malone, leading him to use all of his incredible skills to become Gotham's most powerful criminal. This is all thanks in part to a stolen mystical garment that grants the wielder nine resurrections. Black Canary, Catwoman and the Huntress then work together to try and free Batman from this affliction and are ultimately forced to come to blows with the hero. The episode is memorable for a lot of reasons, including a more criminal version of Bruce Wayne and briefly seeing Two-Face don the Batman suit in a bid to bring down Matches.
The episode's most memorable element is the musical number that occurs during the episode's second act. After breaking into Matches Malone's base at a jazz club, the three female heroes realize they're surrounded. To buy themselves time, they get the band to play music and quickly launch into a musical number entitled "Birds of Prey." After briefly establishing themselves in the song as their own formidable crime-fighting gang, the song shifts gears and becomes a far more dirty affair, shifting into a series of double entendres about the rest of the male hero community and their apparent... bedroom failings.
The Birds Of Prey Musical Number Is Nothing But DC Sex Jokes
Each of the problems the team mentions sync with the heroes and make light of their powers. However, each gag also works as innuendo poking fun at the heroes and their sexual inadequacies. They point out Green Lantern's ring may be strong, but is just a little thing, and comment on the young Blue Beetle needing to come out of his shell. Catwoman earns Black Canay's ire by commenting that her boyfriend Green Arrow isn't always "shooting straight," while Huntress comments that Aquaman's "little fish" is less outrageous than one would expect from the boisterous hero. They complain that sometimes the Flash is "just too fast," while Plastic Man becomes "putty in their hands." It's a hilarious song, especially after they shift gears once more and begin to sing the accolades of Batman -- referring to his Batarang as "what a weapon, what a bang," and suggest they want to spend time alone with him in his secret cave.
It's a consistently silly song, and one that takes on a lot of additional layers when one applies a bit of outside context. It transforms the cartoon's musical number into a series of sex jokes about how the Justice League at large isn't all that good at lovemaking, especially when compared to someone like Batman. It's consistent with the show's frequent highlighting of Batman as the world's greatest hero -- and takes it even further, suggesting he's better in bed than any of his fellow heroes.
The sexual nature of the song resulted in the episode not being aired on the American Cartoon Network during the show's original run or the original DVD release of the show's second season. Ironically, it was later available on the Batman: The Brave and the Bold Season 3 DVD set as a bonus feature and can currently be seen on HBO Max. The episode is overall a puerile and consistently fun addition to the largely comical take on Batman but remains one of the most stealthily risqué things featured in any animated rendition of the Dark Knight.