BATMAN BATTLES JOKER’S ‘YOU KNOW WHAT’!

 

WARNING:  In case the title isn’t obvious enough, this entry contains A LOT of juvenile humor!  Scroll at your own risk!!!

 

 

The term BONER is a classic piece of slang, oft quoted in our younger days.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, I suggest a quick trip to www.google.com to look up the term.  Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you.

 

All done?  Good, let’s continue.

 

Of course the term boner is a multifaceted one.  I’m sure most people who think of boner first dream up images of this man:

 

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Image from imdb.com.

 

That’s right, Richard ‘Boner’ Stabone from that classic bit of 1980s TV, Growing Pains.  Ah yes, Growing Pains, the TV series that introduced Leonardo DiCaprio to the world and, well, that’s about it really.  Young Boner had a few memorable moments, though all I can recollect is his job at the electronics store and his being written out of the show by joining the US Army.  Why good old Boner was kicked off of the show, I have no idea.  Maybe a network exec finally realized that having the terms ‘Growing Pains’ and ‘Boner’ in the same sentence wasn’t such a good ratings booster?

 

A bit of trivia, our pal Boner was played by Andrew Koenig, the son of Walter ‘Chekov’ Koenig.  You learn something new all the time.  And hey, Andrew played the Joker in Batman: Dead End!  Wow!

 

Surreal as that is, this was not Batman and Joker’s first run in with a Boner.  Oh no, prepare to be dazzled by the sheer lunacy of Batman #66!  This issue’s feature story, basically put, has Joker using great mistakes of the past as inspiration for crimes in the present (e.g. the Trojan horse was a screw up for the city of Troy).  Yet, for some inexplicable reason, the author of the tale felt it necessary to use the term Boner instead of error, or mistake, or anything else remotely normal.  The result?  What follow are a few select panels…

 

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Look at the henchman’s face in the above panel.  He’s stunned, absolutely stunned, by the Joker’s threat.  Just how many boners CAN one man make!?!

 

Now, you’ve just got to feel bad for the Joker when an entire city is laughing at your boner!  That’s really, really embarrassing!  Oh, but wait, it only gets better when Batman enters the fray after the Joker challenges our hero!!!

 

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Truer words were never spoken crusader!  I know this, I’d be worried too if I were in Batman’s… uhm… situation!

 

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Even Commissioner Gordon is in on the act!  But not to worry for our heroes are triumphant, with Batman saying one of the most bizarre word balloons ever!

 

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Now let me get this right, Joker was forcing Batman into a boner, while having a boner himself?  And people wonder how the rumor of Batman being gay got started?  Just like our poor friend Boner, Batman’s Boner is certainly a throwback to a different time.  I mean, how many newspaper headlines quote the term boner nowadays?

 

Okay, of course after reading this story, one can conclude that the writers got this bit of silliness out of their systems and Batman could return to his normal, offbeat tales.  Then there’s Batman #82…

 

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Sigh… some people never learn…

 

Batman and all related characters and stories are TM and © DC Comics 2006.

 

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