Not content with simply creating an empire of podcasts, vlogs, and TV shows, Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist Industries has now ventured into sketch comedy: Its inaugural video is Batman-specific (as all inaugural videos should be). Everyone knows that Martha and Thomas Wayne died in Crime Alley, but what this sketch pre-supposes is… Maybe they didn’t? Written by Ben Blacker and Ben Acker, the masterminds behind the Thrilling Adventure Hour, “Batman’s Parents…AREN’T DEAD!” features actors from that show’s WorkJuice Players, with Paget Brewster and Marc Evan Jackson as the not-dead parents, Mark Gagliardi doing his best Christian Bale voice as billionaire playboy-about-town Bruce Wayne, and Mr. Show’s John Ennis making an appearance as Alfred.
There have been multiple takes on the “what if the Waynes hadn’t died” motif — most notably the Flashpoint comics event from 2011 and the animated series episode “Perchance To Dream.” However, few have suggested a possible ulterior motive for the Waynes needing to lie low or used “Batman” as a verb. Watch the sketch below, but be aware there is a bit of NSFW language at the very end. He is the goddamn Batman, after all.