The Punisher in the style of ‘60s Batman offers plenty of cognitive dissonance

By Caroline Siede  |  April 21, 2016 | 1:01pm
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The Punisher in the style of ‘60s Batman offers plenty of cognitive dissonance
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The Punisher (most recently seen in Netflix’s Daredevil) is beloved for his willingness to ruthlessly murder bad guys rather than waffle about a moral code. So Jordan Olds and Drew Kaufman of the newly created Mrs. Woman YouTube channel decided to see just how the character’s violent philosophy would fit into the campy world of Adam West’s Batman TV show. It turns out, not all that well. During the four-minute video, the Punisher violently murders petty criminals while his trusty sidekick, Child Abuse, spouts corny one-liners. As the title cards explain, it’s a case of “Kablam! Kazaa! Murder!”

Olds and Kaufman nail the tone of the 1960s Batman series, while also highlighting the absurdity of the Punisher character (like the fact that his titular article makes it awkward to address him by name). This version of the Punisher takes joy in reminding people that he’s motivated by his dead family, and he’s all too eager to indiscriminately kill every criminals he sees, regardless of whether or not they’ve surrendered. Given that this is a Punisher story, the video naturally ends with our hero cutting off someone’s balls and making him eat them—but in a campy, 1960s way, of course.

 
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