The Titans join Robin as he travels to deliver a birthday gift to Batman in his Batcave from Gotham City, but they are detoured several times along the way of other things.
Plot[]
Once again, the Titans have found themselves in a crazy situation: running away from ravenous monsters while dressed-like clowns in the middle of a forest. There's a good explanation, though; if we don't know how that happened, as Robin pauses the clip, saying that it just seems like yesterday—even though it was earlier today...
EARLIER IN THE DAY...
It's another chill day at the Tower when Robin comes in with an extra-special present for Batman's birthday. The Titans sigh with disapproval, because every year he tries to impress Batman, and every year, he fails. But Robin plans to hand-deliver this one, so he's bound to succeed. The T-Car is currently in pieces, so he'll be taking a bus to Gotham City. As avid bus enthusiasts, the Titans beg to come along, so now Robin's got company.
After boarding an empty Jump City bus, the Titans immediately take advantage by throwing a rave. Unfortunately, their party bus is short-lived when a group of Clowns also hop in. At first Starfire is freaked out, but calms down once they learn the Clowns are harmless. Apparently they're on their way to the Clown Convention, and offer for the Titans to come along. Robin's got important business, but the other Titans overpower him. They start getting "clowned up" when, suddenly, Beast Boy sprays a clown in the face with his flower—an extreme insult in clown culture. A fight ensues, and the Titans are kicked out of the bus.
Now that they're stranded in the middle of literal Nowhere, Robin is furious. Raven left her spellbook on the bus, so they can't use that. To cheer Robin up, Cyborg calls their attention to a local rodeo, which quickly abducts them as "rodeo clowns." Starfire finds a ten gallon hat, and now she's mistaken for a bull rider, complete with the cowboy garb. And although she's shaky at first, the Titans are glad to see her getting the hang of it. They get to see even better when they're forced in as rodeo clowns... after Robin is viciously stabbed by the bull, straight out of his clothes and into a decency barrel, the Titans burst out of the rodeo. But it turns out the bull didn't want to kill them. Lactose Free Cowmilk, as Star calls him, is actually quite friendly.
Tri-County residents po'ing the lean.
As the bull trots off into the forest, Robin seethes in rage that he's running out of time to deliver the Batman's present. Luckily, an opportunity presents itself in the Tri-County Gurning Championship, with a new car as the prize! Basically all they gotta do is make hideous faces, and the vehicle is theirs. They enter a cabin filled with toothless rednecks, and the tourney begins. After several rounds of ugliness, only Cyborg from the team remains. Fueled by his boxing outfit, he makes quick work of the competition, and is eventually takes on Potato Face with a gurn that earns him the championship—at the cost of his face staying like that... but Robin doesn't care—new car!
Well, a new car delivered in one month, which is a bit too late for present delivery. The Titans then abruptly stumble upon the wrecked clown bus, now inhabited by fish zombie clowns (thanks to Raven's spellbook)! A chase ensues; just like the clip Robin showed the viewers on TV at the beginning of the episode as a recap for what happened during the wild goose chase story! And soon the Titans are cut off at a cliff. At the last second though, Lactose Free Cowmilk runs in, rams the clowns off the ridge, and saves the night!
The bull gives the team a ride to the Batcave, where they find a note left by the Caped Crusader. Apparently, the hero is gone on birthday business and instructs NOT to leave any gifts at the cave entrance. So this was all for nothing. Robin is ecstatic though, because the letter is from "Your Pal, Batman," keyword "pal." It's not addressed to him specifically... but Robin will take the approving "pal" as a win, anyway.
Characters[]
Clowns on a Gotham-bound bus... sounds like trouble.
This episode premiered during Batman's Birthday weekend.
This is the first episode to premiere in the Cartoonito era on Cartoon Network.
Despite Batman being mentioned in the episode title, he doesn't appear at all.
The Fourth Wall is broken once again when Robin narrates and pauses the beginning scene, and at the end, when he tells the viewers that they're not Batman's pal and rubs his face over the screen.
Despite not being in the episode, a balloon in the likeness of Silkie is made by one of the Clowns.
At the Tri-County Gurning Championship, the tourney bracket misspells some of the Titans names as "Beesty boy," "Stah Fyah," and "Ravin." for the Western accent.
Continuity[]
Raven is seen unhooded for the 136th time in the series.
Raven could have just teleported the Titans to the Batcave.
When Raven is in her clown costume for the rest of the episode, the black-and-red chakra gem on her forehead is missing. It's unknown if this was intentional or not.
A crew member assumed that it was simply the clown makeup hid her gem.
Running Gags[]
The Titans getting detoured everytime on their journey to find Batman.
Transcript[]
The transcript for "Batman's Birthday Gift" can be found here.
Gallery[]
The image gallery for Batman's Birthday Gift may be viewed here.
