Some Days, You Just Can't Get Rid of a Bomb!

About

“Some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb” (also known as “Batman Bomb Run”) is a memorable quote taken from a scene in the 1966 film Batman: The Movie in which the Batman runs around the shore boardwalk to look for a place to dispose a ticking bomb. Most notable for its campy, slapstick comedy, the bomb scene from the classic Batman film has since become a popular subject of parodies and captioned image macros on the web.

Origin

Batman: The Movie

Batman: The Movie^[1] starring Adam West and Burt Ward was released on July 20th, 1966. Similar to the TV series, the movie featured saturated colors, special effects, and melodramatic acting performances, effectively rendering itself as a camp comedy. In this particular scene, Batman frantically dashes around the pier to get rid of a comically oversized bomb ticking in his hand. As he clears past a number of obstacles and pedestrians on a boardwalk, Batman shouts “some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb!”:

Online History

Along with a number of other scenes from the same film, the “Batman bomb” scene has been explored by the fans since the early days of online forums and BBS, with the earliest known discussion attributed to an article published by Quarter Bin^[2] in late 2001.

Another photoshopped instance referencing the scene can be found in Something Awful forum’s Photoshop Friday^[3] contest in April 2004. However, the large-scale proliferation of the scene did not occur until it became a popular fad on the image sharing community YTMND in June 2004.

Spread

The scene eventually became used as the source material of a prolific animated GIF series on YTMND, beginning with user MillionsOfPeaches’s upload^[5] on June 29th, 2004.

According to YTMND’s Wiki entry^[6] on Batman’s Bomb Run:

This picture has often been used as avatars on various message boards. The image will be altered to show Batman carrying other items (like Gay Fuel, a UMD, a Pokeball, etc…) This fad was a very-slow growing fad.

Notable Examples

On YTMND, there are various edits of the scene, set to alternative soundtracks and/or mashed with iconic characters and items from other films, TV shows and video games.

• Batman is Invincible!
• Batman Bomb with Dramatic Music
• PokeTrainer Batman is Late For the Pokemon Battle
• Bomb Over Batman
• Ualuealuealeuale
• Batman Stole My Bike!
• Batman Don’t Drop the Bomb!
• Batman Don’t Drop the Bomb (Ver. 2)!
• Muhammad’s Only Weakness
• Batman and The Boston Bomb
• Batman vs. Batman vs. The Bomb

On YouTube

The earliest known video clip of the original scene was uploaded by YouTuber Luminus^[4] on April 22nd, 2006 and several duplicates have been uploaded since then.

Animated GIFs

More Info on Batman

Batman was heavily influenced by the obscure 1940s Batman, such as the escapes done almost out of luck. Given ridiculous devices -- notably, “shark repellent” -- a “Bat-” prefix, and the dramatic use of stylized title cards during fight scenes, it playfully acknowledge some of the conventions that the character had accumulated in various media. Batman has received positive reviews over the years. Unlike other attempts at bringing these characters to life, the television cast captures the insanity of the roles from memorable comedic antics and scenes.

External References