VIDEO: Batgirl Teaches Batman and Robin About Equal Pay

This actually happened.

In order to help publicize the Federal Equal Pay Act of 1963, the U.S. Department of Labor called upon the terrific trio of Batgirl, Batman, and Robin to star in a public service announcement. (Ten years later, according to the graphic?)

Some things were a lot more awesome in the ’60s: music, design, and PSAs.

Things that are great about this video:

  • Batman calling Batgirl’s complaints “a joke”.
  • Robin rolling his eyes.
  • I’m pretty sure whoever played Batman (it’s not Adam West) is drunk.

Comments

  1. Yvone Craig! Be still, my beating heart…

  2. Batman is most certainly drunk. Amazing find!

  3. If she’s pissed now about Robin now, wait until she finds he gets free food and board.

  4. The ad is from 1973. Ten years in existence and the government was relying on the Bat-family to proliferate the idea. Holy last resorts!

  5. conor is correct, that’s not adam west, but it is a semi famous 60s-70’s actor. Dick Gautier , better known as Hymie The Robot on GET SMART and Robin Hood in Mel Brooks cult classic TV show WHEN THINGS WERE ROTTEN. Now you know, the rest of the story

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Gautier

  6. Awesome (and yes, “Batman” is definitely drunk)

  7. Thats the best public service announcement I’ve ever seen! What an awesome hidden gem in the lost n found clips trunk. “then she found my ghostbusters lunchbox dick treasure chest”

  8. awesome spot…… but it sucks that the problem still exists a generation or so later…

    • Actually Wally the problem doesn’t still exist. It has been demonstrably shown that any wage gap that currently exists in the western world is not caused by unfair pay systems but is instead caused by descisions women make about what they want out of employment.

      In fact the only way it is possible at all to say there is a wage gap is if you employee an “arithmetic mean” or “arithmetic average” rather then looking at it on a case by case basis. How this works is you take census data from all women in the United Startes for instance & then figure out there average pay, in comparrison to men. Of course women are going to come up with a lower pay on average if you utilise that method, as some women seek to stay home and raise a family, while men rarely have that option.

      Without using the arithmetic mean, the hypothesis that women get paid less, is not supported by the maths. An using the arithmetic mean, is using the wrong maths to determine the outcome.

      All the rest of the difference is made up by what choices women make over the choices men make, when it comes down to employement. If your interested in the topic i suggest picking up a copy of “Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap — and What Women Can Do About It” by Warren Farrell. Its the only book on the subject worth reading as its the only one that goes in depth to actually discover why it is so (heck he originally planned on writing it to prove the pay gap, but found that his initial premise was wrong)

    • Hey dudes, techincally this little back and forth violates the “no politics” rule in the Terms of Service, but I’m not going to delete it. Instead I’m just going to say that this isn’t the place to discuss the real world issue of equal pay. It is the place to discuss the goofy 40 year old PSA and speculate on whether or not the guy filling in for Adam West was drunk or just on mild sedatives.

      Thanks!

    • @conor-appologies for box opening.—-i say this Batman definitely drank his courage before the shoot….you can practically smell the wild turkey. =)

  9. Oh My God.
    This made my day,
    Thank you IFanboy.

  10. …She really should have defused that bomb first.

  11. I have been educated while being entertained. Mission accomplished!

  12. This is either the greatest thing ever or the saddest thing ever.

    Greatest because this actually happened. Or the saddest because….well it actually happened.

  13. Fantastic.

  14. Anyone else notice that the tag at the end says 1973?

  15. God I hope Christopher Nolan has this in Dark Knight Rises.

  16. The one playing Batman was either drunk or just didn’t care about that part justed “phoned it in” as they say

  17. I love how nonchalant Batgirl is while diffusing that bomb. Either she’s 100% confident or it’s that Batman’s comments were so off putting that it made her not give a crap.

  18. Awesome. I love how Batman is like, b*tch this is no time to playing around.

  19. I don’t know why, but “Holy act of Congress!” cracks me up every time.

  20. So…I’d comment on how cool this is if it had not reminded me that I actually saw this when it ran on TV. Sigh. Old as dirt. Thanks for that.