When the episode "Surf's Up! Joker's Under!" aired on November 16, 1967, the producers of the hit TV show Batman had a new idea for their caped hero. Batman would not just fight crime. He would also surf.
The result was one of the most bizarre chapters in the show's history and, most probably, in Hollywood's attempts to portray surfing correctly.
The episode features the Joker stealing surfing talent with a machine, a beach packed with slang-spouting teens, and a final surf contest between Batman and the Clown Prince of Crime.
The surfing scenes are stitched together with rear projection and stock footage, including clips from the quintessential surf movie "The Endless Summer."
More than half a century later, the episode has become legendary among fans of the show and surf culture alike.
It stands as a colorful example of how mainstream television tried to ride the wave of surfing's popularity during the late 1960s.
Surf culture hits prime time
By the mid-1960s, surfing had become one of the most visible youth trends in the United States.
Southern California beaches were at the center of that movement. Surf music bands, beach movies, and surf magazines helped turn the lifestyle into a national fascination.
Television could not ignore it. Even a crime-fighting superhero show like Batman tried to tap into the trend.
In "Surf's Up! Joker's Under!", Gotham City suddenly looks a lot like coastal California.
The opening scene shows a sunny beach where Barbara Gordon watches her friend Skip Parker, a champion surfer, riding waves ahead of the upcoming Gotham City surfing championship.
The beach hangout is called the Hang Five. The local surf shop is the Ten Toes Surfboard Shop. Joker's henchmen are named Riptide and Wipeout.
Did you ask for a handful of clichés? There you go.
The slang flows freely. Characters talk about "hang ten" and "radical teens." Even Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara go undercover as surfers with the names Duke and Buzzy.
It is an exaggerated, almost cartoon version of surf culture. Everything is bright, simple, and full of beach-related commonplaces.
The Joker's plan to rule the waves
The villain of the story is, of course, the Joker, played by Cesar Romero. His plan is pure comic-book madness.
First, he kidnaps Skip Parker, the city's top surfer. The abduction takes place at the Hang Five after Joker secretly rigs a pay phone with knockout gas.
Skip is then connected to a device called the Surfing Experience and Ability Transferometer, which supposedly transfers his surfing knowledge and stamina into Joker's brain.
Joker hopes that becoming the greatest surfer on the beach will make him famous and allow him to control the hearts and minds of Gotham's youth.
In true Batman fashion, the episode treats this idea as perfectly logical.
The Joker even communicates with his accomplice, Undine, using a transmitter hidden inside a hot dog. Can you imagine a more surreal image?
The beach hangout's owner, Hot Dog Harrigan, is stuffed into a bag and dumped in a trash can to keep him out of the way.
The tone is playful and absurd.
That style was typical of the show during its third season, when its original cultural craze had begun to fade, and the storylines became even stranger.
Batman versus the Joker on a surfboard
Batman and Robin eventually track Joker to an abandoned surf shop.
There, they are captured and attacked with poisonous sea urchin spines. The villains then attempt to encase them in foam and turn them into human surfboards.
The heroes escape using gadgets from Batman's utility belt, including a portable ultraviolet Bat-ray.
Once Skip Parker is rescued, the only way to stop Joker is to challenge him directly. A surfing contest is arranged at Gotham Point.
The idea is that a fair competition will decide who is truly the best surfer on the beach.
Batman competes in swimming trunks pulled over his costume. Joker surfs while still wearing his purple suit, with surf shorts awkwardly layered on top.
The scene may be one of the most unintentionally funny moments in the show's entire run.
The green-screen waves
For surf fans watching today, the most striking part of the episode is how the surfing itself was filmed.
The production used several tricks to create the illusion that the actors were riding waves.
Close-up shots of Batman and Joker on their boards were filmed on a studio stage with rear projection, a technique that places actors in front of previously filmed footage.
Other shots cut to stunt surfers riding real waves.
Some of the surfing clips were borrowed directly from "The Endless Summer," the landmark 1966 documentary about global surf travel.
The editing jumps back and forth between studio shots and real ocean footage.
The result is a sequence where Batman and Joker appear to glide across waves in one moment and then suddenly stand stiffly on a clearly artificial surfboard in the next.
The effect is so obvious that many viewers now consider it one of the most awkward surf scenes ever filmed for television.
Sharks, spray cans, and scoring points
The contest itself follows a strange scoring system. Joker seems to surf well thanks to the stolen knowledge from Skip Parker. But Batman wins the event on points.
The deciding moment comes when a shark appears in the water. Batman calmly sprays it with Bat-Shark Repellent, one of the series' most famous gadgets.
Avoiding the shark earns Batman a huge score bonus. Joker receives only a single point for being the "more colorful surfer."
The judges declare Batman the winner.
A fight breaks out on the beach soon after. Barbara Gordon joins the battle as Batgirl, played by Yvonne Craig, and the Joker and his gang are finally arrested.
Surf kitsch at its peak
Looking back today, "Surf's Up! Joker's Under!" feels like a time capsule from the late 1960s.
Surf culture was still young, energetic, and spreading quickly through American media.
Television writers often reduced it to bright colors, slang, and beach stereotypes. The episode shows that process in its most exaggerated form.
The episode's sets were also simpler than those from earlier seasons. Much of the action takes place on sparse sound stages dressed with a few props to suggest a surf shop or beach hangout.
Despite the limitations and odd, mainstream depictions of surfing, the episode remains memorable and so kitsch it became iconic, a bit in a way James Bond's "007 - Die Another Day" suggested surfing as a cool element in a movie.
Fans, especially older generations, still enjoy the sight of Batman and Joker battling on surfboards while wearing full costumes. We will probably never live these times again.
Words by Luís MP | Founder of SurferToday.com
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