Alfred: Before Batman Origin Story Released By Funny Or Die

Everyone knows Batman‘s origin story, but what about Alfred? It’s a question that finally gets an answer, thanks to Funny or Die.

The comedy video website has come up with Alfred: Before Batman, a short video giving Bruce Wayne’s faithful butler his own backstory, but if you were expecting for some elaboration of the adventures Michael Caine‘s Alfred hinted at in The Dark Knight, you might be disappointed. The video gives Alfred his own, bleak history that is still, somehow, funny. Check it out in the video above.

In the video, footage from Christopher Nolan’s Batman triology is spliced with footage from 2005’s Oliver Twist to give Alfred a sad, and somewhat horrifying origin as a Dickensian orphan poorly cared for and often mistreated, though Alfred is shown patiently and steadfastly taking the lessons of that brutal imagined childhood and applying them to Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale,) making Alfred the real hero behind the billionaire playboy’s Batman.

While the backstory in the video might be bleak, it’s the details that make the video funny. “Because every butler has a beginning” is written on one of the cards spliced into the footage, as are fake critical reviews, including the rather pointed “finally a DC movie worth seeing” jokingly attributed to Rotten Tomatoes. That one is made even more humorous considering the latest DC Extended Universe film, Justice League, didn’t get the best score from the review aggregator site.

While the Funny or Die video features Michael Caine’s turn as Batman, Jeremy Irons is the latest actor to take up the role of Batman’s batman. His Alfred can presently be seen in Justice League, currently in theaters.

Justice League is now in theaters; Aquaman arrives on December 21, 2018; Shazam! on April 5, 2019; Wonder Woman 2 on November 1st, 2019; Cyborg on April 3, 2020; and Green Lantern Corps on July 24, 2020.