If you are a fan of the original Batman television series, then you are very familiar with the, “Holy _______, Batman!” phrase. The iconic utterance was birthed in the 1960s as Burt Ward’s Robin shouted the nonsensical words to his edgier partner. Batman was kind enough to put up with the exclamations, and fans fell for the silly phrase as the series went on. Today, the catch-phrase has become an integral part of the Batman lexicon, and now we’ve learned just how many times the line was delivered on the show.
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In a recent interview, Burt Ward revealed how many times he said “Holy!” on the Batman series. “There [were] 378 “Holy’s” in the original Batman series, and it worked out to be three per half hour,” he said. “There’s a 120 episodes, so it was about three per half hour.”
The actor then went on to discuss his latest project, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusader. Ward said the animated feature film contains its fair share of witty, intelligent catch-phrases. “This [movie] has got a lot of the “Holy’s” in there, and they’re really intelligent “Holy’s,” he said. “These “Holy’s” are every bit direct to the situation, but they’re richer – they’re deeper. They’re all of a sudden 2016. They’re not past; They are current.”
Over the years, Robin’s “Holy!” exclamation has evolved from a casual phrase to a pop culture tagline. The line has been popularized outside of the Batman canon as new fans continued to appropriate the phrase in other shows. For example, cartoons like The Super Friends poke fun at the line by grossly overusing the word “Holy!” in ever conceivable manner. Image Entertainment also used the iconic line to title a DVD collection of Batman documentaries. The package was ultimately named Batman: Holy Batmania.
If you want to read up on a few of Robin’s best “Holy!” lines, then you can check them out below:
- Holy Armadillo
- Holy Bunions
- Holy Contributing to the Delinquency of Minors
- Holy Hole In A Donut
- Holy Human Pressure Cookers
- Holy Interplanetary Yardstick
- Holy Priceless Collection of Etruscan Snoods
- Holy Squirrel Cage
- Holy Unrefillable Prescriptions
If you are wanting to hear more of these campy lines, then you will have your wish granted – maybe. Ward recently spoke with ComicBook.com about his tenure as Robin and said he’s interested in doing more live-action Batman projects with Adam West.
“Can you imagine Adam and I now, yes older, 50 years later, going to put on our tights where maybe Batman is dusting off the tights in his closet and I’m trying to pull up the tights. This could be so hilarious. We’re trying to talk to the studio into doing that. It would be the antithesis of all the stuff that you see, but I guarantee you the turnout, they’d be tearing the seats out of the theaters.”
Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders is out on Blu-ray Combo Pack, Digital HD, and DVD today.
