Batman's village of fools

There's a link from a 13th century legend, to a 16th century insult book, to a 19th century writer, to a 20th century comic book hero. And it starts in a small village near Nottingham, in the time of Robin Hood. Here's why Batman comes from Gotham City.

(I am reliably assured that the modern-people of Gotham are not, in fact, fools.)

The Bill Finger phone-book story is found in multiple places, but I'm quoting Steranko's "History of Comics" p44 (admittedly as referenced in Wikipedia, I didn't have time to track down the original).

(you can find contact details and social links there too)

[TomScottGo]

This might be the least flattering angle I've been filmed from in a long time, and there's no-one to blame but myself. Feels right to be out doing solo videos again, though.

[geckomoshpit]

Reminds me of the joke, where there's this "town idiot" at a bar, and if offered one dollar or five dollars, he'd always pick the one dollar note. Incredulous, a traveller asks the guy, why on earth he would do such a stupid thing. To which the guy replies: "If I'd take the fiver, then people would stop offering me money".

[josephattwell]

Of all the places for Batman to call home, the place that is known for being completely insane probably is beyond perfect.

[shirro]

Talking of Batman, the Australian city of Melbourne was founded by John Batman and was initially called Batmania. Being a prominent Australian historical figure Batman had a federal electoral region named after him. As in the UK, the opposition party has a shadow ministry whose job is to criticise their government counterparts. At one stage the Member for Batman was the Shadow Minister for Justice.

[Pidpie]

“We're going to build a hunting lodge and the locals are going to pay for it.” —King John, circa 13th Century

[iwanabana]

*alternate timeline* Batman, Gloucestershire needs you!

[freshD]

In german folktales we have the fictional town of Schilda (Speak: Shillda): The men of Schilda were once very wise and thus ended up as advisors to Emperors and kings - to the dismay of their women. So they made an oath to not be smart anymore to get out of service and return home. And over the generations their offspring did end up decisively dumb.
They once sowed their fields with salt, in order to grow "salt plants" since salt was expensive. They ended up killing all plants beside nettles, which they thought to be the salt plants - they ended up hurting themselves on the nettles and having to live without salt for a year.
When they built their new town hall, they gathered the wood on a nearby hill. They carried all the wood down, only to let the last log fall and witness how it rolled down the hill without them having to work. They thought that this was unfair, carried all the wood back up and let it tumble down, because why should they do work the wood could do itself?
There was also a fatal design flaw in their town hall: It had no windows. But instead of building windows, they caught sunlight in mousetraps, wheelbarrows, buckets and so on and carried it inside - which, of course, did not work.
There is an entire book of their (mis)adventures, which ends with them burning their town to the ground because of a cat.

[helsinki]

The fact that comic book Gotham City is filled with crazy villains is one hell of a unintentional call back to Gotham, England.

[otakuribo]

Appropriate, as Batman's Gotham is also a city full of madmen

[captainawesome]

I love in Nottingham and drive through Gotham regularly and always thought Batman living in Gotham was coincidence. Didn’t realise there was a link.

[grayfox]

In homage to the comic book connection, the Christmas Lights in the village are usually switched on by a costumed “Batman” and “Robin”.

[nihonium]

this is why I subscribed. getting good quality content that I can learn something new and interesting from

[hmmm]

If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid

[jessicadavis]

Fun fact! Wollaton Hall in Nottingham, not far from Gotham, was actually used in the film ‘the dark knight rises’ as Bruce Wayne’s manor. I go to uni nearby.

[ufox]

Slightly interesting trivia: Wollaton Hall, used for Bruce Wayne’s mansion in The Dark Knight Rises is only a twenty minute drive from Gotham. It also has caves beneath it.

[summbuddie]

So Gotham, a city of madmen, was inspired by Gotham, a town of madmen.

[captainufo]

What I got from this video is that, as a non-American, people kept telling me that I was pronouncing Gotham wrong, and instead I've always been right at least from an hystorical point of view. Nice.

[wolfgangamadeusmozart]

"We're gonna build a hunting lodge, and Gotham are gonna pay for it." - King John

[strangelee]

Considering the UK has places called Little piddle and Shitterton batman dodged a bullet!

[Smittel]

This town deserves a hero, but doesn't need one right now