- —Tagline
Joker VS Sweet Tooth is the 62nd episode of Death Battle, featuring The Joker from DC Comics and Sweet Tooth from the Twisted Metal series in a battle between psychotic killer clowns. The Joker was voiced by Lucas Schuneman and Sweet Tooth was voiced by Gianni Matragrano.
Interlude
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Wiz: They visit you for birthday parties, cheer you up when you're sad, and probably also want to kill you.
Boomstick: Clowns... The Joker, Gotham's jester of genocide.
Wiz: And Sweet Tooth, the violent victor of Twisted Metal.
Boomstick: He's Wiz and I'm Boomstick.
Wiz: And it's our job to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who would win... a Death Battle.
The Joker
Boomstick: Gotham City: a vile breeding ground for criminals and crazy people.
Wiz: In such a bleak city, it's important to look for humor wherever you can, even if it's during the act of murder. And no one gets more jollies out of ruthless felonies than the Joker.
Joker: I'm here, bitches! And I brought favors for everybody!
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Batwing/Bat Attack - Batman: The Animated Series by Shirley Walker
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Boomstick: But before he became the Clown Prince of Crime, who was he? A thief who accidentally got his pregnant wife killed? A mob boss who stabbed Batman's girlfriend? A petty thug in the wrong place at the wrong time? Nobody knows for sure, not even The Joker himself!
Wiz: What we do know is that most likely at some point, he fell into a vat of mysterious chemicals and Batman was involved. However he came to be, from that moment on, his body and mind were altered forever.
The Joker is heard laughing maniacally.
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Agent Of Chaos - The Dark Knight by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
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Boomstick: With a new smile big enough to rival the Grinch, the Joker decided he'd make sure the whole world would share in his sick joke.
Wiz: And what comedy act would be complete without a few wonderful toys?
Boomstick: This guy may like his pistols, machine guns, and explosives, but outside of that, his taste in weaponry is anything but simple.
Batman punches Joker in the face.
Joker: OW! My eye!
Joker's eye falls out, but it turns out to be an explosive that's about to go off.
Joker: Sucker!
Batman and Batgirl just barely escape the explosion.
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Rich Kid Blues - Batman: Arkham City by Nick Arundel
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Boomstick: Like a true prankster gone mad, he carries razor-sharp playing cards, a gag flower filled with acid, an electric hand buzzer that goes a... little too far.
Wiz: But deadliest and most haunting of all is his trademark Joker Venom, a deadly concoction which poisons its victims, forcing them into fits of laughter so uncontrollable that they suffocate and DIE while contorting their facial muscles into a nightmarish grin.
Boomstick: Talk about killing the audience.
He chuckles before seeing victims of the Joker Venom die on-screen.
Boomstick: Oh! ...Man, that shit looks dangerous to carry around.
Wiz: Fortunately for the creepy clown, he's manufactured so much Joker Venom over the years, repeated exposure has given him immunity to his own toxin. But the laughing gas isn't all that makes him a threat in battle.
A mobster comes up, Joker grabs him and slams his head down on a pencil he stuck in the table, embedding it into his eye.
Joker: Ta-dah! It's... ah, it's gone.
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And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad - The Dark Knight by Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
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Boomstick: He's a cunning strategist who screws with the minds of the sane and insane alike. He can whip up disguises so convincing, that not even the world's greatest detective recognized him. And for a guy this lanky, he's also... surprisingly great going fist to fist.
Wiz: And like most heroes and villains who've been in the game since the 1940s, of course, he has his own car.
Boomstick: Look at that thing! God, I really need to get back to work on the Boomstickmobile.
Wiz: The Jokermobile, as it's called, was built to compete with the legendary Batmobile.
Boomstick: It has mounted machine guns, a bulletproof exterior, and a lethal cannon up top that can spew missiles... everywhere!
Wiz: After so many years of terrorizing Gotham and beyond, the Joker has more than earned his role of sworn enemy to the Batman. Despite Batman's ludicrous skill and intellect, the Joker's forethought and planning has outsmarted Bats numerous times. In some cases, he's even gone hand-to-hand and held his own with the Caped Crusader.
Boomstick: Who was trained by ninjas!
Wiz: He's outfoxed plenty of other heroes, too, including Superman, whose brain can function thousands of times faster than humans like Joker.
Boomstick: He incapacitated Wonder Woman with just a puff of Joker Venom, blew up Robin after viciously beating him with a crowbar, and when he tracked down Batgirl...
A gunshot is heard.
Boomstick: Well, let's put it nicely and say that she became handi-capable from that point on.
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Final Confrontation - Batman (1989) by Danny Elfman
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Boomstick: And thanks to his own insanity, the Joker has stupidly high pain tolerance. The dude got a Batarang LODGED IN HIS EYE, and was still running around laughing and shooting people! Goddamn! That's almost as bad as the time he had his own face cut off for giggles.
Wiz: That's WAY worse! UGH..! He can certainly take the pain, but this sadistic psychopath is still no harder to kill than most of his victims.
Boomstick: He can die from certain poisons, neck-snapping, being stabbed by Pirate Batman, getting bitten by Vampire Batman, and even just a good old-fashioned Superman high five.
Wiz: But one thing remains certain: having this clown show up for your party would make it one bad day.
Joker, being held by Andrea Beaumont, sees the surrounding place exploding and collapsing around him, and just laughs.
Sweet Tooth
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Calypso Industries - Twisted Metal (2012) by Michael Wandmacher
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Wiz: How far would you go to have your greatest wish granted? How much would you destroy to get your way?
Boomstick: Any extreme!
Wiz: For those willing to go to "any extreme", the annual Twisted Metal contest is right up your alley!
Boomstick: In Twisted Metal, competitors smash vehicles into public property and each other, and that's when they're not shooting crazy shit like rockets and bombs all over the place! God, that'd be fun...
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Main Theme - Twisted Metal (2012) by Larry LaLonde, Dan Monti & Greg Tripi
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Wiz: The insane lure of Twisted Metal attracts some of the most deranged and unstable minds in the world, including a clown with a flaming scalp, the driver of the infamous ice cream truck called Sweet Tooth.
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Sweet Tooth's Return - Twisted Metal (2012) by Michael Wandmacher
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Sweet Tooth bends down to pick up a cigar and presses it to his scalp, lighting it on fire.
Needles: Light 'em up, boys.
Needles laughs evilly.
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New York - Twisted Metal 2 by Chuck E. Myers, Lance Lenhart & Tom Hopkins
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Boomstick: Before he was a scary serial killer driving a truck, Marcus Kane was a scary ice cream man driving a truck, and like every ice cream man I know, Marcus had a serious evil split personality problem.
Wiz: Trapped within his head, this sinister side desperately clawed for freedom, eventually forcing Marcus to finally give in and carve his new persona a face. On that day, Marcus Kane died, and the rampage of Needles Kane began.
Boomstick: Needles spent his days murdering anyone he could find, including his own wife and child.
Wiz: He prefers killing up close and as violently as possible, with his giant serrated machete.
Boomstick: Which tons of people have been introduced to... They're dead now.
Wiz: By his own account, he slaughtered a thousand people before he was finally arrested. It was here he was cursed by a preacher named... "Preacher" to suffer the fires of Hell. Which apparently means having your head burst into flames. Forever.
Boomstick: Enraged, he busted out and was eventually found by a man named Calypso. See, Calypso was the one organizing the Twisted Metal tournament, and he thought Needles would be just perfect for it.
Wiz: For Needles, winning Twisted Metal meant having any wish of his choosing granted; he could finally end the everlasting pain. Or have all the candy in the world. Anything, really. How could he say no?
Boomstick: Needles knew just the car that would take him to victory, complete with tasty treats! His ice cream truck, the Sweet Tooth.
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The Bedroom - Twisted Metal 4 by Chuck Doud
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Wiz: This modified Chevrolet step van is anything but what it appears to be. With its shocking maneuverability and durability, Sweet Tooth is like a tank, capable of taking loads of damage without stopping.
Boomstick: The Sweet Tooth menu includes front-mounted spikes, Gatling guns, and homing ice cream cone missiles. And for the cherry on top, he blasts the explosive clown head from the roof as a homing weapon... which laughs and goes through walls. If that's not enough, it transforms into a goddamn robot!
Wiz: The Sweet Bot carries a massive, multi-barrel Gatling gun, reinforced armor plating, and can even throw its own head like a grenade.
Boomstick: But the real beauty's in the Sweet Slam, an attack where the bot launches into the air with its jetpack and drops like a hammer with enough force to crush a whole building.
Wiz: Sweet Tooth can take dozens of missiles and keep on trucking, but even without his wheels, Needles is one tough son of a bitch.
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Keen Instinct - Twisted Metal: Black by Michael Reagan, Gregory J. Hainer, Kevin Riepl & Kevin Manthei
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Wiz: He's strong enough to casually shatter reinforced windows, tough enough to take a stab to the face...
Boomstick: And even survived the electric chair. Doesn't that mean he gets to walk free? I read that on the Internet once.
Wiz: No. First, that's a myth. Second, a person wouldn't be able to walk after getting blasted with over 2,000 volts of electricity, stopping their heart, burning their body, paralyzing their muscles, and... melting their eyes. Unless you're Needles Kane, who broke out of the chair, killed everyone, and escaped.
Boomstick: See, this is why anytime I meet a clown, I take 'em out right away.
Wiz: When has a clown ever done anything to you?
Boomstick: They've never had the chance. (chuckles) Who's laughing now, Chuckles?
Wiz: But Needles is by no means unkillable, and Calypso has played him for a fool more times than not, like when he wished to find his missing daughter — so he could kill her — and wound up trapped and suffocating in her coffin. Underground. Because she was already dead.
Boomstick: Still, it just goes to show, Needles and his Sweet Tooth will do anything it takes to get the kill.
Man: Wh-What have you done with my son?
Needles grabs him by the throat, takes out an ice cream scoop, and shoves it into his face.
Boomstick: ...Fucking clowns!
Prelude
Wiz: Alright, the combatants are set. Let's end this debate once and for all!
Boomstick: But first... it's time for some book learnin'.
Wiz and Boomstick read out an advertisement for Audible.
Boomstick: But right now, IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLEEE!!!... and then books!
Death Battle
In a dark city at night, Joker encounters a lonely Batmobile in an alleyway.
Joker: Hmm, I like the model, but not really my color...
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Dom Vs. Brian - Fast & Furious 4 by Brian Tyler
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He prepares a spray paint can as he approaches the vehicle. Hours later, Joker wreaks havoc in the streets with his customized Jokermobile.
Joker: Hoo hoo hoo! Yeah!
Elsewhere, Needles Kane is on the side of the street prepared to eat an ice cream cone.
Needles: Ahh... (sniff) It's perfect!
The Joker drives his vehicle up to Needles and snatches his cone.
Joker: Yoink!
Joker drives off laughing which infuriates Needles.
Joker: Ha, like taking candy from a baby.
Needles vows revenge and gets in the Sweet Tooth and catches up to the Clown Prince of Crime. He rear-ends Joker causing the villain to spill the ice cream. Joker starts spinning as he faces his opponent.
They both turn a corner and bump into each other. Joker opens the hatch of the Jokermobile and takes out his Tommy gun.
Joker: Let's get wild!
Joker unleashes a barrage of bullets that all bounce of the Sweet Tooth. Needles responds by activating his Gatling guns as Joker goes back in the Jokermobile and the bullets are deflected.
Needles: You're roadkill! ROADKILL! YOU HEAR ME!?
The Sweet Tooth bumps in the Jokermobile and causes it to spin around. Joker observes the various buttons in his cockpit.
Joker: Ooh, so many buttons! Eeny, meeny, miney... all of them!
Joker presses them randomly and laughs as multiple weapons fire at the Sweet Tooth. He then sees a large middle button that's red with a yellow lightning bolt.
Joker: Hmm, what's this one do? Boop!
Joker pushes the button, causing the Jokermobile to boost hard and speed past the Sweet Tooth. He then launches off the ramp of a DBX truck.
Joker: BEST. BUTTON. EVER!
The Sweet Tooth launches the clown head homing missile, which takes down the Jokermobile in the air and causes it and Joker to crash into a building. The Jokermobile is totaled and lost a wheel, while the Joker got away by dropping out of the car, but he coughs up blood.
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Blood Bag - Mad Max: Fury Road by Junkie XL
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Joker: Really? Can't just let a guy have his fun...
Needles stops the Sweet Tooth and switches gears as he prepares to charge at his opponent. Joker gets up and prepares himself.
Joker: Okay okay, let's go!
Needles: Here I come, scrawny!
Joker stands his ground as the Sweet Tooth charges at him. He starts taunting his opponent, while Sweet Tooth is getting closer.
Joker: All right let's see it! Come and get it, tough guy! You miserable excuse for a clown! Come on! Come on!
Joker pulls out a ridiculously long-barreled pistol and shoots it at the Sweet Tooth's tire, taking it out and causing Needles to lose control. As he's spinning wildly, Joker takes the opportunity and leaps in the ice cream truck.
Joker: Ooh, excuse me! I want to drive!
Joker and Needles fight over the steering wheel and crash into multiple vehicles. Joker stops when the flames on Needles' head burns his hand.
Joker: Let me put that out for you!
Joker sprays his acid flower in Needles' face while laughing, causing the car to go even more out of control. He eventually regains his sight.
Needles: Shut up and bleed, you motherf—
Joker interrupts him by electrocuting his hand with his joy buzzer, electrocuting the masked clown. Needles once again survives the attack.
Needles: Get out!
Needles kicks Joker out of his vehicle and onto the sidewalk.
Joker: Ow! My spleen!
Needles stops the car.
Joker: Can't take a joke, can you, big guy?
The Sweet Tooth transforms into the Sweet Bot right in front of The Joker's face, baffling even him.
Joker: Okay... THAT'S funny.
The Sweet Bot swats Joker with its Gatling gun and knocks him a large portion across the city, eventually crashing into a shopping mall. The mech flies to catch up as Joker finds himself impaled on a metal pole in some of the rubble he just caused. He laughs and coughs in pain as the Sweet Bot slowly walks up to finish the job. However, Joker then makes an interesting statement.
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Immortan's Citadel - Mad Max: Fury Road by Junkie XL
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Joker: Okay. Let's... let's talk about this. Killing someone from inside a tin can? That's no fun!
Interested, the Sweet Bot stops to hear what Joker has to say.
Joker: The cold of their skin... the blankness of their eyes... the reveal, of who they really are... So much better when you savor all the little emotions...
Needles exits the Sweet Bot, taken in by Joker's words. He prepares his machete and starts dragging it as he walks towards the crippled clown. The Joker is pleased to know that his manipulation is working.
Joker: ...Right?
Needles: Right...
Needles lifts Joker off of the pole and holds him by the neck to stare into his eyes.
Needles: I want to see you bleed... I want to watch you die...
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Spikey Cars - Mad Max: Fury Road by Junkie XL
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Joker: Just... one more lesson, capiche? The best kind of punchline... hehehe... is the one you don't see coming!
Joker sprays Needles with his Joker Venom and escapes his grasp. Needles drops his machete and grabs his face.
Needles: Ugh! What is this!?
Joker starts laughing, knowing what comes next, as Needles goes back to strangle Joker.
Needles: Die, die, DIE!!! Die... hehehe...
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Immortan - Mad Max: Fury Road by Junkie XL
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Needles then begins uncontrollably laughing and grabs his face in an attempt to stop. He sees demented visions of his enemy as the toxin takes its toll and eventually kills him. Joker continues laughing as the cops arrive to arrest the last clown standing as the screen fades to black.
Results
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Final Confrontation - Batman (1989) by Danny Elfman
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Boomstick: Oh, come on. It wasn't that funny.
Wiz: Both clowns were skilled in combat, but Joker's superior tactics and unpredictable weaponry gave him the leg up he needed.
Boomstick: When you have a toxic gas so deadly it can take out the entire Justice League, all The Joker needed was one opportunity to use it.
Wiz: And despite his lanky frame, The Joker can take a lot of punishment, and he's good enough to survive hand-to-hand combat with Batman.
Boomstick: Hell, he's smart enough to trick Batman and even manipulate the incorruptible Superman into being pawns in his schemes.
Wiz: As opposed to Needles, whose mental capacity is limited to just one thing.
Boomstick: Murder, murder, and more murder, with a dash of ice cream!
Wiz: The Joker has plenty of experience manipulating the minds of homicidal maniacs. In fact, many people like Needles have wound up in Joker's game. It was only a matter of time before he made his opportunity to use the Joker Venom.
Boomstick: Joker wasn't clowning around in this gas of a fight that had us on pins... and Needles.
Wiz: We should really put you on a limit.
Boomstick: Aw, come on, Wiz! Those puns were Sweet!
The music promptly cuts out as Boomstick says his pun. We then cut to the "Winner" card.
Wiz: (unimpressed) ...The winner is The Joker.
Joker: (sigh) Well, that was fun. Who's for Chinese?
Trivia
Production
- The core connections between the Joker and Sweet Tooth are that they are both incredibly dangerous, blade-wielding, psychopathic serial killer clowns with multiple, varying backstories. In addition:
- Both fight against a man in black (Batman and Calypso, respectively).
- Both have survived incidents that would have killed most men (Joker has survived shark attacks, explosions, chemical baths, etc., and Sweet Tooth survived the electric chair).
- Both have a combat vehicle that features a clown face and bears their nickname (the Jokermobile and the Sweet Tooth Truck, respectively).
- At some point after the episode's release, Joker's end-of-analysis clip was cut early (likely due to copyright reasons), leaving the episode jumping straight to the start of Needles' analysis partway into it.
- In 2023, there was a glitch on the YouTube version of the episode where the thumbnail changed to an automatically selected frame of the Audible sponsor segment. The crew later acknowledged this by temporarily changing the thumbnail to the same frame but with Joker and Sweet Tooth drawn on top of it, drawn by u/ShaboRandom on Reddit.[1]
Easter Eggs
- The ending line of the Joker's analysis may be a reference to Batman: The Killing Joke, where the Joker famously says it only takes one bad day to turn an ordinary person to someone as insane as him.
- The opening scene of the fight where Joker repaints the Batmobile featured several names as graffiti on the alleyway wall. This included staff members Ben Singer, Chad James, Torrian Crawford, and Nick Cramer, previous Death Battle combatants who lost (Son Goku, Wolverine, Jak, and Daxter), and Needles himself, who has a question mark next to his name, potentially foreshadowing his death.
- The DBX logo made two cameo appearances in the fight, the first as graffiti on the alleyway wall when Joker is repainting the Batmobile and the second on the ramp truck that Joker drives off of.
- Joker tempting Needles to run him over with the constant phrase "Come on!" is a reference to how he tried to tempt Batman to run him over in The Dark Knight.
- Joker pulling a revolver with a comically long barrel out of his pants to shoot Needles' truck is a reference to him doing the same thing to the Batwing in the 1989 Batman film.
- Joker's line "Ooh, excuse me! I want to drive!" is a reference to one of his quotes from The Dark Knight.
- Needles' iconic line from Twisted Metal: Black, "Shut up and bleed, you motherf-", is used before he gets electrocuted by Joker's joy buzzer.
- Joker talking about savoring the "little emotions" is a reference to his speech to Commissioner Gordon in The Dark Knight.
Errors
- Needles' render is incorrectly flipped on the original thumbnail, leaving the wrong eye covered compared to his actual design. This would later be fixed after every episode got a new thumbnail during Season 4 to match that season's aesthetic overhaul.
- The Jokermobile used in this fight is the one from Batman: Arkham Knight, a version of the vehicle that was only a figment of Batman's imagination and does not actually exist.
- However, the fight justifies its inclusion by simply making it the Batmobile that Joker stole and gave a different coat of paint.
- When Joker is kicked out of the Sweet Tooth ice cream truck, its wheel is shown to be fixed despite it having been popped earlier.
- When the police cars arrive after Joker kills Sweet Tooth at the end of the fight, the one on the far right drives straight into and clips into a concrete grass bed.
Other
- This is the third DC VS non-Marvel-themed episode, after Goku VS Superman 1 and Goku VS Superman 2, and with the next 10 being Raven VS Twilight Sparkle, Ben 10 VS Green Lantern, Black Canary VS Sindel, She-Ra VS Wonder Woman, Flash VS Sonic, Goku Black VS Reverse-Flash, Harley Quinn VS Jinx, SpongeBob VS Aquaman, Goku VS Superman (2023), and Simon the Digger VS White Lantern.
- This is the sixth Video Game VS Comic Book-themed episode, after Zitz VS Leonardo, Kratos VS Spawn, Thor VS Raiden, Fox McCloud VS Bucky O'Hare, and Wolverine VS Raiden, and with the next seven being Amy Rose VS Ramona Flowers, Scrooge McDuck VS Shovel Knight, Ultron VS Sigma, Black Widow VS Widowmaker, Black Canary VS Sindel, Harley Quinn VS Jinx, and Trunks VS Silver.
- This is the fourth time the Comic Book character wins, after Zitz VS Leonardo, Kratos VS Spawn, and Thor VS Raiden, and with the next five being Scrooge McDuck VS Shovel Knight, Ultron VS Sigma, Black Widow VS Widowmaker, Black Canary VS Sindel, and Trunks VS Silver.
- This is the 14th episode where Boomstick yells a variation of his pre-fight catchphrase (via saying "IT'S TIME FOR A DEATH BATTLEEE!!!... and then books!), after Akuma VS Shang Tsung, Rogue VS Wonder Woman, Felicia VS Taokaka, Eggman VS Wily, Terminator VS RoboCop, Pokémon Battle Royale, Fulgore VS Sektor, Tigerzord VS Gundam Epyon, Boba Fett VS Samus Aran (2015), Guts VS Nightmare, Solid Snake VS Sam Fisher, Hercule Satan VS Dan Hibiki, and Bowser VS Ganon, and with the next 15 being Meta VS Carolina, Mega Man Battle Royale, Dragonzord VS Mechagodzilla, Scarlet Witch VS Zatanna, James Bond VS John Wick, Trunks VS Silver, SpongeBob VS Aquaman, Jason Voorhees VS Michael Myers, Sauron VS Lich King, Gogeta VS Vegito, Phoenix VS Raven, Scooby-Doo VS Courage the Cowardly Dog, Galactus VS Unicron, Kratos VS Asura, and Ghost Rider VS Spawn.
- This is the second episode to play an audio clip of the winner in between Wiz announcing them as such and the episode's credits, after He-Man VS Lion-O, and with the next six being Balrog VS TJ Combo, Ryu VS Jin, Roshi VS Jiraiya, Obi-Wan Kenobi VS Kakashi, DIO VS Alucard, and Bill Cipher VS Discord.
- This is the third episode to have an Antagonist defeat a Protagonist, after Godzilla VS Gamera and Ryu VS Scorpion, and with the next eight being Hulk VS Doomsday, Sephiroth VS Vergil, Gray VS Esdeath, Hulk VS Broly, DIO VS Alucard, Harley Quinn VS Jinx, Black Adam VS Apocalypse, and Bill Cipher VS Discord.
- On October 8th, 2024, the DEATH BATTLE! YouTube channel uploaded the full fight animation of this episode on its own, most likely to capitalize on the release of Joker: Folie à Deux, which came out four days earlier.