'Birds of Prey' post-credits scene pays homage to Harley Quinn with a hilarious, NSFW inside joke
Warning: Spoilers ahead for 'Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)'
We've been trained, as an audience, to sit through the credits to find out if there is some franchise-shattering post-credits scene at the end of every superhero film—or any big budget franchise film, for that matter.
'Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)' has one too, but it's a bit of a gag.
Harley Quinn's (Margot Robbie) voice is heard at the end, expressing surprise that the audience sat around as long as they did after the movie was over.
She's hardly one to begrudge an audience, so to reward all the fans who stayed back for a hint of something extra, she promises an extra tidbit, saying, "Did you know that Batman f..." The audio abruptly ends before she finishes her sentence and reveals the crucial, Easter egg of a verb.
It's a joke meant to tease Easter egg-hunting fans, but it might actually be a shoutout to her animated counterpart, as fans of the animated 'Harley Quinn' series know EXACTLY what the full sentence is.
It's "Batman f***s bats."
Harley Quinn, before she was so rudely cut away, was very likely about to say that Batman has sexual relations with bats, something that Kaley Cuoco's Harley Quinn has been saying right from the pilot episode.
It's been a running joke through the animated series, and though Batman (Diedrich Bader) denies it every time, Harley remains convinced, and takes every opportunity she can to tell the world that the terrible rumour is true.
'Birds of Prey' had a few Easter Eggs homaging her animated roots, from the animated intro that featured her original costume that debuted on 'Batman: The Animated Series' to the blink-and-you'll-miss-it image on a television set of Arleen Sorkin in a harlequin costume that served as the inspiration for Harley Quinn in the first place. There was even a reference to the current comics run, with Harley's stuffed beaver sitting prominently in her home, talking to her in her head. The current animated series received no big shoutouts, however, most likely because it only released a few months ago. Given how quickly the post-credits "scene" could have been tacked on the movie, however, it seems like a last-minute addition to the film to reference the animated series now completes the Harley Quinn homages.
'Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)' is now out in cinemas.