Batman might be "the world's greatest detective," but let's face it, with villains dressed in themed outfits and a tendency toward attention-grabbing gimmicks, he doesn't always have to be that good of a detective to save the day. Sure, being a world-class forensic scientist doesn't hurt, but when Joker does stuff like poison the city of Gotham's drinking supply with chemicals to give everyone scary smiley faces, that's not what we'd call subtle.

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Yet, it is the sheer randomness of some of these heists that left our guy racing the clock to save the city. Particularly in the Batman '66 TV Series, these baddies come up with some truly wild ideas that don't always seem to have a clear pay-off. Maybe Batman simply left them on read, and they needed to find some way to get his attention. Regardless, these are some of the zaniest heists his rogues' gallery came up with over the years.

"Catwoman's Dressed to Kill" - Takes Over the World (of Fashion)

Some villains strive for world domination, but some simply strive to dominate the world of style. For that, Eartha Kitt's Catwoman didn't need much help, but it didn't stop her from feeling jealous when the city of Gotham failed to recognize her panache. Kicking things off with a bang, she drops a "hair-raising bomb" which destroys the hairdos of ten of the city's finest dressed ladies. Wherever that bomb came from and however it works is a mystery for the ages, but we'd be lying if we said we didn't kind of want one. For...reasons.

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Catwoman's crimes continue to escalate as she attempts to steal some dresses, and then ties Batgirl to a conveyer belt to be chopped to bits by a pattern cutting machine. Speaking of things that escalated quickly, this somehow leads to Alfred dressing up as "the world's oldest living hippie" to rescue her. Catwoman is eventually arrested, but it's hard to tell exactly what crime she was charged with beyond general chaos.

Minerva, Mayhem, and Millionaires - Crime Spa

Guest-starring the great Zsa Zsa Gabor as the villainous Minerva, this is a heist for the ages. As the owner and operator of Gotham's most prestigious spa, Minerva uses her "deepest secret extractor" to get information from Gotham's wealthiest. When Bruce Wayne makes a visit, she uncovers the code to his safe and promptly robs him.

Realizing something is amiss, he dons his Batsuit and he and Robin go to investigate only to be put in a "persimmon pressurizer" and the two are quite literally left to cook to death. This actual terrifying crime might place Minerva in a class of villain we didn't expect her to land in, but Gabor does a marvelous job of adding her classic charm to the performance. When she is caught and handed over to the authorities, she shrugs it off, quipping that they likely need a spa in the local prison.

Batman The Movie - Turns People Into Powder

The first feature length Batman film is a doozy, and it shows his heaviest hitters teaming up to take him and the Boy Wonder down. Kicking off with a famous battle with a shark that requires the use of Bat Shark Repellent in order for Batman to triumph, it only gets wilder from there as four of his major villains come up with a scheme that no one could have predicted.

Equipped with a dehydrator that can turn people into brightly colored piles of dust, the villains do just that to the United World Organization's Security Council. Along the way, they get all mixed up, which requires the use of Batman's handy Super Molecular Dust Separator in order to restore them to their previous state. Good thing for them that Batman had that laying around!

The Ogg and I - Egghead Tries to Hatch a Dinosaur Egg

Egghead is full of weird pranks and gimmicks, but in this two-parter, he really outdoes himself. Feeding chickens onions for two weeks, he apparently turns the content of their eggs into tear gas, just for starters. He also tries to hatch a dinosaur egg just to own Batman, and it almost works. Okay, it doesn't almost work, but a monster emerges from a prop egg only to pop off its head and reveal a jovial Batman underneath, noting that hatching a dinosaur egg is a ridiculous idea.

Vincent Price is a true genre icon and his turn as Egghead is unfailingly delightful, but All About Eve star Anne Baxter deserves equal credit for her role as Olga, Queen of the Cossacks. In the first moments of the episode, they escape together in a getaway balloon after kidnapping Commissioner Gordon, and it's only uphill from there. Citing that as queen she's entitled to no less than six husbands, we discover that Egghead is set to become one of them, making this a surprise love story for a supervillain power couple while also a completely bonkers heist.

The Greatest Mother of Them All - Takes Over Jail

The Batman TV series was great about pulling in celebrity appearances from some of the most over-the-top actors of their day, and this episode saw the great Shelley Winters taking a turn in the role of Ma Parker. A clear Ma Barker reference, she was the head matriarch of a family of criminals. Here, she decides to use her criminal savvy to take over the Gotham jail. It seems like if she wanted to run the jail, there is an easy way to cut out the middleman by just getting arrested and going there.

Instead, she rigs a bomb to the Batmobile that will explode if they exceed 60 m.p.h. They stop the bomb from going off, but their problems are far from over when the Parkers capture them and strap them straight into a couple of electric chairs. Though this is all pretty terrifying stuff, they are able to laugh it off when the now-imprisoned Ma Parker's kids send her roses for Mother's Day.

The Joker's Flying Saucer - Casual UFO Hoax

Today the Joker is known for more serious fare, but back in the golden age of Cesar Romero, he truly was the Clown Prince of Crime in that most of his crimes were just him clowning Batman. This is especially true when he decided to take over the known universe with a flying saucer. One might assume you'd want to successfully take over a city before you moved on to the galaxy, but the Joker is a funny guy.

Half-convincing Barbara Gordon that "little green men" exist by, well, sending one to the library that she works at is just one step in the Joker's master plan. He also blows up the Batcave, kidnaps Alfred and Batgirl, and convinces most of Gotham of a pending alien invasion. In the end, none of this works out particularly well, but the sheer scope of the crime lands it on this list.

Nora Clavicle and the Ladies Crime Club - Takes Over Gotham, Instills All-Female Government

Featuring one of the most chaotic opening stanzas this show ever saw, Gordon is to be honored for his service but when the Mayor and his wife arrive late, they're both mid-argument. The Major thanks Gordon then promptly fires him, replacing him with Nora Clavicle, who enters while another woman bangs on a drum with a skin that reads "WOMAN POWER."

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Though this is a promising introduction, this episode is incredibly sexist, and more or less just serves to instill antiquated gender norms by "proving" that women are actually incapable of doing things like serving as commissioner. Considering the fact that Gordon just calls Batman every time something happens, we're willing to call Clavicle back in and give her another shot. Despite the fact that the "point" is that women aren't very good at things outside of cleaning house for the most part, Clavicle does manage to take over Gotham and outsmart Batman, which, even temporarily, is quite a feat.

A Piece of the Action - Why, It's Counterfeit Stamps, Of Course

This episode breaks out the guest stars, opening up with a surprise appearance by none other than the Green Hornet and his partner Kato as they bust in on Colonel Gumm enjoying a nice bowl of alphabet soup. They fight it out, but Green Hornet ultimately decides to just leave as they have the evidence they need to bust up this counterfeit stamp racket.

The idea of counterfeit stamps may be genuinely baffling to anyone born after the year 1970, but this episode is more about the comedy of errors that proceeds as Colonel Gumm takes on various disguises and Batman and Robin struggle to figure out why the Green Hornet and Kato are in town without actually talking to them.

Penguin is a Girl's Best Friend - Penguin Makes A Batman Movie

The Penguin is mid-heist when Batman and Robin show up to put a stop to it, but after they put down his henchmen, he reveals that he was filming a movie that he had a permit to shoot and therefore is about to slap the dynamic duo with the biggest lawsuit the crimefighting world has ever seen...unless they agree to star in his film.

As one might guess, this is a bonkers episode with a lot of twists, but tying Batman and Robin up to appear as actors in a movie while the Penguin makes off with some diamonds is a pretty inspired crime. While he doesn't get away with it, this episode does see the appearance of the Bat-zooka, which Robin shoots at a tank. The episode wraps with them watching themselves on film, making this one of the strangest, borderline fourth-wall-breaking stories of its era.

"That Darn Catwoman" - Drugs Robin Into Being A Jerk

Robin meets Catwoman's henchperson Pussycat, who is a rock and roller played by real-life rock and roller Lesley Gore. She scratches him with "cataphrenic," which turns him into a mean jerk. After he attacks a cop, he helps Catwoman and Pussycat blow up Bruce Wayne's safe and steal money while throwing some comically antiquated mean guy one-liners.

The heist of this episode is just Catwoman stealing ever-increasing sums of money, but the wild part is why she would need Robin in order to do that. It leads to a very fun fight in which Robin attacks Batman, but Batman finds himself unable to strike back due to their friendship. Robin is hilarious as a punk, and this is one of his best episodes. In the end, Catwoman just leaps to her possible doom and calls it a day.

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