Michael Keaton does a Batman voice for ‘SNL’ promos: is he shading Bale?

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Michael Keaton will host this weekend’s episode of SNL, which means I may actually sit down and watch the live episode. I didn’t even do it for The Rock last week, opting instead to catch clip highlights from Dustin Rowles at Pajiba. Keaton shall grace the show with his presence for the third time, so it’s an event. I don’t have massively high hopes for SNL to write good material for Keaton because — hahaha. They’ll do some Beetlejuice stuff and definitely a Batman sketch. I’m still miffed that we didn’t get to hear the promised “weeping, gushing, phony, obnoxious” Oscar speech. Maybe he’ll do that for the monologue.

The episode promos surfaced yesterday. There’s a reference to Keaton getting “robbed.” Keaton also does a Batman voice straight off the bat. It’s not quite the voice Keaton used when he played Batman in the first two movies. This is more like the more exaggerated, Christian Bale version. A video comparing the Keaton and Bale versions is available here. Now for the promo clip.

I don’t want to make too much of this, but I’m not the only one who hears the Bale version, which is several octaves lower than what Keaton did many years ago. Because Bale isn’t known for his subtlety, and he overdoes everything. It’s possible that Keaton could simply be doing a warped variation of the Birdman voice too. But I want this to be shade. Keaton hilariously ruffled some Bat feathers during his Oscar campaign, and he may be poking fun at everyone (including himself) here. Keaton has earned the right to shade. He IS Batman.

Michael Keaton