Batman's Alfred Gets An Origin Story In Funny Or Die Video

Even butlers have emotional backstories.

We've only ever heard scattered bits and pieces about the life of Alfred Pennyworth prior to his employment with the Wayne family and subsequent role as the right-hand man of Batman. But a hilarious parody video by Funny or Die might explain a few things.

The two-minute video is the trailer for a fake movie called Alfred: Before Batman, and it centers on Michael Caine's version of the character from Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.

It looks like Alfred's upbringing was pretty similar to that of Oliver Twist, and there's a good reason for that: the childhood footage comes from the 2005 version of the Charles Dickens classic.

In the comics, Alfred is a British ex-Special Operations Executive who was once charged with overseeing the honor and ethics of the intelligence community. He's also been depicted as a former actor and a previous butler to the Royal Family.

Jeremy Irons currently plays Alfred in the DCEU, but Michael Gough played the character in the '90s Batman movies and Alan Napier portrayed him on the '60s TV show.