History ComicBook / TheKillingJoke

-->She thinks she's a coffee table edition... Mind you, I can't say much for the volume's condition. I mean, there's a hole in the jacket and the spine appears to be damaged.

* LaughingMad: Joker, anyone? Heck, look at the trope picture.

* {{Prequel}}: An issue of the team-up series ''ComicBook/TheBraveAndTheBold'' (#33 of the 2007 relaunched series) featured a team-up between Zatanna, WonderWoman, and ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}, as Zatanna apparently decided to go [[GirlsNightOutEpisode clubbing]] with the others after a vivid dream. Zatanna and Diana repeatedly reiterate the need for Barbara to enjoy the night and not to spend all her time preoccupied with crime-fighting, particularly making a point of having her ''dance''. The story is touching and beautiful and funny (including what appears to be a karaoke rendition of {{Beyonce}}'s ''Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)'') - until the night ends and Diana asks if Barbara has ever heard of [[ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey oracles]]. Zatanna's dream was a ''{{prophe|ticDreams}}cy''; she knew Barbara would be paralyzed, and since she could not change the future, she decided to give Barbara one final night of normalcy before her life was irrevocably changed. The final pages of the issue feature a re-creation of the pages from ''The Killing Joke'' where Barbara was shot (including the conversation she was having with Commissioner Gordon at the time) and end with The Joker shooting Barbara as she opens the door.

* CreatorBacklash: Not so much of a "backlash", but Alan Moore (and Brian Bolland) personally don't think it's as great as most people say it is.

* {{Prequel}}: An issue of the team-up series ''ComicBook/TheBraveAndTheBold'' (#33 of the 2007 relaunched series) featured a team-up between Zatanna, WonderWoman, and ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}, as Zatanna apparently decided to go [[GirlsNightOutEpisode clubbing]] with the others after a vivid dream. Zatanna and Diana repeatedly reiterate the need for Barbara to enjoy the night and not to spend all her time preoccupied with crime-fighting, particularly making a point of having her ''dance''. The story is touching and beautiful and funny (including what appears to be a karaoke rendition of {{Beyonce}}'s ''Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)'') - until the night ends and Diana asks if Barbara has ever heard of [[ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey oracles]]. Zatanna's dream was a ''[[PropheticDreams prophecy]]''; she knew Barbara would be paralyzed, and since she could not change the future, she decided to give Barbara one final night of normalcy before her life was irrevocably changed. The final pages of the issue feature a re-creation of the pages from ''The Killing Joke'' where Barbara was shot (including the conversation she was having with Commissioner Gordon at the time) and end with The Joker shooting Barbara as she opens the door.

* TraumaCongaLine: This is what Joker [[spoiler:might have]] went through during his "one bad day." [[spoiler:He throws away a stable career working at a chemical factory to pursue his dream of becoming a comedian, but fails miserably at it. After falling into serious financial trouble, he agrees to lead a couple of mafia thugs through the factory in order to provide for his wife and unborn child. On the day when he's supposed to do the job, his wife dies in an accident, rendering the job meaningless. The thugs fake sympathy for him, but force him to go through with the job - and tell him to use the money for a funeral for his family. He leads the thugs through the chemical plant, but they're soon spotted by security and shot to death. Batman shows up, believing the man who would be Joker to be Red Hood (since he's wearing the Red Hood costume). He proceeds to jump into the polluted water and swims to safety, then realizes that his skin is burning. When he takes off the hood, the first thing he sees is his reflection in a puddle: green hair, pale skin, yellow teeth, and bloodshot eyes. At this point, he [[GoMadFromTheRevelation just starts laughing.]]]]

** A more straight example would be towards the end,[[spoiler:which is when Batman is amused at the Joker's joke.]]

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* {{Elseworlds}}: A number of fans believe Moore originally intended for the story to be a one-shot non-canon story and ExecutiveMeddling integrated it into TheDCU; it certainly would explain why Batman has a picture of Pre-Crisis Bat-Girl and {{Batwoman}} on his desk. WordOfGod says ''The Killing Joke'' was always intended to be in continuity, however.

* GainaxEnding: Though the ending makes sense thematically, there's one thing that's rather ambiguous - what Batman's reaction to the titular joke means. [[spoiler:Is Batman strangling Joker, or is he simply sharing a laugh?]] Alan Moore has refused to explain this.

* HawaiianShirtedTourist: Joker dons this outfit for maybe a page and a half when he shoots Barbara Gordon - but it's remembered to the point where it's one of his alternate costumes in ''[[LegoAdaptationGame Lego Batman]]''.

** SillyRabbitCynicismIsForLosers: Batman's subsequent TheReasonYouSuckSpeech/PatrickStewardSpeech is based on this.

!!''TheKillingJoke'' provides examples of:

* UpdatedRerelease: The 2008 twentieth-anniversary edition was completely recolored: new details such as [[EyeSquick the Joker's eyes bleeding]] were added, the flashbacks were made DeliberatelyMonochrome, and the yellow oval around the Batman insignia was removed (bringing the costume into line with ''Film/TheDarkKnightSaga'', which was heavily influenced by ''TheKillingJoke'').

* KarmaHoudini: Joker. Batman barely even hurts him, forgives him, offers him help and Joker even gets to make him laugh...despite the fact that Joker got to torture the Gordon's and cripple Barbara.

Back in [[TheEighties the day]], Creator/AlanMoore actually wrote for mainstream superhero comics -- and not just for ''Comicbook/SwampThing''. He wrote ''[[ComicBook/ForTheManWhoHasEverything Superman]]'' and ''{{Franchise/Batman}}'' stories, too... stories such as this one.

** Batman's monologue.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[WordOfGod Alan Moore]] insists Joker didn't rape Barbara, though it certainly looks possible on a casual reading. Moore did [[SureWhyNot suggest]], in one interview, that it's possible to read Joker having three circus midgets strip Commissioner Gordon as implying ''his'' rape.

** Subverted. After telling Joker about his failure to break Gordon -- and mindful of his own "bad day" -- Batman asks Joker to consider if he was wrong: "Maybe ordinary people don't always crack. Maybe there isn't any need to crawl under a rock with all the other slimy things when trouble hits... maybe it was just you all the time."

* HawaiianShirtedTourist: Joker dons this outfit for maybe a page and a half when he shoots Barbara Gordon -- but it's remembered to the point where it's one of his alternate costumes in ''[[LegoAdaptationGame Lego Batman]]''.

** Later comics had The Riddler pop up as a possible witness to the "bad day" which birthed The Joker -- only to tell a different version of the story (one which isn't considered canon, too).

** The French translation, ''Rire et mourir'' -- "Laughing and dying", "To laugh and to die", or "To laugh and die" -- botches this trope in the first scene when Batman, having discovered an impostor in Joker's cell, shouts "''Vous n'êtes pas le Joker!'' (You're not the Joker!)".

* NothingUpMySleeve: [[ILied Joker lied]] -- there's a knife.
* NotSoDifferent: As seen in the page quote, Joker accuses Batman of being equally as insane as he is -- even if Batman won't admit it.

* {{Prequel}}: An issue of the team-up series ''ComicBook/TheBraveAndTheBold'' (#33 of the 2007 relaunched series) featured a team-up between Zatanna, WonderWoman, and ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}, as Zatanna apparently decided to go [[GirlsNightOutEpisode clubbing]] with the others after a vivid dream. Zatanna and Diana repeatedly reiterate the need for Barbara to enjoy the night and not to spend all her time preoccupied with crime-fighting, particularly making a point of having her ''dance''. The story is touching and beautiful and funny (including what appears to be a karaoke rendition of {{Beyonce}}'s ''Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)'') -- until the night ends and Diana asks if Barbara has ever heard of [[ComicBook/BirdsOfPrey oracles]]. Zatanna's dream was a ''[[PropheticDreams prophecy]]''; she knew Barbara would be paralyzed, and since she could not change the future, she decided to give Barbara one final night of normalcy before her life was irrevocably changed. The final pages of the issue feature a re-creation of the pages from ''The Killing Joke'' where Barbara was shot (including the conversation she was having with Commissioner Gordon at the time) and end with The Joker shooting Barbara as she opens the door.

* RuleOfSymbolism: Joker's final joke is an obvious parallel between himself and Batman -- it's a tale of a man who's insane but functional (Batman) and a man who's completely off the deep end (Joker).

** To his credit, Moore felt bad about what he did to Babs and wanted to restore her ability to walk in order to make her Batwoman (a storyline popular in fanfiction) -- but since she'd already become Oracle by the time he suggested the idea, it was scrapped. Babs would eventually regain her ability to walk with a neurostimulator, and she would later return to the role of Batgirl when DC rebooted its entire line with "The {{New 52}}".

* TraumaCongaLine: This is what Joker [[spoiler:might have]] went through during his "one bad day." [[spoiler:He throws away a stable career working at a chemical factory to pursue his dream of becoming a comedian, but fails miserably at it. After falling into serious financial trouble, he agrees to lead a couple of mafia thugs through the factory in order to provide for his wife and unborn child. On the day when he's supposed to do the job, his wife dies in an accident, rendering the job meaningless. The thugs fake sympathy for him, but force him to go through with the job -- and tell him to use the money for a funeral for his family. He leads the thugs through the chemical plant, but they're soon spotted by security and shot to death. Batman shows up, believing the man who would be Joker to be Red Hood (since he's wearing the Red Hood costume). He proceeds to jump into the polluted water and swims to safety, then realizes that his skin is burning. When he takes off the hood, the first thing he sees is his reflection in a puddle: green hair, pale skin, yellow teeth, and bloodshot eyes. At this point, he [[GoMadFromTheRevelation just starts laughing.]]]]

** Batman's outfit, as detailed during the flashback, is considerably more demonic-looking than any previous rendition (and certainly don't match the "normal" outfit Batman wears in Present Day) -- which means the flashbacks are clearly told from Joker's POV.

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: The Joker.
* WrittenSoundEffect: Almost completely avoided--there are a handful of exceptions.

** Barbara. She didn't die, but she was crippled to cause angst for the male characters, and [[http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/9264/babsi.jpg this trauma became her defining trait.]]

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The original coloring used very muted colors in the Red Hood flashbacks. The 2008 recoloring has everything in actual monochrome with the exception of red.

This comic is not to be confused with the proto-industrial rock group Music/KillingJoke (although the title could be a ShoutOut).

* GainaxEnding: Everything after the titular joke is told. Though the ending makes sense thematically, it's never explained what's going on. [[spoiler:Did Batman get spiked with Joker Toxin? Is he strangling his enemy, or is he simply sharing a laugh? Is it AllJustADream?]]

* ColdBloodedTorture

* SingleIssuePsychology: This is subverted -- and since this is a Batman story, the subversion is rather shocking.

** To his credit, Moore felt bad about what he did to Babs and wanted to restore her ability to walk in order to make her Batwoman (a storyline popular in fanfiction) -- but since she'd already become Oracle by the time he suggested the idea, it was scrapped. Babs would later return to the role of Batgirl when DC rebooted its entire line with "The {{New 52}}".

* [[WhenSheSmiles When He Smiles]]: [[spoiler: Batman himself at the end after the Joker say his joke.]]

--> "No. I'm sorry but...No. It's too '''late''' for that. '''Far''' too late."

** To his credit, Moore felt bad about what he did to Babs and wanted to restore her ability to walk in order to make her Batwoman -- but since she'd already become Oracle by the time he suggested the idea, it was scrapped. Babs would later return to the role of Batgirl when DC rebooted its entire line with "The {{New 52}}".

* SanitySlippage

* [[WhenSheSmiles When He Smiles]]: [[spoiler: Batman himself at the end after the Joker say out his joke.]]

* [[WhenSheSmiles When He Smiles]]: [[spoiler: Batman at the end after the Joker say out his joke.]]