Line #29 Quotes/TheKillingJoke


1	! From the Comic:
2
3	->'''Batman''': Hello. I came to talk. I've been ''thinking'' lately. About you and me. About what's going to ''happen'' to us, in the ''end''. We're going to ''kill'' each other, aren't we? Perhaps you'll kill me. Perhaps I'll kill you. Perhaps sooner. Perhaps later. I just wanted to know that I'd made a genuine attempt to talk things ''over'' and ''avert'' that outcome. Just ''once''. Are you ''listening'' to me? It's ''life and death'' that I'm discussing here. Maybe ''my'' death... maybe ''yours''. I don't fully understand why ours should be such a ''fatal'' relationship, but I don't want your ''murder'' on my... hands...
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5	->'''Joker''': ''Memories'' can be ''vile, repulsive'' little ''brutes''. Like ''children'', I suppose. ''Haha''. But can we live ''without'' them? ''Memories'' are what our ''reason'' is based upon. If we can't ''face'' them, we deny reason itself! Although, why ''not''? We aren't ''contractually tied down'' to ''rationality''! [[Film/ANightAtTheOpera There]] ''[[Film/ANightAtTheOpera is]]'' [[Film/ANightAtTheOpera no]] ''[[Film/ANightAtTheOpera sanity clause]]!'' So when you find yourself locked onto an unpleasant train of thought, heading for the places in your past where the screaming is ''unbearable,'' remember: There's always ''madness. Madness'' is the ''emergency exit...'' You can just step ''outside'', and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened. You can lock them ''away...'' Forever.
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7	->'''Joker''': ''So...'' I see you received the ''free ticket'' I sent you. I'm ''glad.'' I did ''so'' want you to be here. You see, it doesn't ''matter'' if you ''catch'' me and send me back to the ''asylum...'' Gordon's been driven ''mad.'' I've proved my point. I've demonstrated there's ''no difference'' between me and everyone ''else!'' All it takes is ''one bad day'' to reduce the ''sanest man alive'' to ''lunacy. That's'' how far the ''world'' is from where ''I'' am. Just ''one bad day.''\
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9
10	->''You'' had a ''bad day'' once, am I ''right?'' I ''know'' I am. I can ''tell.'' You had a ''bad day'' and everything ''changed.'' Why ''else'' would you dress up like a ''flying rat?'' You had a ''bad day'', and it drove you as ''crazy'' as ''everybody else...'' only ''you'' won't ''admit'' it! You have to keep ''pretending'' that life makes ''sense'', that there's some ''point'' to all this ''struggling!'' God, you make me want to ''puke.''\
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13	->I ''mean'', what ''is'' it with you? What ''made'' you what you ''are''? Girlfriend killed by the ''mob'', maybe? ''Brother'' carved up by some ''mugger''? ''Something'' like that, I bet. ''Something'' like that...\
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16	->Something like that happened to ''me'', you know. I... I'm not exactly ''sure'' what it was. Sometimes I remember it ''one'' way, sometimes ''another...'' [[TropeNamer if I'm going to have a]] ''[[TropeNamer past]]'', [[MultipleChoicePast I prefer it to be]] ''[[MultipleChoicePast multiple choice!]] Ha ha ha!''
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19	->But ''my'' point is... my point ''is, I'' went ''crazy.'' When I ''saw'' what a black, awful ''joke'' the world ''was'', I went crazy as a ''coot!'' I ''admit'' it! [[AtLeastIAdmitIt Why can't]] ''[[AtLeastIAdmitIt you?]]'' I ''mean, you're'' not ''unintelligent''! You ''must'' see the ''reality'' of the situation. Do you ''know'' how many times we've come close to ''World War Three'' over a flock of ''geese'' on a ''computer screen?'' Do you know what triggered the ''last'' World War? An argument over how many ''telegraph poles'' Germany owed its ''war debt'' creditors! '''''Telegraph poles! Ha ha ha ha HA!'''''\
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22	->It's all a ''joke!'' Everything anybody ever ''valued'' or ''struggled'' for... it's all a ''monstrous'', demented ''gag!'' So why can't ''you'' see the ''funny side''?\
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24
25	->Why aren't you ''laughing''?
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27	->'''Batman''': [[ShutUpHannibal Because I've heard it]] ''[[ShutUpHannibal before]]...'' [[PreAssKickingOneLiner and it wasn't funny]] [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore the]] ''[[NeverHeardThatOneBefore first]]'' [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore time.]]
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29	->'''Batman''': Incidentally, I ''spoke'' to Commissioner Gordon before I came ''in'' here. He's ''fine.'' Despite all your sick, vicious little ''games'', he's as ''sane'' as he ''ever'' was. So maybe ordinary people ''don't'' always crack. Maybe there ''isn't'' any need to crawl under a ''rock'' with all the ''other'' slimey things when trouble hits... Maybe it was just ''you'', all the time.
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32	->'''Batman''': Don't you ''understand''? I don't want to ''hurt'' you. I don't want ''either'' of us to end up ''killing'' the other... But we're both running out of ''alternatives...'' and we both ''know'' it. Maybe it all hinges on ''tonight.'' Maybe this is our ''last chance'' to sort this bloody mess ''out.'' If you don't ''take'' it, then we're locked onto a ''suicide course. Both'' of us. To the ''death.'' It doesn't ''have'' to end like that. I don't know what it ''was'' that bent your ''life'' out of ''shape'', but who ''knows?'' Maybe I've been there ''too.'' Maybe I can ''help.'' We could ''work'' together. I could ''rehabilitate'' you. You needn't be out there on the ''edge'' any more. You needn't be ''alone.'' We don't ''have'' to kill each other. What do you ''say''?
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34	->'''Joker''': No. I'm sorry, but... no. It's too ''late'' for that. ''Far'' too late. ''Hahaha.'' Y'know, it's ''funny...'' This ''situation.'' It reminds me of a ''joke...''
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36	->'''Joker''': See, there were these [[IHaveThisFriend two guys]] in a ''lunatic asylum...'' And ''one'' night, one night they decide they don't ''like'' living in an ''asylum'' any more. They decide they're going to ''escape!'' So, like, they get up onto the ''roof'', and ''there'', just across this narrow ''gap'', they see the rooftops of the ''town'', stretching away into the ''moonlight...'' Stretching away to ''freedom.'' Now, the ''first'' guy, he jumps right across with no ''problem.'' But his ''friend'', his friend daredn't make the ''leap.'' Y'see... y'see, he's afraid of ''falling.'' So then, the ''first'' guy has an ''idea...'' He says, "''Hey!'' I have my ''flashlight'' with me! I'll shine it across the ''gap'' between the ''buildings.'' You can walk along the ''beam'' and ''join'' me!" B-but the ''second'' guy just shakes his ''head.'' He suh-says... he says "Wh-what do you think I ''am?'' '''''CRAZY?''''' [[RightForTheWrongReasons You'd turn it]] ''[[RightForTheWrongReasons off]]'' [[RightForTheWrongReasons when I was half way]] ''[[RightForTheWrongReasons across]]!''"
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38	! About the Comic:
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40	!! Alan Moore
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42	->''Amongst my own work, '''The Killing Joke'''...Yeah, there's loads of emotion layered on there. It's quite clever. The plot works, on a material level. But it's not about anything, it's not about anything of human importance, it's about Batman and The Joker and you're never gonna meet anybody like Batman and The Joker. It's of no use to you as a human being. It's one of the works – there's some very good things about it, but it's lacking something, and it's lacking soul. It's not got the thematic drive that say ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} has, which I was doing at the same time. [[CreatorBacklash That was my big mistake]]...I was doing The Killing Joke at the same time as I was doing Watchmen.''
43	-->-- '''Creator/AlanMoore''', [[http://www.comicscube.com/2012/07/the-craft-interview-with-alan-moore-by.html The Craft, Interview with Alan Moore]].
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45	->''Well, psychotic murders — the key word there is “psychotic,” which is, as far [[TheMentallyDisturbed as I know, an illness]]. This is not to say that people shouldn’t be entitled to feel rage or the lust for {{revenge}} when something happens to them at the hands of somebody like this, but you’ve got to remember at the end of the day it’s not strictly speaking that person’s fault. [[FreudianExcuse That something has happened to them]], they have made some bad decision in their life, and while all of us are responsible for our actions, [[SanitySlippage sometimes people get broken and it is increasingly difficult for them to know their own actions]]. So I suppose that if there was anything actually being said in “The Killing Joke,” it was that everybody has probably got a reason for being where they are, even the most monstrous of us.''
46	-->-- '''Creator/AlanMoore''', [[http://www.salon.com/2009/03/05/alan_moore_q_a/ Salon Interview]]
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48	->''"[ The Joker has ] a kind of muddy kind of origin. They’d said that he’d been the leader of a criminal gang called the Red Hood Mob and that while trying to escape from Batman he’d swum across this river of chemicals...That was about it and this was [[Creator/BillFinger from a story from, like, the late ’50s or something]] and so I thought “[[{{Retcon}} Okay, I won’t contradict that]],” because I kind of [[CanonWelding believe in working by the rules of the material as it already exists]] but [[MultipleChoicePast I can put a lot of spin on that]]."''
49	-->-- '''Creator/AlanMoore''', [[http://www.blather.net/projects/alan-moore-interview/killing-joke-brought-light/ reflecting on]] ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke''
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Context Quotes / TheKillingJoke