DCAU: Joker / Characters

The Joker

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"That's it! That's what I want to see. A nice big smile."

^{Click here to see his first redesign}

^{Click here to see his second redesign}

^{Click here to see him in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker}

^{Click here to see him pre-accident}

Voiced in English by: Mark Hamill (1992 - 2003)

Voiced in French by: Pierre Hatet (Batman: The Animated Series, Mask of the Phantasm, Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, Static Shock, and Justice League), Daniel Lafourcade (Return of the Joker)

Voiced in Latin Spanish by: Rubén Leon

Voiced in Swedish by: Per Sandborgh, Thomas Engelbrektson (Justice League)

"It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic... Oh, what the heck, I'll laugh anyway!"

A lowly unnamed gangster who worked for Sal Valestra who, one night, during a mishap encounter with Batman in a chemical factory, fell into a vat of unknown chemicals that stained his skin a sickly white, turned his hair green, and left him with a twisted smile.

From then, he rose to become the greatest villain known to the streets of Gotham City (and beyond), the Joker, "the most deranged nut-job in Gotham". He is the arch-nemesis of Batman and has a penchant for turning all his crimes into a game for his own amusement. He developed a strange toxin called "Joker Venom" (or "Laughing Gas" on occasion) that can cause a victim to literally laugh themselves to death, leaving them with a disturbing grin.

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Tropes from the modern era

A-F

Adaptation Origin Connection: He is responsible for Jack Ryder becoming the Creeper in this continuity, when in the comics the only notable connection between the two was that they clashed in an issue of the Joker's 1970s solo comic series.
Adaptational Backstory Change: He's given a backstory similar to his Batman (1989) counterpart as a hitman for the Valestra mob before running into Batman at ACE Chemicals, as opposed to the comic which generally avoids giving the Joker a specific backstory.
Adaptational Villainy: Unbelievably. The Joker has never been given an exact backstory in the comics but it's strongly implied the vast majority of the time that he was a normal person that broke after a horribly traumatic event. In contrast, Joker in the DCAU was a psychopathic hitman before he was dunked into a chemical vat.
Adapted Out: His role as the first Red Hood. Instead, he started off as a lowly hood working for Sal Valestra before becoming Gotham's scariest "nutjob".
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In both "Joker's Favor" and "Beware the Creeper", Joker gets so frightened of the situation he's in, he begs Batman to help him. He even screams out for his foe in the former!
All Take and No Give: His relationship with Harley Quinn. She has an almost doglike unconditional love and loyalty to him, and he still treats her horribly, including trying to murder her at least once.
- This seems to vary depending on who you ask though:
Paul Dini: I think initially he was looking to play her and get what he could out of her, and then realized he had opened Pandora’s box and this woman in her madness could match him at just about anything he does. I think he finds that, in some ways, very sexy and attractive. But he’s not really set up to love in the way a regular person is. I think there are sparks and intensity and weird passion of a sort to their relationship, but I would not call it a loving relationship in the traditional sense."
And Your Little Dog, Too!: He threatens Charlie Collins' wife and son.
Answers to the Name of God: He pulls off a more family-friendly version on a copyright official.
Mr. Francis: Great Scott!
Joker: Actually, I'm Irish.
Antagonist in Mourning: His reaction to Batman's "death." Because he wanted to defeat Batman and because "without Batman, crime has no punchline."
Anything but That!: He does pick his targets; "I'm crazy enough to take on Batman, but the IRS? No thank you!!!"
Arch-Enemy: To Batman, as always. He is the Joker after all. In Return of the Joker (years into the future), Terry McGinnis noted that while the retired Bruce Wayne openly discussed his other enemies, he avoided mentioning Joker. Bruce criticized the notion of the arch-enemy by pointing out:
"It wasn't a popularity contest. He was a psychopath, a monster."
Art Evolution:
- The Joker underwent a revamp in his design when Batman: TAS was retooled into The New Batman Adventures. He lost his trademark red lips, his chalk white skin was now blue-ish white, his green-tinged hair was almost completely black, his eyes were now black with white pupils, the colors of his primary suit were changed from purple and yellow to purple and green, and he was made to appear physically smaller and thinner as well with a prominent jawline and a thin face.
- He received another redesign in the flashback sequence that’s featured in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. This design, using elements of his original Batman: TAS design (such as his face, which is reinvented with sharper features, darker lips, and red pupils) with his TNBA design's angular style and clothes, was later used in all subsequent (albeit retroactively and chronologically earlier) DCAU installments, including Justice League and Static Shock. Just like how he did back in Batman: TAS, the Joker also is shown to have red lips and green hair, although they were depicted in an extremely dark manner that the color is only identifiable via highlights.
Ax-Crazy: He is this whenever he ticked off. His general unpredictability is part of what makes him the scariest criminal in Gotham.
Back from the Dead:
- Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker focuses on how the character somehow returned from beyond the grave, despite having died in his last encounter with the original Batman. He did actually die, but he implanted a DNA-altering chip on Tim Drake so he could come back and cause chaos all over again, only to be destroyed by Terry McGinnis once and for all.
- In Batman (Chip Zdarsky), he and all the other deceased Jokers throughout the multiverse are resurrected by the Red Mask.
Badass in a Nice Suit: He does sport a pretty cool one, as always.
Badass Longcoat: His long coat is not particularly stylish when compared to his suit, but it still looks good.
Badass Normal: You can't be Batman's biggest threat otherwise now can you? He has absolutely no superpowers and almost came close to killing Superman than anyone besides Darkseid and Doomsday.
Bad Boss: In case you ever forget how much of an asshole he is, just look at the way he abuses Harley sometimes. This starts biting him in the ass, as he became increasingly strapped for cash because potential thugs were all too scared to work for him. Specifically, he once pushed a henchman into the path of an oncoming truck for asking a simple question about their plan, shouting "Mind your own business!" He did that after he explained it to him. This is hilariously lampshaded in "The Man Who Killed Batman", where a thug asks an obvious question only to get pushed into the ground and attacked by the Joker's pet hyenas. Harley Quinn gives a bored sigh and announces: "I'll get the mop".
Berserk Button:
- Don't ever pull a prank on this guy. You'll be lucky if you're already dead.
- Don't try to kill Batman if you work for him.
- "If you have to explain the joke, THERE IS NO JOKE!"
  - In Justice League, he doesn't seem too happy about having to do this himself in order to get a laugh out of a camera crew.
Beware the Silly Ones: The Joker is funny, goofy, a clown with a bombastic sense of showmanship... and a psychopathic, murderous maniac at the same time.
Big Bad: He is the main antagonist in Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, part of the Big Bad Ensemble in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, the more dangerous of the Big Bad Duumvirate in World's Finest (though he was happy to play The Dragon to Luthor for most of the movie), and a major recurring antagonist in Justice League. He's the most recurring threat out of all the villains, although in terms of scale, he doesn't quite match it. Until he gets his hands on Ace or a government Kill Sat later on.
Black Eyes of Crazy: He has these in The New Batman Adventures.
Blunt "Yes": In “Joker’s Millions”, he and Harley Quinn ran out of gas during an escape. When he berated her for not refueling the car, she reminded him they were broke and asked what he wanted her to do: "fill the tank, shoot the guy and drive off?" The Joker silently nodded and she complained he didn't tell her before.
Bond One-Liner: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm has Joker delivering a death threat to a foe's apartment via phone... at the same time as a remote-controlled plane bombed said apartment to smithereens. Unfortunately for him, Batman was in said apartment to snoop around and managed to divert the plane with a Batarang, but it would have been a straight example for the intended recipient. The telephone used for the threat is intact enough for the Joker to deliver the following gem:
Joker: (over the phone) Hello? Hello, operator? I believe my party's been... disconnected! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Book Ends: In the Batman: TAS episode "Christmas with the Joker", his first appearance in the DC Animated Universe (production-wise), the Joker hijacks a television station to air his own personal Christmas special. In the Justice League episode "Wild Cards", his final appearance in DCAU (by the order of release date), he hijacks several television stations so as to enact a plan involving the Royal Flush Gang and several bombs placed all over Las Vegas.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: About 2/3 of the way through "Christmas with the Joker", he tells all the Gothamites who are watching that his Christmas special will return after "a word from our sponsor." Both the fictional program and the episode itself then cut to a commercial break in our own world (the gag is kind of ruined on DVD, where there are no commercial interruptions).
The Bully: Despite being more than a match for superheroes, but he doesn't ever seem to get bored with picking on people weaker than him.
G. Carl Francis: Why is this happening to me? I've never done anything to this Joker.
Batman: And in his sick mind, that's the joke.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: His ultimate response to ruining Charlie Collins' life and then (apparently) killing him is akin to someone finishing off a collection—he just decides to get a new hobby.
Joker: [casually] Looks like I'll need to get a new hobby now that Charlie's... ["dead" gesture] ffft.
Harley: [even more casual] Macramé's nice.
Chekhov's Gunman: Mask of the Phantasm has a mobster that appears in the back of an old photo and is seen when Andrea and Bruce are about to talk to Andrea's father about the engagement. Turns out that's the man that would later become the Joker.
Combat Pragmatist: One reason he's so dangerous in a fight. He may not be as skilled of a fighter as Batman, but he'll use all and any resources at his disposal as a weapon, even if it happens to be some random item in the room or one of his numerous gadgets.
Composite Character: He takes over Dr. Yatz's (or Proteus in the 1997 series) role as the one to turn Jack Ryder into the Creeper.
The Corrupter: As "Mad Love" shows, he usually gains henchman and allies by manipulating them and using sly, psychological tricks to make them loyal to him, the most successful of these being Harley.
Creepy High-Pitched Voice: Hamill's iconic performance gave the Joker a high, thin voice that lent itself well to psychotic laughter.
Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: When he, Two-Face and the Penguin are convinced that Hugo Strange lied about knowing Batman's secret identity and played them for saps in "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne", he threatens to use Strange's head as a bowling ball.
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He tries to do this in "The Laughing Fish" by infecting all of the fish in Gotham with a toxin that gives them Joker grins, then claiming that that gives him the right to copyright all fish in Gotham. He clearly thinks of this as a great way to get money legally. Unfortunately, copyright law doesn't work even a little bit like that, and he grows quite angry when this is pointed out to him. His "solution" is to start poisoning the staff of the copyright office one-by-one with his Joker venom until they agree to see it his way. It's hinted that he already knew he wouldn't be able to copyright the fish, and was just doing it as an excuse to torture the copyright clerks and draw in Batman for a trap.
- In "Joker's Wild", the Joker initially wants to blow up the casino that a corrupt entrepreneur has opened in his likeness to cash in on his popularity...and the huge insurance payout he'll get when the Joker makes good on his threat. Instead, the Joker decides to run the place himself... after bumping off the casino owner, of course.
- Given the sheer level of scientific knowhow he displays in his supervillain career- he himself outright claims to be a genius ahead of his time- one wonders why he was a mid- level mob enforcer hefore the acid bath.
Dartboard of Hate:
- A TV example in "Be a Clown", where he throws a pie on his own TV as if he's hitting the Mayor's face.
- He flings darts at a newspaper's front-page photograph of Commissioner Gordon in "The Joker's Favor".
- A dartboard with a photo of Batman on it can be seen in his hideout on several occasions.
Deadpan Snarker: In his less hammy moments, he can be quite a smart-ass. Not on Batman's levels though.
Two-Face: Get out of my face, clown!
Joker: Which one?
Death Dealer: He packs razor-edged playing cards on occasion.
Decoy Backstory: In "Mad Love", a flashback reveals that Dr. Harleen Quinzel grew to sympathize with the Joker after he told her about his traumatic childhood growing up with an abusive, misanthropic father, which helped motivate her decision to join him as Harley Quinn. In the climax of the episode, Batman reveals that this was just one of many fake backstories that the Joker has used to fish for sympathy, leaving Harley devastated.
Depending on the Artist: The animators could never keep straight exactly how wide Joker's shoulders were meant to be, whether or not he has eye makeup (and how thick it should be if so), and whether his hair was supposed to be dark green or black with green highlights.
Depending on the Writer: He's either just a trouble making jerk or a complete psychopath with no redeeming qualities. Of course, given he's the Joker, this works perfectly with his character by adding to his chaotic unpredictability.
Depraved Dentist: "Mad Love" starts with him pretending to be a dentist and attempting to do who knows what to Commissioner Gordon with a dentist drill.
Joker: My, my. Tsk, tsk, tsk. This doesn't look good at all. I'm afraid...EVERYTHING WILL HAVE TO GO!!
Disproportionate Retribution: He was guilty of this on more or less a regular basis.
- In "The Laughing Fish", the Joker introduces his smile toxin into the fish supply of Gotham Harbor, hoping to trademark the red-lipped, grinning ichthyoids, then sell them and their assorted products ("Let's say, a nickel for a fish sandwich, 50 cents for sardines...") in supermarkets to finance his criminal lifestyle. When told that he cannot trademark fish, he retaliates by carrying out an elaborate scheme to murder members of the Gotham City patent office until he gets his way. Subverted in that Batman points out that Joker is smart enough to know that the law doesn't work like that, and he's just doing it For the Evulz.
- In "Joker's Wild", an entrepreneur opens a casino in Gotham City based on the Joker's likeness and gimmicks. Joker is so incensed that a complete stranger would try to "cash in on my image" that he plots to blow the casino up. Ironically, the entire point of the entrepreneur cashing in on Joker's image was that he wanted Joker to come and trash the place. The entire place was set up for an insurance scam. Too bad for him, the Joker eventually decided he would rather kill the guy and run the place himself...
- In "Be a Clown", Mayor Hamilton Hill (who despises Batman) appears on television claiming that Batman and the Joker are equally as bad. Joker finds this comparison so insulting that, disguised as a party clown, he crashes a birthday party held at the mayor's estate for his son, Jordan, and attempts to blow up Jordan's birthday party (along with all the guests) with a stick of dynamite in the cake.
- In "Make 'Em Laugh", the Joker, bitter about being disqualified from an annual stand-up comedy competition (because he hadn't registered as a competitor), steals some mind-control implants from the Mad Hatter, kidnaps the three comedians who serve as judges in the annual competition, fits them with the implants and warps them into becoming costumed criminals who attempt reckless capers (with one of the brainwashed judges winding up in the hospital after falling off a bridge) and replaces the judges with his own men just so he can win the trophy. Batman puts it well: "Only you would ruin three lives for a silly piece of tin."
  Joker: It's not about the piece of tin! It's about the title!
- The most extreme example, however, had to be that depicted in "Joker's Favor". After rudely cutting off another motorist, Charlie Collins, on the freeway, Joker is yelled at by Collins and retaliates by forcing him off the road and chasing him into the woods, threatening to kill him when he catches him. Collins begs for his life, and Joker agrees to spare him if he will perform "a favor" for Joker sometime in the future. Collins promptly changes his name and relocates his family to Ohio, but Joker obsessively stalks him and finally tracks him down, forcing him to honor the favor owed to him. Once Collins has done this favor (which makes him an unwitting accessory to the attempted assassination of Commissioner Gordon), Joker tries to do him in for good. When Collins survives and finally works up the nerve to confront his tormentor, Joker threatens to kill his family. All this because of a minor altercation on the freeway.
  Charlie Collins: Exactly at what point did I become life's punching bag?
- Inverted in "The Last Laugh". After Batman destroys the Joker's pet robot Captain Clown (which Joker considers murder, since Captain Clown was his best friend). Joker retaliates by... dumping a forklift full of smelly garbage right on top of Batman.
Domestic Abuser: The Joker and Harley have what is, beneath the make-up, a classic abusive relationship filled with emotional trauma and physical violence.
Do Not Adjust Your Set: He does this all the time, most notably in "Christmas with the Joker" and "Wild Cards".
Don't Explain the Joke: It’s his biggest Berserk Button outside of killing Batman instead of him; he nearly kills Harley for explaining how she improved on one of his death traps to use it to kill Batman. He also flips out when "King" Barlowe pulled a posthumous fake inheritance prank on him, and when Terry trolls him during their final battle in Return of the Joker.
Don't Try This at Home: He escapes from Arkham with a rather dangerous-looking stunt—tying a rock around a rope made from bedsheets, using it as a grapple to snag a truck passing by the asylum, and using it to pull himself over the fence. He laughs "Don't try this at home, kiddies!" before he pulls it off.
The Dragon: To Luthor on occasion, notably "World's Finest" and "Injustice For All", in which he strong-arms his position into Lex's right-hand man. Though Luthor tries to have him killed in "World's Finest" and Joker becomes the bigger threat once he kidnaps Luthor and steals the Lexwing.
The Dreaded: Not so much in the beginning, but once word got out about how frightening he was?
Driven to Suicide:
Batgirl: Don't be stupid! You can't save that money!
Joker: I don't wanna save it! I wanna go with it!
Electric Joybuzzer: A favorite gadget of his (and ironically his undoing years later).
Entitled Bastard: He antagonizes Batman all the time, but he'll still ask for the Dark Knight's help when things go south for him.
Even Evil Has Standards: Both Played for Laughs.
- The clown might crazy enough to take on Batman, but not even he has the guts to take on the IRS.
- There is also his meetings with the Creeper, who even he thinks is a lunatic.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He cannot understand Batman’s behavior or why he does the heroic things he does. Several episodes show him killing or attempting to kill innocent civilians because it will draw Batman out, while not realizing why this would bother Batman.
Eviler than Thou: To Lex Luthor. In "World's Finest", Luthor thought he held his strings the entire time and when the Joker failed to kill Superman (though he came closer than almost anyone previously), tries to betray and kill him. This turned out to be an incredibly BAD idea, as Joker quickly stole his Lexwing and started a plan to destroy everything Luthor had built.
Evil Genius: Beneath the theatrics and flashy outfits, Joker is extremely intelligent with a great knowledge of chemistry which he uses to make his Joker Venom and is a brilliant Gadgeteer Genius. He boasts of this, with some justice, in Return of the Joker by pointing out that he used cutting-edge genetics to orchestrate his Grand Theft Me, claiming that he was "years ahead of his time" in pulling of the nearest thing to a science fiction Soul Jar.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Of the "killing people with laughing gas and bombing a whole city is a hoot" variety. But as Terry and King Barlowe point out, he ironically cannot stand being the punchline.
Evil Is Angular: Both of his designs. The first one gives him a long and pointy nose, and eyes that are almost triangular. His later design has a chin so pointy it looks like you could cut yourself on it. Even his hair looks kind of pointy.
Evil Is Hammy: Let's just say, subtlety is not one of his strong points. Aside from The Hyena, he also has a love of theatrics and gimmicks while also creating as much chaos as possible.
Evil Is Not a Toy: Many people who get him as a Psycho for Hire eventually find this out the hard way, often when they've ordered him around one time too many or the game's just gotten boring. Just ask Lex Luthor and Salvatore Valestra.
Evil Is Petty: His schemes often revolve around carrying out acts of terrorism over minor infractions, especially in a majority of his first season appearances. His plots amount to ruining Christmas for Batman and Gotham, ruining the mayor's son's birthday party, ruining a party in honor of Commissioner Gordon, attempting to patent something that legally cannot be patented, and then gassing the guy at the patent office who told him so...oh, and he obsessively stalks an average guy and his family and then forcibly recruits him into one of his plots, all because the guy cussed at him while driving. Which is part of what makes the character so scary - he doesn't differentiate between grandiloquent evil and petty evil. It's all equally relevant.
Evil Laugh: His most marked feature, which Mark Hamill turned into the most strangely magnificent art form. He talked about practicing said laughs while driving to work and remarked about how strange he had to have looked while doing so.
Evil Sounds Deep: When Joker's voice gets deep, it's a sign that he's not amused, at least earlier on. As Hamill got older, his voice gradually got deeper, with Justice League having his voice at its deepest.
- The Japanese dub is not a slouch on this department either, courtesy of the late Takeshi Aono.
Evil Sounds Raspy: In addition to becoming deeper, his voice also got much raspier as time went on.
Expy: With his high-pitched voice, mouth full of yellow teeth, long nose, Transatlantic accent and Hair-Trigger Temper, this show's Joker is almost identical to the Chief Blue Meanie, which Mark Hamill explicitly based his performance on.
Fake Crossover: During the Kids WB era, Joker once famously hosted a game of Pokémon with the rest of the rogues. Then, Ash Ketchum asked if he could join in—and he kept winning! Ash was lucky it wasn't a real crossover, since Joker does't take losing all that well.
Fan Boy: Of Looney Tunes, unsurprisingly. He is heard whistling the theme song in a few episodes, and seen watching it briefly in "Joker's Wild". He also uses one of Daffy's iconic lines in the Justice League episode, "Injustice for All" after Batman gets the better of him.
Fatal Flaw:
- His obsession with Batman. In fact it could be argued that his biggest drive is to be recognized for battling the Bat, which has been used against him at least twice.
- His vanity. Despite loving to hear himself laugh even if others don't care, he ironically hates being laughed at.
  - "King" Barlowe posthumously had the last laugh by revealing that most of the fortune he willed to Joker was fake. The clown would be royally screwed between two options: either admit he was conned by a dead man and become Gotham's Butt-Monkey, or go to jail for tax evasion.
  - During their final battle in Return of the Joker, Terry riles the clown by insulting him so he would leave himself open for Terry to fry the DNA-altering chip he used on Tim Drake with the joy-buzzer, finally killing him for good.
Faux Affably Evil: A great example of this is in "The Laughing Fish". He politely enters a copyright office and tries getting his fish patented legally, then slaps a copyright bureaucrat with a fish and threatens to murder him when it turns out that's not how it works.
Fed to the Beast: He threatens to throw people to his hyenas, though whether or not he actually follows through on this threat is rather unclear.
First Law of Resurrection: He appears to die several times in the DCAU, but it never sticks. That is until Return of the Joker.
Five-Aces Cheater: In "Joker’s Wild," he masquerades as a dealer to blatantly cheat at Blackjack by dealing himself winning cards, only to promptly lose his winnings to Bruce Wayne, who also cheats while repeatedly giving Joker Stealth Insults that role him up. After that, he resorts to flat out stealing the chips off the table.
Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: Darkly invoked in Charlie Collins' case; see But for Me, It Was Tuesday.
A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: Upon coming into possession of $250 million in "Joker's Millions", he immediately blows most, if not all, of it on things like mansions, fast cars and the like. The guy who willed it to him, mobster "King" Barlowe, anticipated that he would do this and made it the cornerstone of his Thanatos Gambit.
Forgot to Pay the Bill: He does this in "Joker's Millions".
For the Evulz: When he isn't selling his services. According to Batman, while normal criminals usually have logical motives, Joker's insane schemes make no sense to anyone except him alone.
Freak Out: Whenever he’s sufficiently upset or enraged, expect property damage and death, and lots of it.
Freudian Excuse: Exploited. He often tells sob stories about how he Used to Be a Sweet Kid tormented by Abusive Parents to trick people into giving him what he wants, which is how he was able to manipulate Harley into becoming his henchwoman.
The Friend Nobody Likes: He seems to be this among the other rogues outside of Harley, who dislike him mainly because he’s a massive dick, and because he’s perfectly happy to kill them. He's also not well-liked or trusted among the Injustice League.
From Nobody to Nightmare: His origins are rather meager as a thug working for Sal Valestra (shown during Mask of the Phantasm) but after just one botched job, he rises to become so much more...
In the DC Animated Universe Myth Arc, he starts as a common criminal, becomes a supervillain with a gimmick, and becomes progressively dangerous. After Batman shuts down his operations in Gotham, he moves to other cities like Metropolis and Las Vegas, and becomes increasingly dangerous on a nationwide scale. Back in Batman: TAS, he shifts from both extremes on a daily basis; some days he'll pull of silly crimes like hijacking a comedy competition, while other days he'll launch a city-scale air strike or hold the city ransom by using a nuclear weapon.
Funny Answering Machine: Naturally, it's also disturbing.
Joker: [laughs] Boy, did you get a wrong number. Leave your message at the sound of the shriek.
Man's voice: No! Please! Don't! [shrieks]

G-L

Gag Nose: His nose is very long and pointed. It is even this distinguishing feature that allows Batman (and the audience) to recognize him on a photo taken before he got dipped in the chemical vat.
Giggling Villain: Though it’s often used as a prelude to more maniacal laughter.
Giving Them the Strip: Batman tries to grab him in "Christmas with the Joker", only to end up holding his cardigan, complete with a false set of arms.
Grand Theft Me: In Return of the Joker, it is revealed that he survived his death by secretly installing a computer chip with his personality and DNA inside Tim Drake's mind, enabling him to come back by taking control of Drake.
Hair Color Dissonance: Inverted; in contrast to others Jokers who sport bright green locks, this Joker's hair is such a dark shade of green that it looks black most of the time even before the Art Evolution just made his hair completely black anyway.
Hair-Trigger Temper: While he often hides it under his jovial persona, Joker is easily set off by any slight, real or perceived. The objects of his rage always receive some sort of Disproportionate Retribution; a few episodes imply he simply uses this as an excuse to torture people out of sheer sadism.
Hanging Judge: He masquerades as one during "Trial", complete with a powdered wig.
Hated by All: Outside of Harley, absolutely nobody likes him. The Batfamily obviously hates his guts while his own henchmen and everyone in Gotham fear him. Even the other rogues dislike him for a far more mundane reason: he's a full-blown asshole.
Hates Being Touched: Big time, as shown in Mask of the Phantasm. When his former boss, Sal Valestra, grabs him by the collar and threatens him, Joker's mask of mirth melts into pure inhuman rage◊, and he growls before breaking Valestra's grip and snapping at him not to touch him; the next time we see Valestra, he's been killed by Joker venom and used as bait to lure the Phantasm into a Death Trap.
Joker: Don't touch me, old man! ...I don't know where you've been!
The Hedonist: He has proclaimed himself to be a hedonist, and it seems to fit; many of his crimes are based around just doing things that amuse him or make him happy, and whenever he sells his services or tries to extort money out of Gotham, it’s to fund his lifestyle, which usually doesn’t net him a whole lot of money. He also doesn’t give a damn about what anyone else thinks about his pursuits of happiness, mainly because the pain and suffering of others is what makes him happy.
Hidden Depths:
- While the audience knows better and never underestimates him, other villains tend to think he's just a harmless clown at first.
- He's a talented chemist: the Joker venom is something of his own concoction.
- While generally gleeful and aloof, several episodes delve into just how obsessed he is with killing Batman. In "The Man Who Killed Batman", the prospect of being unable to do so brings him to tears. In "Mad Love", he nearly murders Harley for attempting to kill Batman in his stead. He drops his gleeful façade when Batman notes that Harley came closer to killing him than he ever did, losing his composure and attacking Batman in a much more animalistic fashion than usual. In "Joker's Favor", Joker responds to Charlie Collins' threats by screaming at and violently threatening Collins and his family. His typically lax attitude towards death is dropped when Collins notes that dying then and there would mean never having the chance for a final battle with Batman, at which point Joker starts begging for his life.
Hoist by His Own Petard:
- In "Joker's Favor", he's ultimately beaten and humiliated by one of his own dud bombs.
- In the crossover with Static Shock, he tries to kill Static at the climax with his electric joy buzzer. Static has electrical superpowers, so it goes about as well as you'd expect.
  - Technically, he didn't try to kill Static, he was actually trying to kill Batman with said joy buzzer. Unfortunately for him, Static happened to be the one to grab his hand, making this less a case of Too Dumb to Live and more a case of Didn't Think This Through (since he had no plan for if Static grabbed his hand instead of Batman).
Homemade Sweater from Hell: He wears a rather subdued example for his "Christmas special."
The Hyena: C'mon. It's The Joker.
Joker: Oh, what the heck, I'll laugh anyway. AH-HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Hypocrite:
- In "Mad Love", he yells at Harley for suggesting that he just shoot Batman. Then, after Harley captures Batman and she tells him to come over, he throws her out of a window and is about to set Batman free, only to try and just shoot him. Considering it doesn't work, he may have been right about the idea in the first place.
- Despite his comedy gimmick and habit of playing pranks or making light of everyone around him, he can't take a joke or laugh at himself at all. Being the punchline is a huge Berserk Button of his.
Hypocritical Humor: At one point, after having stuck Batman in a Death Trap and seeing him alive, he screams "Why won’t you DIE?!" This is coming from the master of Unexplained Recovery and the Trope Namer for Joker Immunity.
- For someone who loves to hear himself laugh even if others don't care, he really cannot stand being the punchline. Just ask Terry and King Barlowe.
Ignore the Fanservice: To Harley in "Mad Love" and "Beware the Creeper". He even provides the trope image.
I Have Many Names: He's said to have had many alias pre-Joker in "Beware the Creeper". However, it is a retcon as Dr. Bartholomew in "Dreams in Darkness" and a file on Kaiser's desk in "Joker's Wild" both state that, like in the 1989 Batman movie, his real name is Jack Napier.
Implacable Man: He manages to find Charlie Collins wherever he goes, no matter Charlie's maneuvers to lose him.
Incoming Hamill: He's introduced via singing Christmas songs while escaping from Arkham on a rocket disguised as a tree.
Crashing through the roof, in a one-horse open tree...
Insane Troll Logic: "The Laughing Fish" revolves around him poisoning all of Gotham's fish so they have creepy Joker smiles, which he then tries to use as a reason to copyright all fish products. When the guy at the copyright office points out that he can't do that because copyright doesn't work that way, he is very angry.
Insanity Immunity: In "Wild Cards", Ace has a basilisk gaze, the power to drive people insane just by looking at them, either in person or on TV. Joker claims to be immune because he's already too crazy to be affected, but succumbs to her when she turns her focus solely on him.
Instant Soprano: At the time, a Groin Attack could be included in the show with careful positioning. To indicate to the viewer that it actually had happened, the Joker's voice got noticeably higher.
Ironic Last Words: The Joker has spent years terrorizing Gotham for laughs. His final battle with Batman has him brainwash Robin into a miniature version of him, with the intent of having Batman's own partner be the one to finish him off. When Robin regains slight control at the last second and shoots Joker instead of Batman, his last words are "That's not funny... that's not..." before collapsing, dead.
Irony: He does want people to laugh, albeit in his own sick, insane way, but as King Barlowe and Terry point out, he really sucks at being a comedian in any form.
It's All About Me: He has a truly monstrous ego and a good chunk of his crimes are done simply because he feels he and he alone is entitled to something, whether it be an award, money, or killing Batman. And God help you if he thinks you’re taking credit for his act, no matter how many mental acrobatics it takes to come to that conclusion.
I Have Your Wife: He gets Charlie to go along with doing him a favor by threatening to murder his family.
It Amused Me: Half of the time, he’s only doing whatever he’s doing because he finds it funny. Unfortunately, the things he finds funny differ wildly from a normal person’s sense of humor.
I Control My Minions Through...: Fear, Corruption, and Material Benefits. He forces Charlie and who knows how many others to help him by threatening their families, he got Harley and countless others to help them through manipulations and psychologically toying with them, and he gets the rest of his henchmen to help by promising them a cut of the profits from his latest scheme.
Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He’s a cruel, manipulative sadist who gleefully tortures and mocks innocent people for the sake of getting a laugh, and treats everyone around him poorly, both allies and enemies alike. Any affection or love he shows towards Harley is merely a means to keep her on his side, or at least not genuine enough to stop his usual behavior towards her.
Joker Immunity: Survives bad incident after bad incident before being killed permanently in Return of the Joker. He does survive this death by using technology to possess Tim Drake, but that also comes to a permanent end when Terry shorts out the chip enabling him to control Drake's mind. However, his final death comes with a cheat where it takes far into the future, ensuring that Joker can never die in any future DCAU installments taking place before the events of Return of the Joker.
Jumping Out of a Cake: He does this in "Joker's Favor".
Just Eat Gilligan: When the Injustice Gang has Batman locked up, Joker tells them that it would be better for them if they simply killed Batman while they had him tied up, knowing that Batman would figure out how to escape and dismantle their plans after having experienced it first hand many times.
Karma Houdini Warranty: He causes massacre after massacre and rarely receives any real punishment for it apart from being imprisoned at Arkham. Subverted in Return of the Joker. After gleefully torturing Robin to insanity in the film's flashback sequence, he's either shot or electrocuted to death (depending on whether you're watching the edited or unedited version of the movie). While he does come back from this in the main story by using a chip to control Tim Drake's mind, he is eventually killed for good when Terry shorts his mind control chip out.
"Kick Me" Prank: In "The Man Who Killed Batman", the criminals hold a funeral for Batman, who is thought dead. The Joker attaches a "Kick Me" sign to Batman's empty cape and cowl before it is to be sealed in a coffin.
Kick the Dog: Joker has done this numerous times to many, many people both before and after the chemical accident, including Harley, Charlie Collins, The Phantasm/Andrea Beaumont, Sid the Squid and countless unnamed/unseen victims. And especially Tim Drake.
Kill Sat: His Evil Plan in Return of the Joker. Joker created a satellite jammer and hijacked control of a Hyperion class defense satellite orbiting the planet so he could impose his will on Gotham.
Killed Off for Real: In a subversion of the very trope named after him, the clown eventually got this treatment in the DC Animated Universe. Yes, having proven himself as much of a survivor as his comic book counterpart and every bit the "no one" in No One Could Survive That!. Return of the Joker took the big leap and put him down once and for all via killing him twice. First, his body was destroyed and buried deep within Arkham in the flashback sequence. Then, the chip containing a copy of his DNA and memories was burned out just to make sure he won't be coming back. But there is a bit of a cheat with his permanent death, as the event occurs at the far end of the universe-at-large's history, allowing him to show up in stories taking place earlier; Justice League took advantage of this.
Killed Mid-Sentence: After the Brainwashed and Crazy Tim Drake shoots him, he says "that's not funny", then starts to repeat it but dies before he can get the whole statement out.
Killer Yoyo: He has used one at least twice.
Knight of Cerebus: In Return of the Joker, his dark side is more evident than his comical side, which makes him more sinister and evil than his other appearances in the DCAU.
Kubrick Stare: With his triangular eyes and lack of eyebrows, this is pretty much his default expression.
Lack of Empathy: He very clearly feels none of the pain that he causes others. No better is this displayed than in Return of the Joker, where he mocks Batman after learning his Secret Identity from torturing Robin enough to drive him insane while showing Batman that he filmed it all, remarking that Batman's Origin Story "would be funny if it weren't so pathetic," before deciding to laugh about it anyways. When Batman manages to crash through a window and beats him to a pulp, Joker nonchalantly tells him, "If you don't like the movie... I've got slides!" When Batman threatens to "break [Joker] in two", Joker is unfazed, saying that if Batman really wanted to "have that kind of fun", he would have done it years ago. This final comment perfectly displays his inability to understand human emotions, as any viewer could immediately tell from the context and the tone of Batman's voice that there was a very real chance of him breaking his one rule this time, but the Joker apparently didn't realize that killing strangers and torturing one of Batman's loved ones might cause him to react differently from normal. Either that, or the Joker just never cared.
Large Ham: Name one instance where he acted even remotely subdued or soft-spoken. We'll wait.
Laughably Evil: ZigZagged. His sheer insanity is sometimes Played for Laughs as evidenced when he kidnapped three people and threatened to kill them along with several others just for the sake of throwing a pie in Batman's face. Similarly, his propensity for pettiness is also used as a source of comedy in "Make 'Em Laugh" and "Joker's Millions." Nevertheless, despite such occasional moments of levity involving his character, he holds the notorious distinction of being the most sinister and abhorrent of Gotham's Rogues due to his willingness to directly target children, his central role in depriving Bruce Wayne (AKA Batman) of his last chance for happiness in Mask of the Phantasm, his horrific abuse of Harley Quinzel, as well as his torture of Tim Drake.
Laughing Mad: Come on. It's The Joker.
Laugh Track: In "Christmas with the Joker", he uses a laugh track in grossly inappropriate fashion while discussing violence/terrorism. It's possibly a secondary Lampshade Hanging that the "audience" he's using is revealed to be cardboard cutouts.
Lean and Mean: He is a tall, slim, and murderous lunatic.
Legacy Seeker: Joker's Favor implies he is one as Charlie Collins successfully inimidates him by threatening to kill him in a murder suicide. It wasn't that Joker was afraid of dying, he was afraid of being killed by a "nobody" instead of dying in a grand scheme or being killed in battle against the Dark Knight. To the Joker, his greatest fear is dying an embarrassing death and being forgotten.
Lost in a Crowd: In "Joker's Wild" and "Holiday Knights".

M-R

Mad Scientist: At Return of the Joker, he claims to be one and, as creator of the Joker venom, he probably is.
Joker: Beneath this puckish exterior lies the mind of a genius, years ahead of my time. In the weeks young Robin was under my tutelage, I used him as the subject of my greatest experiment. Using cutting-edge genetics technology which I pinched here and there, I encoded my DNA in a microchip and set it in Bird Boy's bird brain.
Manipulative Bastard: He plays this trope very well, being able to manipulate police, Batman, and the Justice League at one point. It's also the entire reason Harley is in love with him.
Man of Wealth and Taste: He usually wears a purple tuxedo.
Master Poisoner: He makes all of his own toxins, including his trademark Joker venom.
Misplaced Retribution: A favorite tactic of his is to target the people close to his latest victim as revenge, provided they’ve really pissed him off. In "World’s Finest", to get revenge on Luthor, he commandeers a prototype warship to destroy everything thing Luthor built; since Luthor built half of Metropolis...
Money to Throw Away: Hopefully most of the money he was tossing was the counterfeit stuff King Barlowe had tricked him with.
Monster Clown: There’s something about the way he looks in Justice League that makes him creepy to simply look at.
Moral Myopia:
- "You killed Captain Clown. YOU KILLED CAPTAIN CLOWN!!!" (Captain Clown was a mindless robot, and the Joker's current plot was driving the entire city insane.)
- "I'm crazy enough to take on Batman, but the IRS? No thank you!!!"
- "HE'S A LUNATIC!!!"
- "Don't you dare laugh at me!"
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: He is often animated with more teeth than the human mouth should be able to hold.
Multiple-Choice Past: "Mad Love" demonstrates that he has offered several Freudian Excuses to those who ask. Batman even lampshades it to Harley.
- Although it's averted in Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, in which he's explicitly shown to have been the mob henchman who killed Andrea's father before he took his infamous chemical bath. "Beware The Creeper" even makes a reference to it, while admitting his identity is still unknown and probably irrelevant.
Mysterious Past: All that’s known about his pre-Joker self is that he was a hitman working for the Valestra mob who struck out on his own and fell into a vat of chemicals during a fight with Batman. No one knows where he came from, what his real name is, or anything else about him.
Named by the Adaptation: Played straight than averted. The episodes "Dreams in Darkness" and "Joker's Wild" give him the name "Jack Napier", but "Beware the Creeper" retconned it into one of several aliases he used.
Narcissist: Vanity is his Fatal Flaw. Joker has a truly titanic ego, thinking he's the smartest and greatest comedian, criminal, and villain in the world, but a minor insult will set him off.
- In "Joker’s Wild", upon seeing the titular casino, he alternates between wanting to blow it up for infringing on his likeness and sheer glee at a casino dedicated entirely to him.
- "Joker's Millions" has him getting enraged at a dead rival who conned him with a fake Unexpected Inheritance.
- In Return of the Joker, he has a spectacular Villainous Breakdown when Terry openly mocks his failure to make Batman laugh and calls his clown-themed gags clichéd.
Near-Villain Victory: In "World's Finest", he has Superman trapped in a room with Kryptonite and dances around him electrocuting him, with no way out. Had Batman not pulled out a Big Damn Heroes, Superman would have died.
Nerf Arm: In Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, he has the choice to fight the Phantasm with either a giant, menacing, kitchen knife or a processed Bologna log. Guess which one he chooses.
Never Found the Body: He pulled this off often during the series.
Never My Fault: Being a complete narcissist, Joker refuses to accept the blame for his own failures and instead blames one of his minions (usually Harley) or a random civilian.
No One Should Survive That!: He has survived falls and explosions and seems immortal. Hence the term Joker Immunity. Ironically, he is Killed Off for Real in Return of the Joker.
No Sense of Humor: At least not when he's the butt of the joke.
Not Distracted by the Sexy: Several times, much to Harley's chagrin.
Not-So-Harmless Villain:
- As both Lex Luthor and Superman found out the hard way. The former thought he could control him, the latter thought he was just a nuisance. Joker proved both wrong by not only pulling a Starscream on Luthor and near leveling Metropolis, he also came this close to offing Superman.
- Joker also drops any pretense of being funny and goes all-out monstrous when he kidnaps and brainwashes Tim Drake into becoming his son, in a plan that comes very close to getting the Batman killed.
No Name Given: Early episodes referred to his real name as being Jack Napier, but it was retconned into being an alias, and it’s made clear that he was a complete enigma outside of a few traces of information before becoming the Joker.
Offscreen Teleportation: Specifically in the beginning of "Joker's Favor", where he is able to appear in front of Charlie in a forest despite taking a while to start pursuing him.
Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Subverted. A minor story arc had it turn out that his life of crime, constant usage of expensive weapons, and general extravagance had left him completely broke, forcing him to resort to petty crime and selling his services for a while.
Older Than They Look: Although only confirmed in the novelization, the man that would become the Joker was already 35 in the flashback sequence of Mask of the Phantasm and is therefore in his forties by the time he falls in the vat of acid in 1993. Considering there is a confirmed seven-year time gap between that event and Beware the Creeper, Joker may well be pushing his fifties by the time of his appearances in Justice League, despite looking every bit as spry and energetic as a man at the peak of his life. Beware the Creeper shows that a drop in a vat of Joker acid and getting hit with his laughing gas has an enhancing effect on a person's physical abilities, which may partially explain this. By the time of his final battle with Batman, however, he admits that he's begun feeling his age.
Once Done, Never Forgotten: Preventing this from happening becomes his primary motivation in "Joker's Millions." Joker knows that he'll be Gotham's laughingstock if he admitted falling for "King" Barlowe's fake Unexpected Inheritance scam. To save his rep, the clown returns to crime.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: There are some episodes that has Joker showcasing this trope towards Batman. For example, "Mad Love", where even Harley is not exempt from this; the tie-in comics show Joker fearing he'll be the laughing stock of Batman's rogues for not killing the Dark Knight. In "The Man Who Killed Batman", he is filled with rage when lead to believe Batman is truly dead, throwing his Worthy Opponent a mock funeral before planning to murder the man responsible. Terry also mocks his fixation with Batman in Return of the Joker much to his chagrin.
Outside-Genre Foe: Whenever the Joker encounters a hero that isn't part of the Bat Family, it rarely ends well for said hero. The sole exception throughout the entire continuity, crossovers included, is Static of all people, whom the Joker either doesn't take seriously or doesn't know he exists and pays for it thusly.
Paranoia Gambit: In "Joker's Millions", he inherits a fortune and uses it to buy his freedom, then spends a montage living it up as a rich man. When asked by Penguin what his scheme is, Joker remarks that he has none; the knowledge that the Bat-family can't touch him and that it's upsetting Batman is good enough.
Poisonous Captive: He talked his psychiatrist Harleen Quinzel into becoming Harley Quinn while still in Arkham. And it was implied early in "Mad Love" that he compromised the ones before her in a similar fashion.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Between his Domestic Abuse of his girlfriend Harley Quinn, his willingness to sneeringly hit on Andrea Beaumount as a mob enforcer, the robot housewife he jokingly hits on, and a fair bit of sexism he displays toward Poison Ivy and Harley during their team-ups, it's safe to say the Joker doesn't have the highest opinion of women.
Psycho for Hire: When he's not freelancing.
Pungeon Master: He lapses into this on occasion—puns are a form of humor, after all.
Purple Is Powerful: He almost always has a purple suit on and is pretty much the Big Bad.
Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": Probably the poster boy for this trope. He'll kill people with laughter on occasion too.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: His design in both the flashback sequence (which was reused for Static Shock and Justice League) and future era of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker give him red eyes to make him more menacing
Redemption Failure: In "Joker's Millions", he seems surprisingly content to spend the rest of his days as an Upper-Class Twit, until he runs out of real money. Once he learns that the majority of the money given to him was fake, he goes right back to crime to try and pay off the IRS without Batman finding out.
Remember the New Guy?: A trait shared with the Penguin. Unlike the majority of the rogues gallery's debut episodes, which present it as the first time Batman is facing that villain in the DCAU, "Christmas with the Joker" is presented as the then-latest encounter between Batman and the Joker.
Retcon: Early episodes stated his real name was Jack Napier, but in Mask of the Phantasm, Batman doesn’t recognize Joker’s pre-chemical dip self for a while. "Beware the Creeper" mentions that Jack Napier was merely an alias and the Joker’s true identity is unknown.
RevengeSVP: In "Joker's Favor", though it's more likely he's just taking the chance to kill Gordon while his guard is down, Joker sarcastically claims that he plans to attack Gordon's testimonial just because he wasn't invited.
- A sort of round-about version happens in "Be A Clown", where the Joker sneaks his way into Mayor Hill's son, Jordan's, birthday party to plant a bomb. However, he wasn't offended that he wasn't invited, but because of a different slight from Mayor Hill earlier in the episode.

S-Y

Sadist: This is what makes him so fearsome. He enjoys every act of malice he commits with no remorse at all. He also loves to torment his victims both physically and psychologically instead of simply killing 'em. In "Joker’s Favor", Charlie notes the only thing that brings Joker any joy is ruining other people’s lives and dreams.
Sanity Slippage: Downplayed. While he was always a psychotic murderer, he was cool, collected and loyal to the Valestra mob pre-chemical dip. Afterwards, he’s unhinged, loud, and loyal only to himself.
Sarcasm Failure:
- In "Almost Got 'Im", the Joker, who is saving his story for last, spends most of the episode quipping at and mocking the other villains' stories. However, Killer Croc's story is so dumb that the Joker can only stare dumbfounded at him, with this sort of "what-is-this-guy-even-doing-here" expression frozen on his face ^note.
- During the flashback sequence featured in Return of the Joker, he spends most of the film quipping, laughing, and generally being his usual Monster Clown self (with a bit of anger on the side). The only scene that makes him drop it all is when Tim Drake shoots him.
  The Joker: That's not funny... That's not...
- Also in Return of the Joker, his reaction to Terry calling his clown-themed MO stale and mocking his fixation with Batman is a Villainous Breakdown. After all, a comedian's worst nightmare is The Heckler. Joker loves to hear himself laugh even if others don't care, but he ironically has No Sense of Humor as he hates being laughed at.
Secret Identity Apathy: Surprisingly averted. This version of the Joker actually doesn't seem to have a problem with finding out Batman's true identity as shown in "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne" when he pools him money together with The Penguin and Two-Face to find out Batman's identity from Hugo Strange. Or in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker where he tortures Tim Drake in order to force him to reveal Batman's identity. Although, he admits that the truth is a bit anticlimactic in the end.
Serious Business: The Joker kidnaps and brainwashes three famous comedians all so that he can rig a comedy competition. As he explains, it is not about the trophy, it is about the title.
Shamu Fu: In "The Laughing Fish", The Joker hits an accountant with a fish for interrupting him.
Sharp-Dressed Man: Mentions this about himself.
Joker: WHAT?!!! Compare me to Batman?! I got more style, more brains! I'm certainly a better dresser!
Shoot the Television: In "Joker's Millions", he shoots the Video Will in which his benefactor reveals most of the money is fake.
Skull for a Head: If you took the hair away from his TNBA design, his face would definitely evoke a skull.
Slasher Smile: He wears a permanent one.
Small Name, Big Ego: As Terry points out, this applies to his view of himself as a comedian. Joker genuinely believes himself to be the greatest supervillain ever, when pretty much all of his supposed jokes are pathetic. He also cannot stand The Heckler, a comedian's Arch-Enemy. The only people he is ever really able to entertain In-Universe while attempting a genuine comedy act is a bunch of children while he's masquerading as a clown. Joker being Joker, he flips out and views this as an insult.
Smug Snake: Joker has a massively inflated ego that occasionally leads to him severely underestimating non-Batman enemies like Terry, King Barlowe, and Charlie Collins, and he acts completely sure of himself while he mocks and torments innocent people who can’t fight back. The second the tables are turned, the smugness goes away and is replaced with either pathetic begging or becoming an Ax-Crazy maniac if his ego is bruised.
The Sociopath: The most clear-cut example among Batman's major enemies since he never shows any concern for the people he kills or harms. Even his pre-chemical dip self, who only appears briefly in flashbacks and photos, has shades of this, as he walks away with a smile after killing Andrea Beaumont's father while she grieves over his death.
The Speechless: His pre-chemical dip self is never shown speaking onscreen.
The Starscream: He turns out to be much more dangerous than Luthor in "World's Finest".
Stepford Consumer: One of his schemes involved making a commercial. Even with the Joker's usual level of trademark enthusiasm, the commercial barely seemed out of place.
Stupid Evil: Has a penchant for this, as he's had multiple times when he could have just killed Batman, but instead insists on a needlessly elaborate way of killing him in order to feed his own sadism and ego. Also, in Harlequinade he gets hold of a nuclear bomb but plans to set it off in Gotham just because, rather than bothering holding the city for ransom or anything that would actually benefit him. Rival mob boss King Barlowe exploits the clown's vanity posthumously with his fake Unexpected Inheritance scam in a final up-yours, knowing that Joker would binge-spend before realizing he's been had and is facing a major tax bill.
Success Through Insanity: The reason his schemes work so well is that they’re usually so batshit insane and made up on the fly that nobody can predict them. A good example of this is his breakout from Arkham in "Joker’s Wild", where he manages to escape by mixing various chemicals together just to make a slippery substance, playing a guessing game with the guards pursuing him as to whether it’s poison or not, pouring it on the floor, pulling a handkerchief rope out of nowhere, and swinging it at a truck, pulling him on top of the truck. He promptly teases the driver before throwing him out and hijacking the truck. He does all of this in under a minute.
Sue Donym: In "Joker's Millions", the impoverished Joker is living in a cheap apartment due to money issues. When heading in, he's addressed at the front desk as a "Mr. Kerr", implying he signed his name as "Joe Kerr" when renting the place.
Super Window Jump: Despite being aware enough about the silliness, he does one (from a considerable height) of his own in Mask of the Phantasm. But then again, he IS smart enough to be aware of his own Joker Immunity.
Take a Third Option: In "Joker's Millions", since he has two choices (either go to jail for tax evasion or admit that he's been fooled and become Gotham's laughing stock), he chooses to commit a crime to get his fortune back.
Thanatos Gambit: How he circumnavigates death at the hands of Tim Drake.
Thin Chin of Sin: Especially after his first redesign, where it looks sharp enough to poke somebody's eye out.
Throw Down the Bomblet: He's used a variety of explosives in combat, including seemingly ordinary-looking marbles and grenades with his own face painted on them.
Took a Level in Badass: When he goes all "Grand Theft Me" on Tim Drake, he utilizes the training that he has available to great effect. Even earlier in "World's Finest", he comes perilously close to killing Superman, coming closer than any villain except Darkseid.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Following "Mad Love", he gets worse and worse than he already was, as well as far more sinister. His chronologically final appearance in Return of the Joker has him lose even his begrudging respect for Batman, the only thing he had that was close to a redeeming quality.
Too Spicy For Yog Sogoth: Even he thinks the Creeper is a lunatic.
Train Escape: In "Mad Love", the Joker falls off a ledge onto a train's roof during a chase scene. He tries to taunt Batman, only to find him standing right behind his back.
Troll: The Joker is a lethal variant of these. Each of his schemes is tailored as a joke or a prank, and he's sometimes even lectured his underlings on the importance of proper buildup and delivery when telling a joke. Batman in particular is the Joker's preferred victim, and he has refused to kill or unmask Batman simply because it would spoil the fun of trolling him. But when others use this against him, he really goes nuts, as it's his main Berserk Button^note.
Unexpected Inheritance: He receives one in "Joker's Millions". Most of it is fake.
Unexplained Recovery:
- For examples of him being a master of this kind of this thing, see Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and "World's Finest".
Harley: Puddin'!
Batman: At this point, he probably is.
- The episode (and earlier comic) for the Trope Namer of Mad Love features Batman punching him off a moving track and falling directly into a factory's smokestack. He lives, of course, and by this point his ability to survive anything is so taken for granted not even a cursory attempt is made to explain it.
Ungrateful Bastard: To Harley and anyone who helps him in any way, who will invariably be treated like shit if they’re lucky and killed if they’re not.
Unwitting Pawn: Cameron Kaiser builds a casino themed after him. Joker is understandably incensed, breaks out of Arkham to punish this act of image-theft by blowing up the joint. As Batman finds out, Kaiser had spent too much on his building, and gave it a Joker-theme so the Joker would do just that, and then cash in on the insurance.
Unstoppable Rage: Whenever he goes into a Villainous Breakdown, he can take on any opponent, no matter how strong, with his bare hands. In the climax of "Mad Love", he actually nearly beats Batman to death after Bats caps off a "Reason You Suck" Speech by calling him "Puddin".
Victory Is Boring: In "The Man Who Killed Batman", the Joker is clearly unconvinced of his nemesis's demise and goes about robbing a diamond store to force Batman to come thwart him. After a standoff several hours long, he grudgingly admits his greatest foe is gone and that crime is no fun without him. He orders his gang to take nothing and leaves empty handed.
Villainous Breakdown: He has a funny one, being bullied by Charlie Collins and calling Batman for help!
- He has a straightforward version in Return of the Joker after Terry dissects his psyche and points out that while he may be a pretty intimidating supervillain, he's nothing but a pathetic comedian with a childish obsession of breaking the original Batman's stoicism and then starts laughing at him.
Joker: Don't you dare laugh at me!
Terry: Why? I thought The Joker always wanted to make the Batman laugh?
Joker: YOU'RE NOT BATMAN!!!
Villainous Cheekbones: All the better to showcase his enormous smile.
Villains Out Shopping: After he throws out Harley, we next see him stumbling around his hideout in boxers, forgetting to feed the hyenas and unable find his socks.
Villains Want Mercy: Hanging over a pit of molten metal:
Joker: Batman! You wouldn't let me fry, would you?
Batman: [humorously considers it]
Joker: BATMAN! [Batman pulls him up]
Villain Respect: After learning about how Cameron Kaiser used him as an Unwitting Pawn for an elaborate form of insurance fraud, Joker makes sure to applaud him for such a great scheme before trying to kill him.
Vocal Evolution: His voice becomes gradually smoother and more sinister over time.
We Have Reserves: He implies this in "Trial":
Scarface: Hold on, you'll hit Croc!
Joker: What's your point?
Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: It's not addressed in the episode, but in "Christmas with the Joker", you have to wonder how and when he managed to get the facilities to broadcast a TV show on every channel, turn an observatory telescope into a giant cannon, and construct all those giant toys with his face on them.
Worthy Opponent: At least initially the Joker enjoyed his bouts with Batman and while he would have liked to kill Batman, he definitely didn't go all out to destroy Batman. In one episode when it seems that Batman has really died, the Joker genuinely mourns the loss of his great foe.
Joker: (somber) Without Batman, crime has no punchline.
- Come Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, one would still think he considers Batman one, but in reality it's averted: he hates Batman's habit of being unbreakable and only goes through all the complex schemes he does because he wants to defeat Batman completely and utterly (i.e. make Batman laugh). As long as it's by his plotting that Batman falls, he has little to no problems seeing him dead. This could most likely be that after years of sparring with neither getting anywhere the Joker started to get as fed up with the game as Batman. His last evil act had nothing to do with crime and was meant only to target Batman personally. His line also hammers it home:
  Joker: I guess I should salute you as a "worthy adversary" and all that, but the truth is, I really did hate your guts. [blows raspberry]
Would Hurt a Child: He planted a bomb at Jordan Hill's birthday party with several children in attendance and then kidnaps Jordan and has no problem holding him hostage and lobbing bombs around with the boy caught in the fray. And of course, there is the time when he used torture to drive Tim Drake insane.
Yellow Eyes of Sneakiness: Joker's first look had yellow sclerae, no doubt another consequence of the chemicals that turned his skin chalk white, his hair green, and his lips red.
Yiddish as a Second Language: The Joker, oddly enough, occasionally peppers his speech with Yiddish, despite his claim in at least one episode of being Irish. He could be of mixed Irish/Ashkenazi descent, or just following the example of the many famous comedians who had Jewish roots. Knowing the Joker though, he might simply do what entertains him at the moment.

Tropes from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

A-K

And Your Little Dog, Too!: His Evil Plan is to create a giant smiley face in Gotham with a Kill Sat. He intends to start with Wayne Manor, but he also (literally) storyboards that the smile will just happen to take him through Terry's home — killing his mother and little brother — and Gotham General Hospital — killing Dana, who was injured earlier by the Jokerz while they were trying to kill Terry himself. To rub salt in this further, he sarcastically justifies it by saying it will make Terry a more interesting hero once Joker gives him the tragic backstory of killing everyone he loves, which is just another way of the Joker telling Terry he finds him inferior to the previous Batman.
Anti-Climactic Unmasking: His attitude upon finding out Batman's identity.
Arch-Enemy: He is the worst of the worst in Batman's rogues gallery. Because of what the clown did to Tim, Bruce felt uneasy talking about Joker, claiming that the clown only wanted to make him "laugh" (i.e. mentally break him).
Terry: It's funny. I know about all your other major enemies, but you never mention him. He was the biggest, wasn't he?
Bruce: It wasn't a popularity contest. He was a psychopath. A monster.
Attention Whore: How Terry beats him - he figures out that half the reason Joker does anything is simply for the attention it brings him, and that the other half is trying to get a laugh out of Batman. Terry thus gets under his skin by pointing all this out, calling it pathetic, and laughing at him for it, which enrages the Joker enough that he gets distracted and is taken down for good.
Badass Bookworm: He has developed formidable hand to hand skills since his return and can actually outfight Terry, which differs from his old self who was never able to fight with Batman without resorting to cheap shots and dirty tricks. This is because he is possessing Tim Drake, who after all was trained by Batman.
Bad Boss: Won’t tell the Jokerz what his plans are for. When Bonk lashes out at him for this he immediately and viciously kills him in front of the other members to reassert his control.
The Bad Guy Wins: Despite dying, Joker succeeded in fracturing the Bat-family. They are only able to reconcile once Tim was no longer haunted by him.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Joker always wanted to make Batman laugh. When the new Batman does laugh, he's laughing at how lame the clown really is.
Berserk Button: Never trash-talk him or tell that his jokes are lame, especially in his face. Bonk learns this the hard way when Joker uses his "Bang!" Flag Gun at him. On the flip side, Terry exploits this by driving him nuts.
Big Bad: Of Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.
Big "SHUT UP!": Throws these after Terry condescendingly insults him.
Blowing a Raspberry: After the following statement:
Adios, Brucie. I guess I should salute you as a worthy adversary and all that, but the truth is, I really did hate your guts.
Body Surf: Shortly before his death, Joker used a micro-chip stolen from Cadmus to implant his memories, personality, and genetics onto Tim Drake; when the chip activates, Tim is transformed into a clone of the original Joker.
Break the Comedian: Joker mockingly calls Bruce "a little boy in a playsuit crying for mommy and daddy," but in an Ironic Echo, the clown flips out when Terry calls his jokes "pathetic."
Can't Take Criticism: After Terry trolls his fixation with Batman and calls his jokes bland, Joker's Smug Snake Monster Clown mask goes out the window. Only the monster remains from that point.
Clone by Conversion: He isn't the original Joker per se, but a sort-of clone created by him as a backup for if and when he finally kicked the bucket. Joker created him through a combination of genetic engineering, an advanced microchip... and an unwilling and unwitting host in the form of Tim Drake.
The Corrupter: Pulls this on Tim Drake twice, once via mind rape and the other via a microchip that allows him to take over Tim's body in his older years.
- While not in the same way, it's heavily implied he intended to do a variant of this with Terry as well in order to make him into the type of Batman that he prefers, given his desire to kill all of Terry's loved ones.
The Dreaded: Though he told Terry about his other villains, Bruce never talked about Joker. When Joker returned, Terry realized it was because he was the worst of them all due to what he did to Tim.
Evil Wears Black: He's traded in his trademark purple-and-green tuxedo for a simple black bodysuit with purple accent stripes, and is as evil as he ever was.
Fatal Flaw: His Attention Whore status is exploited by Terry, who wrecks the clown mentally by calling him a piss-poor comedian with lame material.
For the Evulz: As ever, Joker's only goal is to find new and improved ways to wreck havoc on Gotham City. Like hijacking a Kill Sat.
Genius Bruiser: The real Joker made (or stole and modified) the device that controls Tim. The Drake-Joker has the combined intellect of both the regular Joker AND Tim Drake, who in addition to being a highly-trained crimefighter went on to become a satellite engineer.
Good Hair, Evil Hair: When he reappears in the 2040s, his hair is slicked back.
Grand Theft Me: How he survived, thanks to a control chip planted in Tim Drake's neck years ago.
Hate Sink: The DCAU incarnation of the Joker was always a monster, but his evil was usually counterbalanced by making him a Laughably Evil Large Ham. Return of the Joker, however, seems designed to make him out to be as despicable as possible. To elaborate, he kidnapped then-Robin Tim Drake, tortured and Mind Raped him for three weeks, mutilated him, "fixed" him up as Joker Jr., implanted a microchip doctored with the Joker's DNA into his body, and invited Batman over to see his work in detail (which included a home video of the boy's torture labeled as "Our Family Memories"). He then reveals that he's learned Batman's Secret Identity, mocks him for it (and for not having the balls to kill him after all this), and knifes him before he tosses "J.J." a spear gun to finish him off with. To drive the point home, the Joker's actions in the film were so monstrous that, despite having voiced him for nearly a decade by this point, Mark Hamill actually felt uncomfortable with reprising the role this time around.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Twice. The first is when Tim turns on the Joker and administers the fatal strike. The second is when Terry uses the Joker's own joy buzzer to fry the control chip in Tim's body.
Horrifying the Horror: He freaks out when Terry mocks his obsession with the original Batman. After all, a comedian's worst nightmare is The Heckler.
Hypocrite: It's OK for him to make light of other people's misery, but when Terry turns his jokes back at him, he flips out.
Ironic Echo: In spirit, if not exact wording. At the end of the day, the clown is just an oaf whose jokes are boring to Terry. Joker doesn't take Terry's disrespect lightly.
Joker to Batman (Bruce): It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic. (beat) Oh, what the heck, I'll laugh anyway.
Batman (Terry) to Joker: You make me laugh...but only because I think you're kinda pathetic.
Joker Immunity: Finally averted. He actually dies for good twice in the film (the first time is when he's killed by Tim Drake in the modern day and the second time is when Terry fries the chip containing Joker's consciousness and DNA coding attached to Tim Drake's neck in the future).
Kill Sat: His master plan is to use one to carve up Gotham into a smiley face.
Killed Off for Real: Happens twice, averting his own Joker Immunity.
Knight of Cerebus: In Return of the Joker, his comedic side is very restrained and his dark side is more evident, which makes him more sinister and evil than his other appearances in the DCAU. While Bruce talked about all of his rogues gallery to Terry, he felt uneasy upon mentioning his number 1 Arch-Enemy.

L-Y

Legacy Character: Downplayed. He's not the actual Joker as Bruce remembers him, but rather a clone ^note, intended to carry on his legacy in the event he did die.
Lightning Bruiser: Surprisingly, he can overpower Terry (whose physical strength is increased from the suit) with ease. It's at least partially a result of him possessing Tim Drake's body and having access to his training from Batman.
Logical Weakness: Terry figures out and ridicules Joker's fixation with making Bruce laugh. The repeated insults drive Joker nuts.
Mind Rape: He captured Tim and tortured him until he went insane, remolding him into Joker Junior. Tim eventually mostly recovered, but he was never the same afterwards.
Monster Clown: Still has the skin and hair after all these years.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: During his monologue to Bruce and Terry about how he survived and what he's going to do to Gotham, Joker makes the decision to show Terry where he put the microchip he used to control Tim. If he hadn't, Terry might not have been able to stop him for good (since there would've been no other way to stop the Joker without screwing over the innocent Tim along with him).
No Sense of Humor: For all his snark about Batman's failings and Black Comedy, the clown really hates being laughed at.
Nothing Is Scarier: Discussed. Despite his infamy, Terry notes that Joker was the only member of the Bat-family's Rogues Gallery that Bruce never told him about, correctly deducing that it was because he was the worst of the worst.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Joker reacts negatively when Terry mocks his failed attempts at making Batman laugh.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He drops his usual Laughably Evil shtick and becomes very livid when Terry condescendingly mocks him.
Joker: Impudent brat. Who do you think you're talking to?
Pet the Dog: Electing to adopt Tim is this towards Harley, as the alternative would be to have her conceive which... yeah, better to not think about that. Of course, from Tim's perspective, it's completely the other trope.
Pretender Diss:
- He thinks very little of Terry, derisively calling him "Bat-fake" and viewing him as a punk who can't measure up to the original Batman. During the final battle, Terry gets under Joker's skin by openly mocking him and his obsession with Batman in his face.
  Joker: Don't you dare laugh at me!
  Terry: Why? I thought the Joker always wanted to make Batman laugh!
  Joker: YOU'RE NOT BATMAN!!
- He also does this to the Jokerz, openly declaring them "a disgrace to the name Joker".
Psychopathic Manchild: During their final battle, Terry ridicules his childish fixation with Batman and calls him nothing but a stale comedian whose jokes are pathetically bland once the props are taken away. The clown doesn't take this insult lightly.
- In fact, this is a brilliant Ironic Echo to his own taunting of Bruce after finding out his identity, mocking him for being “a little boy in a play suit crying for mommy and daddy,” with the insult being thrown right back at his face.
- To highlight his immaturity, he blows a raspberry after dismissing Batman as a worthy adversary.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: This version has red pupils that glow in the dark, making him appear more menacing when he's obscured.
Sharing a Body: Tim Drake and the resurrected Joker are the same person, though this isn't a willing example on Drake's part. He's been implanted with a microchip containing the Joker's memories and DNA, which means the Joker can hijack the former Robin's body whenever he wants in order to create widespread chaos.
Shout-Out: His new design, particularly the slicked back hair, is meant to be a reference to Hannibal Lector
Sinister Suffocation: He shows a clear predilection for asphyxiation as an assassination method. His weapon of choice is a poison that causes victims to laugh uncontrollably until the respiratory system ceases to function, and during the final battle, he tries to finish off the hero by choking him to death.
Slasher Smile: With Joker and his venom around, this was inevitable. This time, they had made his smiles into horror.
Small Name, Big Ego: He reacts negatively when Terry snidely mocks him for failing to make Batman laugh despite his bombastic claims of being the greatest comedian and supervillain.
Smug Snake: He dismisses Terry as another Bat-fake incapable of defeating the Clown Prince of Crime. Terry proves it wrong as he is a different kind of Batman: a Combat Pragmatist willing to taunt their opponents.
The Sociopath: Unrepentantly evil, murders his own men, commits acts of terror for his own amusement, abducts, tortures and brainwashes a child… But then, it's the Joker, so no surprises here.
Something Only They Would Say:
- Joker gloats to an elderly Bruce when they first see each other again that "who would know me better than you?", indicating that he not only knows Bruce's secret (and has known for some time), but that he's well aware Bruce remembers him knowing it.
- Just as Tim seems to be mentally unravelling, he calms down and excuses himself, saying it's "old nasty memories twisting inside me like bad oysters" — a quintessentially Joker turn of phrase. He also calls Batman "Terry", despite the fact that he shouldn't know Terry's identity and the famously secretive Bruce wouldn't have told him.
Talking the Monster to Death: Or laughing him to death. Joker hates both options.
Troll: Deconstructed. He always mocks other people's misery just to hear himself laugh, but can't stand being the punchline of someone else's joke. After all, the only thing worse than a silent audience is when someone openly jeers at a comedian. Terry deliberately goads him so he will lower his own guard, fry the microchip that's housing his consciousness on Tim's neck with his joy buzzer, and be killed permanently.
Underestimating Badassery: He assumes that Terry is a Batman knockoff who cannot measure up to the original. Their final fight convinces Joker that Terry is willing to fight dirty, turn the Joker's mind games back on him, and kill him if necessary.
Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: Terry deliberately goads the clown to a Villainous Breakdown so he can fry the microchip that houses Joker's consciousness on Tim's neck with his own joy buzzer, ending the Monster Clown's reign of terror for good.
- Metaphorically, Terry turns the clown's mind games right back at him by bluntly mocking him.
Villain Reveals the Secret: After capturing and torturing Robin, Joker manages to acquire all of Batman's secrets such as the location of the Batcave and Bruce's identity.
Villainous Breakdown: Of the many, many Jokers who have existed and died in the Batman franchise, it may be Hamill's who goes down the hardest. Whereas Joker's tendency to take everything with a laugh has resulted in him dying with a smile on his face time and time again, Terry rattles him in a way that Batman couldn't do by getting so deep under the clown's skin that the Joker forgets about his Laughably Evil shtick and flies into a snarling, white-hot rage. He doesn't even remotely regain his composure; when Terry finishes him off for the last time, the Joker dies screaming.
Worthy Opponent: Lampshaded, mocked, and averted by the Joker towards Bruce as he prepares to blast Wayne Manor with his Kill Sat.
Joker: Adios, Brucie! I guess I should salute you as a "worthy adversary" and all that, but the truth is I really did hate your guts. [blows a Bronx cheer]
Would Hurt a Child: He kidnapped, tortured and brainwashed Tim Drake. Now he's possessing him.
Wrong Genre Savvy:
- While the Joker knows Bruce almost as well as a best friend (he did have access to Tim's memories) and could predict his actions very well, Terry makes it a point to let Joker know that he doesn't know him. More than that, Terry had an outsider's perspective on the Joker, though with in-depth knowledge from studying Bruce's old files, which meant he could more objectively find the flaws in Joker's thinking and planning without the serious personal history that the original Batman had with the Joker. Joker's typical strategy of goading Batman and making it personal to cloud Bruce's judgment are utterly ineffective against Terry, who just sees the clown as another stupid criminal. Joker doesn't take Terry's disrespect well. Ironically, the villain isn't entirely wrong when he furiously shouts that Terry isn't Batman; Terry is a completely different type of Batman at least.
- On a similar note, after shattering Robin's mind and alienating Bruce from ever bringing another partner with him into the field again, Joker seemed to fully expect that his latest protege would follow suit as a solo act since Bruce would never repeat that same mistake. Sadly for him, while Terry typically works alone, he's far more pragmatic about accepting help than his predecessor. This comes back to bite the Joker hard when he has Terry at his mercy, but loses his hold on the situation because Terry brought backup.

Characters / DCAU: Joker

The Joker

Voiced in English by: Mark Hamill (1992 - 2003)

Voiced in French by: Pierre Hatet (Batman: The Animated Series, Mask of the Phantasm, Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, Static Shock, and Justice League), Daniel Lafourcade (Return of the Joker)

Voiced in Latin Spanish by: Rubén Leon

Voiced in Swedish by: Per Sandborgh, Thomas Engelbrektson (Justice League)

Tropes from the modern era

Tropes from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

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Characters / DCAU: Joker

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The Joker

Voiced in English by: Mark Hamill (1992 - 2003)

Voiced in French by: Pierre Hatet (Batman: The Animated Series, Mask of the Phantasm, Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, Static Shock, and Justice League), Daniel Lafourcade (Return of the Joker)

Voiced in Latin Spanish by: Rubén Leon

Voiced in Swedish by: Per Sandborgh, Thomas Engelbrektson (Justice League)

Tropes from the modern era

Tropes from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

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