The series follows the Joker after the events of his previous series as leaves Gotham City and attempts to go global.
Or is he? Back at Gotham City, another Joker has surfaced and, believing himself to be the real deal, has vowed to find out who this 'imposter' is.
Each issue also features a non-canon backup story written by Rosenberg with art from Francesco Francavilla in which the Joker and friends get into whacky Silver Age inspired hijinks.
The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing provides examples of:
- Affectionate Parody: The backup stories poke fun at the bizarre plotlines often featured during the The Silver Age of Comic Books.
- Ambiguous Ending: The series ends with the two Jokers fighting and one dies. However, because of their wounds and the lack of clothing, it's left ambiguous who the survivor was as they even declare it really doesn't matter. Further twisting the knife, the narration attempts to reveal this, but it's on the corner of the last page. All in all, a very Joker thing. The lack of distinct eye scars on the surviving Joker does imply that the real Joker overcame the fake one.
- Ambiguous Syntax: Happens in a conversation between (the fake) Joker and Harley Quinn:"Joker": How've you been?
Harley: Better.
"Joker"': Oh, I'm so sorry.
Harley: What?
"Joker": Wait, do you mean like you've BEEN better or you've been BETTER?
Harley: What?
"Joker": Like "I was better before" or "things are better now"?
Harley: WHAT?! - Anti-Humor: Some of the jokes told in the narration do this, such as the Subverted Punchline in the Watchmen Shout-Out, where the guy instead
questions why his psychiatrist thinks going to see a clown would fix depression. - Black Comedy: Again, some of the jokes in the narration. One of the first is the classic "First, make sure he's dead" gag.
- The Bus Came Back: The backup stories brought Gaggy and Jackanapes back, though for Gaggy, the bus hasn't been gone that long.
- Comically Missing the Point: In the second backup story, Bane gives an impassionate speech at the Joker's (fake) funeral about how the latter "told the people to reject the truths they are force-fed".Bane:As a man, he was mortal. As an idea, he lives on in all of us! (slams podium)
Joker: That's not what I was going for, but nice of him to say, I guess. - Decapitation Presentation: The surviving Joker at the end of the series holds up the head of the other one.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: A lot of people don't get that the Joker in Gotham is a fake, including the Red Hood and Manhunter (Kate Spencer).
- Evil vs. Evil: The main conflict is the two Jokers wanting to kill each other, and they're both equally evil.
- Faking the Dead: The Joker fakes his own death in the second issue's backup story just so he can see if his friends appreciate him or not.
- Final Battle: Issue #12 culminates with a Final Battle between both Jokers, with Red Hood caught in the middle.
- First-Episode Twist: The first issue ends with the reveal of the new Joker.
- He's Back!: During The Gotham War, Red Hood is infected with a chemical that paralyzes him with fear when his adrenaline starts to spike. The second Joker gives him a small whiff of Joker Gas that nullifies it, bringing him back to normal (albeit temporarily).
- Hopeless Suitor: Played for Laughs with the Joker in the first backup. Not only does he seem to think he can date Power Girl (who is considered perfect by many), but he doesn't realize his massacres aren't helping… and that his mirror image from Mirror Master's mirror is already dating her at that exact moment. Judging from the commentary and fake editor's notes, this isn't even the first time this has happened, with him previously having tried with Wonder Woman.
- Internal Homage:
- In the first issue, Joker dresses up as various incarnations of himself, having unkind words for some of them. Yes, even the The Killing Joke one.
- In Issue #10, after remembering how the fake Joker came to be (though not knowing it's himself), the fake Joker shouts "Of course I know who he is! I made him!", which is from Batman (1989).
- In the first issue, Joker dresses up as various incarnations of himself, having unkind words for some of them. Yes,
- Internal Reveal: In Issue #11, Waffles reveals to the fake Joker that he's the fake Joker, which fans knew about (or at least had a pretty good idea about) beforehand.
- Mystical Pregnancy: One of the backup stories has the Joker becoming 'pregnant' after a spell from Zatanna backfires. Joker eventually vomits out a Clayface baby that becomes his 'son'.
- Noodle Incident: The backup stories mention several in the fake Clues From Ed, including how Joker apparently threw a psychedelic key party.
- Pet the Dog: The new Joker has an encounter with a dying woman at a hospital who thinks he's her dead husband. The Joker plays along and pretends that he is to comfort her.
- The Reveal: Issue #10 reveals the fake Joker's backstory in a flashback made to look like the backup stories from the prior issues.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Clayface just leaves after Joker welches on his payment one too many times.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Er, pun not intended... after the Issue #10 backup, which was the first time one of them was actually relevant to the story (even being moved to the middle of the story instead of after it), the backups vanished.
- Shout-Out:
- One of the fake editor's notes in the first issue refers to an incident where Joker tried to sink the S.S. Gwynplaine, after the character from ''The Man Who Laughs who inspired Joker's look. Gwynplaine is also a train stop in the second issue.
- The narration makes a reference to the famous joke told by Rorschach in Watchmen without saying the name, claiming that a much more famous man once told the joke, but since he wasn't a comedian, they're reclaiming it.
- Tomato in the Mirror: The Joker who was left in Gotham learns he was just one of Joker's henchmen who was exposed to Joker Venom who was manipulated into thinking he's the Joker by the real Joker as the latter thought he could use a doppelganger before he got bored of his copy and attempted to dispose of him.
- Tuckerization: One of the scenes takes place in Aparo Park, after Jim Aparo.
- The Unreveal: The story ends with one Joker emerging from the river after having killed the other one, but which one it is left a mystery.
- Villain Protagonist: Unlike the previous series in which Commissioner Gordon was the main character, the series is told from the perspective of the new Joker. The latter half of the series follows the other Joker's antics in Los Angeles.
