Films — Live-Action
Do you wanna know how I got these scars? My father was a drinker...and a fiend. And one night, he goes off crazier than usual. Mommy gets the kitchen knife to defend herself. He doesn't like that. Not...one...bit. So, me watching, he takes the knife to her, laughing while he does it. He turns to me, and he says, "Why so serious?" He comes at me with the knife. "Why so SERIOUS?!" He sticks the blade in my mouth—"Let's put a smile on that face!" Aaaand... why so serious?
— The Joker, to Gambol, The Dark Knight
Oh, you look nervous. Is it the scars? Do you wanna know how I got 'em? [...] See, I had a wife—beautiful, like you—who tells me I worry too much...who tells me I ought to smile more...who gambles and gets in deep with the sharks. Hey. One day they carve her face. We have no money for surgeries. She can't take it. I just want to see her smile again, hmm? I just want her to know that I don't care about the scars. So, I stick a razor in my mouth and do this to myself. And you know what? She can't stand the sight of me! She leaves. Now, I see the funny side. Now, I'm always smiling!
— The Joker, to Rachel Dawes, The Dark Knight
[Smiler] had lank red hair and two long scars running from the edges of his mouth to his ears. He appeared to be smiling, but he looked at James with such a blank expression in his eyes that the effect was menacing and hostile.
