The battle between two evil clowns: The Joker and Pennywise.
Tropes
- Actor Allusion:
- Nearly every actor to play the Joker in a major production is mentioned in some way, shape or form.Joker: I can't be killed; that's why they cast a Phoenix to play me!
Joker: And as far as Mr. King goes, I'm a Shining man — Wink!
Pennywise: Jack Nicholson played you just fine, but lately the casting's declined
Jared Leto came out trying to look like he was Tekashi 6ix9ine!
Joker: When I flow, I go Mark Ham with ill zingers!
Pennywise: No one's dying to play with Joker... except for maybe Heath Ledger!
Pennywise: Who needs guards when you couldn't escape Cesar Romero's mustache? - Pennywise gets some of this as well:The Joker: I'll shoo you down the drain so fast, they'll call you Tim Scurry!
The Joker: I leave scars; guards in Arkham will admit
- Nearly every actor to play the Joker in a major production is mentioned in some way, shape or form.
- Ascended Meme: One of Joker's lines is "We live in a society."
Humorously it's used in the context of Joker's occasional Even Evil Has Standards moments to make it clear that he thinks it's one of the better parts of society rather than the meme's usual context of "society sucks". - Badass Boast: Joker claims that he made the Justice League look weak, likely in reference to how he manipulated them in Batman: Endgame.I make the Justice League look like just a bunch of super-schlubs!
- Berserk Button: Joker loses it when Pennywise threatens to eat Batman, so much so that the green comic book background briefly cuts to black as plumes of red smoke rise up from behind him.
- Boring Insult: The Joker accuses Pennywise's films — and by proxy the creature itself — of just taking too damned long, even looking at his watch for emphasis.I've seen your movies, so I know you don't hurry.
- Borrowed Catchphrase:
- "Beep beep!" is something the Losers' Club says to Richie whenever he's crossing the line. Pennywise uses it early in his rap.
- Pennywise also borrows the Joker's memetic line from The Dark Knight, "Why so serious?"
- The Cameo: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman make silent cameos during the Joker's first verse.
- Card-Carrying Villain:
- Joker embraces his violent insanity and brags about his numerous atrocities.
- Pennywise proudly describes himself as a ruthless monster who haunts nightmares.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Pennywise was obliquely mentioned by the Burger King earlier in the season.
- Child Eater: Pennywise eats human children.
- Cold Ham: Pennywise is just as hammy as his opponent, but rarely raises his voice outside of the moments where he really ramps it up.
- Crowbar Combatant: Joker's seen wielding a crowbar in the background of one scene, in reference to how he killed Jason Todd.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Due to the Joker's opponent being an Eldritch Abomination, his whole rap comes across as this. At one point, he even threatens to take it a step further when Pennywise presses his Berserk Button.
- He even finds time to throw a jab at another Eldritch Abomination, IT's nemesis Maturin, for being a turtle but not a ninja one.
- Domestic Abuser: Pennywise brings up Joker's abuse of Harley Quinn, threatening to beat the Clown Prince just as badly.
- Don't Explain the Joke: Joker's initial manic energy deflates somewhat when Pennywise doesn't get a rather blatant cocaine joke, forcing him to do one of his least favorite things and explain the joke. In retaliation he takes a crack at ITs Forehead of Doom.You're a sewer troll that Stephen King wrote between his lines!
(Ha-ha-ha-ha!) It's like cocaine. You know what I said.
I don't know how any kind of joke could ever go over that head! - Do Wrong, Right: "If you wanna kill a Batman, eat him when he's a boy."
- Eldritch Abomination: Pennywise is a shapeshifting "space demon" who feeds on human flesh and emotions and whose true form drives mortals to catatonic insanity just by direct exposure.
- Emotion Eater: As Pennywise boasts, "I feast on your fears!"
- Even Evil Has Standards: Joker may be a sadistic Card-Carrying Villain, but he is genuinely disgusted by the infamous child orgy scene from IT.Tell your author for his next gang-bang scene,
How 'bout a little more PG, and a lot less 13?
Even I wouldn't stoop to that kind of impropriety
This is Earth, you space demon! WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY! - Eviler than Thou: Joker claims to be more evil than Pennywise:When I compare your antics to the fiendish schemes I revel in,
They pale like the moonlight you can dance with the devil in. - Evil Redhead: Joker calls Pennywise a "giggling sewer ginger."
- Evil vs. Evil: Both the Joker and Pennywise are the poster boys for Monster Clown, and, suffice to say, are evil.
- Fangs Are Evil: Pennywise's teeth become fangs during his more manic verses.
- Fashion-Victim Villain: Invoked; Pennywise mocks Joker's purple suit, saying that it makes him look like Steve Harvey.note He also pokes fun at the Jared Leto portrayal's fashion sense as well as the Cesar Romero version's painted-over mustache.
- Fish Eyes: Pennywise calls himself "the best wall-eyed rapper since The Notorious B.I.G."
- Forehead of Doom: Pennywise's forehead is enormous, and Joker wastes no times in mocking it.
- Glasgow Grin: Alluded to when Joker boasts, "I take smiles and I leave scars!"
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Joker makes fun of Pennywise for losing "to a herd of nerds who call themselves the Losers' Club." Pennywise later points out the Joker once lost to the Scooby Gang.
- Pennywise disses Joker for stealing the name "Arkham" from H. P. Lovecraft, despite his own backstory and powers being heavily inspired by Lovecraft's work.
- Insanity Immunity: Pennywise exposes the Joker to his Deadlights, which drive normal people to madness just by proximity. Joker shows no signs of being affected, most likely because he's already insane, and he then proceeds to mock the Deadlights as "three nightlights in a cloud".
- Joker Immunity: Joker begins the battle boasting about his trope-naming history of cheating death.In my first appearance, the Bat was supposed to slay me,
But I can't be killed—that's why they cast a Phoenix to play me! - Just Eat Him: Pennywise's opinion on how to stop Batman, which serves to show just how twisted he is, is to eat him when he's still a child.
- Kick the Dog: Pennywise makes fun of Heath Ledger's death to take a shot at the Joker.
- Kubrick Stare: Pennywise does this a lot, bringing even more attention to his forehead. Interestingly, they mention how Trope Namer Stanley Kubrick directed a different Stephen King movie.
- Large Ham: Lampshaded when Joker boasts about "Going Mark Ham".
- Lovecraft Country: Not only is Pennywise an Eldritch Abomination terrorizing a small town in Maine in a work created by New England native Stephen King, but it also name-drops H. P. Lovecraft and references The Cask of Amontillado.
- Medium Blending: The characters' surrounding backgrounds are quite varied in visual style and arrangement. The Joker's side features cel-shaded comic panels that the Clown Prince pops in and out of in an almost Deadpool-like fashion, while Pennywise's side features childlike cardboard cutouts of the sewers under Derry and the house on Neibolt Street that drop in and out in a very theater-like fashion, complete with stagelights, simulated fog machines and mechanical stage transitions.
- Monster Clown:
- They don't call Joker the Clown Prince of Crime for nothing.
- Pennywise is a man-eating demon who takes on the form of a clown to lure in children. Pennywise even compares himself to John Wayne Gacy, a real-life Serial Killer who worked as a clown.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: In his first verse, Pennywise unhinges his jaw to reveal a Lamprey Mouth filled with rows upon rows of razor-sharp, nail-like teeth. Joker isn't intimidated, remarking that it will take him a whole week to knock them all out.
- Mythology Gag: Joker references his murder of Jason Todd, emulates his pose on the cover of The Killing Joke, alludes to fighting ninja turtles and Pennywise brings up him losing to the cast of Scooby-Doo (which happened more than once, amusingly enough).Ask Robin if I drop bars!
- No-Sell: Joker isn't remotely fazed by Pennywise's horrific shapeshifting. Even the Deadlights — direct exposure to which makes ordinary people go insane or die of fright — does absolutely nothing to the Joker at all.
- The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: As much as he hates the Joker, Pennywise admits that he liked Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the character.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Joker flips out when Pennywise threatens to eat Batman.Don't you lay a finger on my Bat, you little freak!
Or I will spend a whole week knocking out those prickle teeth! - Overly Narrow Superlative: "The best walleyed rapper since The Notorious B.I.G.". Says it all, really.
- Playing Card Motifs: As usual, Joker has playing cards as a subtle gimmick, even tossing a deck of cards away during his first verse. Pennywise, of course, flips this into a diss.Pennywise: This battle's like poker — the joker is useless!
- Present Absence: Stephen King is mentioned or alluded to several times, but never actually appears.
- Questionable Casting: In-Universe, Pennywise claims that the Joker is almost always miscast.Pennywise: Jack Nicholson played you just fine, but lately the casting's declined
Jared Leto came out trying to look like he was Tekashi 6ix9ine! - Rage Against the Author: Joker's not above mocking his own creators.I steal the show like Bob Kane stole from Bill Finger!
- Red Baron: Joker refers to his nicknames "Harlequin of Hate" and "Clown Prince of Crime".
- Regularly Scheduled Evil: Pennywise brags about being "the Derry, Maine attraction every 27 years."
- Sad Clown: Pennywise claims that, despite being a clown, the Joker isn't that funny.Pennywise: Oh, why so serious? You're supposed to be the man who laughs
But those jokes are like your new movie: mostly really sad. - Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: "Oh, and as far as Mr. King goes, I'm a Shining man — wink!"
- Secondary Color Nemesis: Both Joker's costume and backgrounds contain a ton of green and purple.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: Pennywise openly mocks deceased Joker actors Cesar Romero and Heath Ledger, even directly joking about Ledger's passing as a dig against the Joker himself.Nobody's dying to play with Joker, except for maybe Heath Ledger!
- Spider People: Toward the end of the battle, Pennywise becomes a giant spider-monster.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Pennywise: "I've got 99 red balloons, bitch."
- Toilet Humor: Joker can't resist the low-hanging fruit that comes with Pennywise living in a sewer.You're renowned as the "if it's brown, flush it down" clown!
- To Serve Man: Pennywise is a space creature who eats human flesh.
- Undignified Death: Joker mocks Pennywise over his physical form being killed by a group of bullied teenagers who call themselves the "Losers' Club".
- Villainous Friendship: Pennywise claims to be close friends with Satan.Pennywise likes the devil; we have so much fun together!
- Visual Pun: Joker holds up a Declarative Finger while talking about Bill Finger.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Pennywise changes form several times throughout the battle.
- Waxing Lyrical: The end of Pennywise's first verse sees him combine "99 Red Balloons" with "99 Problems".I've got 99 red balloons, bitch, and I dare you to take one!
- Wicked Cultured: Pennywise is familiar with the works of H. P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Joker gleefully brings up how he killed teenager Jason Todd in A Death in the Family.
- Killing and eating children is an infamous part of Pennywise's MO, and here he actively encourages it.
If you want to kill a Batman, eat him when he's a boy!
