Self Demonstrating / The Joker

(For full effect, read in the voice of Mark Hamill or Troy Baker.)

Well! Finally got my own page, did I? 'bout time! I was created in The Forties, for Pete's sake! I've been around way longer than Superham's cousin! Why'd SHE get her own page first?!^note Rhetorical. I know exactly what you're all going to say. Weelll, it's not too bad, I guess... at least I can still gloat to Lexy about getting my own page first... As for that guy with the yellow ring...? He only wishes he was half as scary as me!

Oh, you were looking for information on moi? I'm flattered, really, but, uh... SHOULDN'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM ALREADY?! All right, all right, fine. Here's My Card (from the bottom of the deck of course) and the lowdown...

I am the Monster Clown hiding under your bed!

Of course, a true fan would want all the gory details fleshed out, yes? So then. There's me, and there's the Bat, two peas in a pod. I'm the better-looking pea, of course, but that's beside the point. Billy Finger and Bobby Kane, inspired by both the playing card and Conrad Veidt's deliciously chilling title character in the 1920s film The Man Who Laughs, conjured me up in good ol' 1940, back when heroes were allowed to kill, everyone Asian spoke with their R's and L's mixed up, and the art was worse than something drawn by a six-year old with crayons ('course, Jerry Robinson said he had a hand too, but that's not my department)... I gave that flying rodent a good runaround in Batman #1 (I was modest enough to give him the title...), and soon enough, I began carving out my own little niche.

But, as it turned out, that wasn't enough! No, they planned to whack me in my second appearance! Can you believe that?! But, someone (in this case, Whitney Ellsworth) came through for me, and I lived through a self-inflicted stabbing after all. So, instead of dying painfully, I only had to endure six months of agonizing hospital time! Those were the glory days... I'd show up, make a bit of trouble, kill a couple of people, get foiled by Fatman, and escape at the last minute. Gambling rackets, sniping FBI agents, I've seen (and done) it all. I was even executed once, y'know. 'course, The Grim Reaper couldn't hold me, and I came back... just in time to witness the rising of The Comics Code. (Hoo... and some people thought I was evil and insane... heh heh heh...)

Maybe I should've stayed buried a bit longer, cuz, you all know what happened next. The Dork Knight and that brat Robin were joined by Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Bat-Hound, Bat-Mite (yeesh, what's next? Bat-butler?), and no one was allowed to kill ever again. And we all lived happily ever after... NOT! Then again, I can't say that it was ever boring. I was allowed to play with bigger toys — everything from my own utility belt to giant record players (where the heck does Gotham get all that stuff, anyhow?). I even managed to get all of Gotham City to marvel at my enormous BONER! ^note By the way, when I said "Boner", I meant "Mistake".

But nothing lasts forever, does it? (Save the memory of Tom and Jerry.)

Come The Bronze Age of Comic Books, I was finally allowed to roam free again, and what a joy it was! Blowing off people's heads with exploding cigars and feeding them to sharks! It seems that finally, the heads at DC Comics got brains - it was here that I got my own series! And it lasted all of... nine issues... And I had to lose most of the time.

*COUGH*

Ah, well, who cares about all that? The '70s might have returned me to life, but it was The '80s that were really my heyday. You might recall an obscure little book called The Killing Joke written by some nobody called Alan Moore. If you haven't... GET OVER THERE AND READ IT, AND DON'T CALL YOURSELF A FAN OF MINE UNTIL YOU'VE MEMORIZED EVERY WORD!

Done? Good. Less than a year afterward, DC made the historical decision of killing off Robin — 'bout time, too. But just a little heads-up, it was Jason Todd, not Dick Grayson. Who was Jason Todd? Who cares? All you need to know is that every reader hated his guts, enough that they voted to have him die. But with an outfit like that, can you really blame them? Heck, at least thirteen of those votes came from yours truly!

Anyhoo, the poll was set up, the calls were made, and I gave poor li'l Jason a spanking he'll never forget. Rest in pieces. Then I got shot. And got trapped on an exploding helicopter. And vanished for all of a few months. And I still made it back in time for the holidays! From there on, my life's been just one giant rollercoaster ride (occasionally of the Hawaiian variety) 'specially since I killed Jimmy Gordon's wife during that earthquake.

And THEN, I had a shiny new show opening for Bratgirl, the Dead Hood and all Batsy's little sidekicks! Those brats who make my Bats fat, slow, and weak. Tsk TSK. They found my lack of face... disturbing. HA! And if you thought that was bad, wait 'til you hear about Eric Border-

Hold on, where're you going? D'ya think we're done with my life? Not even close! I've poisoned all the fish on the eastern and western seaboard and tried to patent them! I've become God and brought the whole universe to its knees! I've killed Siskel & Ebert, fer Pete's sake!

But no, you don't care about any of that, do you? I bet you came to this page because you were so impressed by that pencil trick, or my apocryphal shenanigans afterwards. No? The dreadlocked barefoot monkey-man with that sexy, sexy laugh, then? Perhaps you remember the days when I faced off with Adam West - who it looks like I rubbed off on? The pointy-chinned me who's still fighting the Dark Side? The meaty ol' me played by Jack Nicholson? The tattooed fella, coming soon to your nightmares via a quick stop by ol' Jon'zzy's pad? The Silver Age-esque me, sounding a lot like that jolly good sport who even I'm not crazy enough to address? Or was it God's gift to Gotham, the world, and that Grinchy old bat (delivered on Christmas Eve!, even!)? Kept on giving, too, when, instead of killing the second bird-brain, I tortured him into joining the dark side (just like I did with little Timmy in the Batman Beyond continuity), faking his own death, and becoming an Arkham Knight, years before taking over Arkham Asylum and turning into a twenty-foot tall muscleman! (Although that one didn't end too well. Object lesson on steroid use, kids! Oh yeah, and I still continue to torture the drug-induced Bat-Jerky to the point of insanity from beyond the grave! Still, FUN!)

OOH! Or when I got Birdbrain to bite my shiny metal crowbar? No? The one with all those kid superheroes, who knows his way around a contraction? The old classic model, going up against RoboCop? Or how about those times where I was a woman?

'Course, any version of me is good as long as you don't think I'm that other psychotic, fourth-wall breaking clown^note I resemble that remark! who works for those Marvel guys. I'm not really fond of Mr. Wilson, but I do love friending him on that Facebook thingy and asking him to "do that pencil trick". It just gives me that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. (Oh, and if you value your life, please don't confuse me for those teenage biker punks who swiped my look. I also don't work for the British Library. Nor am I that so called magic anime clown Kefka, who has the gall to steal my infectious laughter!^note That talentless hack would be nothing without Ted Woolsey writing his cue cards! Nothing! Unless, of course, you don't value it, then by all means!)

And, if after all that I've still managed to leave folks some moral wriggle-room, you can check out my spiffy YMMV page here, not to mention all the other mind-blowing, rib-tickling, heart-melting aspects of ME!

Well, that conversation was certainly uplifting, wouldn't you say? Look at how widely you're grinning. Ooh, and check it out! Your complexion is clearing right up. And that hair...! So rich a shade of green that only your undertaker'll know for sure. And that laugh! Isn't it beautiful?

Ohhhh, don't give me that look. You were the one who took that card from me! Sheesh, how dumb can ya get? Straighten up. It's not the end of the world. Only yours. Annnd... there you go, now you see the joke. The very biggest and bestest smile of them all.

---

Let's see all the places I've popped up in the media...

The ol' Classic Funny Books

• Batman
• Detective Comics
• The Batman Adventures / The Batman & Robin Adventures / Batman: Gotham Adventures / Batman Adventures
• Jokers Asylum
• The Joker Devils Advocate
• Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
• Villains United
• Infinite Crisis
• Underworld Unleashed
• Tangent Comics
• Planetary Batman
• Batman: Digital Justice (well, after a fashion...)
• All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder
• The Joker (series)
• Joker (graphic novel)
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
• Batman: Nosferatu
• Batman: Bloodstorm
• Batman: I, Joker
• A Death in the Family
• Going Sane
• The Killing Joke
• Mad Love
• Knightfall
• No Man's Land
• Joker's Last Laugh
• Emperor Joker
• Salvation Run
• Last Rites
• Batman R.I.P.
• Final Crisis
• Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?
• Batman: Noël
• Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth
• Arkham Asylum: Living Hell
• Arkham Asylum: Madness
• Batman And Robin
• Birds of Prey
• Superman: Distant Fires
• Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight
• Flashpoint
• Death of the Family
• Batman: Endgame
• Judge Dredd as part of a Crossover.
• Justice

The Big Silver Screen

• Batman: The Movie
• Batman
• The Dark Knight
• Suicide Squad

Live on the tube

• Batman (live-action series)
• Birds of Prey
• Gotham: Maybe. The show's done a wonderful job of keeping you guessing, eh kiddies? Although if I turn out to be this Jerome boy, that wouldn't be too shabby because he's got such a lovely smile already... Sadly, he was a Red Herring, but he seems to have inspired the one who'll become me...

Up on that new-fangled... what do ya call it? "Internet"?

• The Joker Blogs

Animated as much as I am!

• Batman With Robin The Boy Wonder
• The New Scooby-Doo Movies
• The New Adventures of Batman
• The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians
• Batman: The Animated Series
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
• The New Batman Adventures
• Justice League
• Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
• The Batman
• Static Shock
• Krypto the Superdog
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold
• Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
• Batman: Under the Red Hood
• Super Friends
• Young Justice
• Batman: Assault on Arkham

The big stage!

• Batman Live
• Batman The Musical

Those Video Games that all the kids these days are playin'

• Batman: Vengeance
• LEGO Batman
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
  • Batman: Arkham City
  • Batman: Arkham Origins
  • Batman: Arkham Knight
• DC Universe Online
• Injustice: Gods Among Us
• Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure
• Infinite Crisis

And here are some tropes that apply to various versions of ME:

• Abusive Parents: I might have suffered from this... or not. Honestly, even I can't remember anymore.
• Academy Award:
  • You're looking at the only supervillain (and comic book character in general) ever to snag that little golden fella, thanks to good ol' Heathy. Too bad I couldn't appear in the sequel...
  • But at least WB knows a classy role when they see it. Before Heathy, there was Jackie who won two golden boys before he became me! And whaddaya know; come 2016, pretty boy and fellow statue snatcher Jared Leto will have graced the silver screen with my handsome mug.
• Acquired Poison Immunity: Seems I've developed an immunity to the stuff due to all my... recreational use.
• Actor Allusion: I pay homage from time to time. May the floss be with you! When that Alex Ross fellow draws me, though, I tend to resemble a certain major movie star.
• Actually A Doom Bot: Or actually Clayface — the Joker you see for the majority of Batman: Arkham City, believe it or not, isn't me. The Titan formula I took at the end of Arkham Asylum poisoned me and left me too weak to run my gang, so I had Clayface disguised as me to keep anybody from noticing I was sick, and he was happy to take on "the role of a lifetime". And boy, did he work like a charm! Nobody could tell he was fake till he turned back to his normal form.
• Actually Pretty Funny: Sometimes the Bats himself makes a punchline. Sometimes intentional, sometimes not. I do appreciate Irony, so sometimes I find an entire situation hilarious and invoke the Trope verbatim.
• Agent Peacock: I'm lean and mean, like my lipstick, love showing my emotions, and killer.
• All Abusers Are Male: Ha, Gotham's ladies have plenty of fight in them. Let me tell you, Harley has a mean right...◊
• Always a Bigger Fish: The Creeper. Never get me near that guy! He's a lunatic! Dumber than a coffin nail, but a lunatic nonetheless! And considering who's telling you this, that's really saying something.
• Ambiguous Disorder: People know there's something wrong with me, but what, oh what?
• Amusement Park of Doom: I do love my fun, after all. My hideout in that one movie was an amusement park with the only way to get to my house being a roller coaster ride. Hell, with a little ingenuity and some time and henchmen to kill, anything with a set of rails, like a steel mill, makes a damn fine rollercoaster. Don't tell me you never wanted to ride one surrounded by molten hot iron!
• An Asskicking Christmas: If it's Christmastime and I'm around you can be sure there'll be asskicking aplenty! Speaking of asskicking, check out this kick-ass, twisted version of a Christmas carol called "Carol of the Bells" from Batman: Arkham Origins!
  • And it gets even better.
• Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: Remember that epic speech Bane made in The Dark Knight Rises where he revealed Harvey Dent for what he really was to Gotham (which, I might remind you was due to my handiwork)? Well, somebody who did a fantastic impression of me made a Joker version of it. Wanna see it?
• Applied Phlebotinum: My Surfing Experience & Ability Transferometer & Vigor Reverser. Made me great at catching waves, but Batty Belfry, Robbie the Birdbrain, and Bat-Bimbo didn't like it. What did they find so cool about Skippy-boy that I didn't have, anyway?
• Arch-Enemy: Batsy and me provide the page picture for a reason, ya know!
• Ascended Fanboy: Wouldja believe I am one? Weeper is such a hoot! Especially when trying to kill me!
• Asexuality: Anyone who thinks sex is so great should try murder!
  • Then again, Harl and I might be expecting soon... well, posthumously in my case. But still! Imagine, a generational Joker to tickle Batsy's funnybone into his old age. Priceless!...Nevermind. Turns out Harls cheaped out on the test.
  • Over in the Injustice: Gods Among Us comic, Harl found she was pregnant thanks to me, so she had the kid on the down-low and then gave her up. Can't think why...
• Attempted Rape:
  • At one time in Last Laugh, while still convinced that I had terminal cancer, I thought I wanted to continue a legacy of my own. So I hired my mooks to kidnap my little Harl' and bring her to me, so that I could try and produce an heir by... you know... revving up my Harley before marriage. Unfortunately, Bat-Girl and her friends showed up and rescued her before I could get a chance. Oh well... them's the breaks, I guess.
  • And no, honest, I never did it to Barb. Seriously, just ask Alan.
• Attention Whore: Oy, why should I be working myself to death with no one to appreciate it? In fact, it turns out that being forgotten is one of my greatest fears!
• Ax-Crazy: Why limit myself? Still, always was good with an axe.... As my may-or-may-not-be son Anarky once put it, my psychosis is almost a separate being in its own right.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Even if you actually manage to see me die! (okay, so I was still technically dead during that second one, but come on, doesn't psychologically torturing your biggest baddest Arch-Enemy from beyond the grave count for anything these days?!)
  • All a part of my master plan in "The Joker Walks the Last Mile" (Detective Comics Issue #64, June 1942). My plan was simple: I turned myself in over to the police, pleaded guilty and confessed to all my crimes of murder and robbery, and got sent to the death chamber and fried by the electric chair! (Offscreen, actually.) Immediately after I got declared dead by a coroner, my mooks wasted no time in reclaiming my body from the prison morgue and carrying me to a nearby ambulance and forcing some life serum down my throat within 15 minutes to keep me from slipping off from "Only Mostly Dead" to "all dead". Once I revived, I was living a glorious life by walking away a free man, which meant that I couldn't be punished again for the same crimes! Of course, Batsy and Bird-Boy had to find another way to apprehend me by proof that I committed new robberies I never confessed to in life before my execution! So much for that! You know what they say: "Those who fight and run away will live to fight another day." HOOHOOHOOAHHAHAHAHA!
• Badass Bookworm: Gotta keep my brain as sharp as my knives! I'm particularly amused by the fantasies of Ayn Rand who seems to think that we live in a rational universe where good and evil exist◊. What nonsense. Do you expect me to take that sort of thing seriously? C'mon, I'm a psychopathic clown!
• Badass in a Nice Suit: As that doll Harley will tell you, it's not a killer smile unless you've got a suit to match, even if you're a charmer like me!
• Badass in Distress: Would you believe I once rescued the old bat? But hey, what fun would the world be without him around?
• Badass Longcoat: A little style never hurt anyone.
• Badass Normal: Though some would argue that I'm anything but normal. Still, the fact that folk who go toe-to-toe with ol' Supes are scared of me? That's gotta be worth something. Hell, I've got one of the highest bodycounts in the entire DCU, far outdoing almost any superpowered freaks out there, and generally only outdone by those with the power to destroy entire worlds.
• Bad Boss: Good help is sooo hard to find these days.... Admittedly, I've had to terminate some of my underlings, but I made sure to send them away with smiles on their faces... well, except for that damn architect. Speaking of which, would you excuse me while I go and shoot him? Come here, you little...!
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: In one episode of The Batman, I actually saved Batsy's secret identity by taking care of Wrath and Scorn before they could spill the beans. What can I say? I didn't want anyone else being the Bat's end.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Injustice was a mainstream beep-boop game after all, so of course my insides got splattered merrily across the wall and the good guys triumphed over evil blah blah blah, but they never did manage to completely fix one teeeeeeny-tiny problem: I! BROKE! SUPERMAN! ...Well, one of me and one of him, but there's no denying it - that universe just plain went to hell and no matter which mode you play, Mr. Big Blue Boyscout does not get a happy ending. What's that you say? Redemption? Then I've got a guide to saving a certain Final Fantasy VII character I'd like to sell you...
• Banana Peel: Just stop on by Dr. Hurt's place. He'll tell you. (FYI? Bring a shovel.)
• Bandaged Face: Frequent in the origin. Honestly, it'll scar you for life...
• "Bang!" Flag Gun: Gotcha! Ah, that one never gets old... though there was that one time it wasn't funny at all.
• Batman Gambit: Ugh, couldn't they give this one a different name? Still, I've been known to pull off some tricks that put even ol' Batsy himself to shame.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: I've tried this once or twice. Success rates aren't all that great, but it's always fun to try. This might be what happened to me back in the day to make me like I am... I can't quite recall if that's really how it happened.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't you dare laugh at me! I encourage you to laugh with me, never at me.
  • And I can make you laugh. I'm the Clown Prince of Gotham! A comic genius! And if you doubt it... I'll PROVE it to you.
  • YOU KILLED CAPTAIN CLOWN!
  • And as one Cameron Kaiser found out ^note See "Joker's Wild", one of my masterpieces , don't you dare try to cash in on my image! (That said, I do give him props for doing this just to trick me into destroying his casino for insurance.)
  • Likewise, that nasty ol' Mr. G. Carl Francis found out the hard way what happens when you try to snub me of my legal cut of the profits! ^note See "The Laughing Fish" Granted, I always planned to expose him to my joker venom, even if the deal had gone through, but not letting me copyright my fish gave me a good excuse to do it anyway. In the original comic, I even sent him out with a smile.
  • How dare that bald megalomaniac found The Legion of Doom in Justice and not invite ME?! (Geddit? It was a Mythology Gag 'cause I wasn't on Superfriends because of legal mumbo jumbo.) Mind, he learns fast — I'll give Lexy that. Never made that mistake again.
  • Don't you dare compare me to the Bats! I got more style, more brains! I'm certainly a better dresser!
• Beware the Silly Ones: Especially if the silly one in question happens to be me. You try to cross me, and, well... let's just say my joy buzzer is gonna set off the sprinklers.
• Big Bad: Usually in those adaptations, but not so much in the comics. After all, why let others have all the fun?
• Big Badass Rig: If you want to make an impression on the streets of Gotham, size really does matter. It also has plenty of trailer space in case you need to bring along your bazooka. You may call it overkill, I call it defensive driving.
• Big Stupid Doodoo Head: Okay, so some of my insults can be a bit juvenile, but that's only because it's funny to call Bat-Brain a big 'ol guano-head.
• Black Comedy:
  • I like my comedy like I like my coffee; big, black, and surrounded by corpses.
  • I almost did this with some little tykes after the earthquake, but decided against it. I ended up shooting Jimmy's wife instead. It...wasn't as funny as I was hoping.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: Because of some changes done in my next DCAU incarnation, I got these with white irises.
• Bloody Murder: According to good ol' Grant, I've spent so much time taking my own baaaaaaad drugs that my blood itself is a lethal venom! As sweet little Damian found out when he tried to get some payback. You see, kiddies, violent revenge just makes things worse, even if it feels good at the time.
• Blunt "Yes": I can't believe Harley had to be told she was supposed to "Fill the tank, shoot the guy, and drive off". Her words, not mine.
• Body Snatcher: Yes. I've even managed to pull this off in my comeback appearance in Batman Beyond. I lost my old body thanks to Tim Drake turning against me. Ungrateful kids; you teach them everything you know and then they turn around and stab you in the back! Or in my case the chest. Fortunately, I had ensured my immortality long before this inconvenience thanks to a little genetics micro chip I had planted on Little J during his time in my care. Unfortunately, my comeback was thwarted thanks to that Bat-Fake old Brucey was grooming.
• Bodyguard Babes: I've had a few of these every now and then, let's see...
  • There was that topless female Nazi transsexual bodyguard Bruno I had in All Star Batman and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. (Well, maybe you should read them, she's hard to describe...)
  • Harley actually made a pretty good one in Joker (and she was the way I liked her then -- quiet).
• Bomb Throwing Anarchist: Oh come on, you can't tell me you're not amused by the odd explosion or two.
• Bored With Insanity: Every once in a while I feel like playing the straight man, especially when 'ol Batsy isn't around to fill the role.
• Boring Insult: A pet peeve of mine. I put a lot of effort into my work, and then Bat-Fake comes along and tells me I'm not funny. I'll show him. I'LL SHOW THAT IMPUDENT BRAT JUST WHO HE'S TALKING TO! *throws grenades* Sorry, lost my head there for a moment.
• Bowdlerise: Can you believe they wouldn't let me shoot those karate guys in the face? Well, not on screen anyway... And it's not just that, but those darned Media Watchdogs wouldn't let me shoot people with a spear gun but with a laughing gas gun in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, all thanks to that shoot out in Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in April 1999. (Hey, even I wasn't involved in that Columbine massacre; blame it on the Abusive Parents of Those Two Bad Guys, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.) Heck, they even replaced my being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by the spear gun in the original version with another death scene of mine in the version made for kiddie TV: when I gave little Timmy my laughing gas gun and told him to make ol' Batsy "one of us" with it; instead, the little brat punched me in the face, knocking me into a tank of water near electrical wiring, where I got up and tried to get rid of him but I slipped and accidentally turned on the electrode machine and got zapped like a bug... complete with my horrific death scream! Which, come to think of it, is rather... shocking Nightmare Fuel for kids and more violent compared to my original death scene! Sheesh, who can blame them?
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: C'mon you didn't think I'd miss out on this comedy goldmine, did ya?
  • Take for example this little exchange I had with one of those opera clowns in an issue of Stuporman & Batbrain magazine:
    Me: Do you juggle?
    Pagliaccio: No.
    Me: Blow balloons?
    Pagliaccio: No.
    Me: Synthesize nerve gas?
    Pagliaccio: No.
    Me: Not much of a clown then, are you? *Thud*
  • And here's one part of mine when I thought Bat-Jerk broke his One Rule by killing the muscleman Bane with his bare hands (he didn't, of course, but only temporarily stopped his heart with the Shock Gloves, but still...):
    Me: Well, I'd love to stay and celebrate your victory, but I've got stockings to stuff, mistletoe to hang — and about fifteen skyscrapers to blow up before sunrise. Ciao.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: If you're only just figuring it out... well, let's just say you're no Batman.
• Break Them by Talking:
  • Remember that one bit in The Dark Knight? With Harvey Dent and that saucy little nurse's uniform? That was a good one. I turned Gotham's White Knight into a murdering psychopath. And no, of course I wasn't afraid he'd pull the trigger. I'm crazy, remember?
  • Okay, so the snot-nosed kid who thought he was a replacement Batsy gave me one in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. There, I admit it. Happy now? He called me unfunny! Who did that impudent brat think he was talking to?!
  • After a full year of enjoying my unique brand of hospitality, this eventually got to poor little Jason Todd....but on the bright side, he came out of it surprisingly well adjusted! ....or maybe not. Too bad it didn't take...
• Breakout Villain: Some meddling by the aforementioned Whitney Ellsworth, way back in 1940, spurred me on my meteoric rise to fame from a two-shot villain to the Big Bad you know and fear with every fiber of your being today. Hey, the fella knew a good idea when he saw it - this was the genius behind Superpup!
• Break the Badass: My actions have done this to toughest of heroes. And of course, if the chips are down low enough and even I stop laughing... It's a sign we're all in trouble...
  • YIPPIEE!!!
• Break the Cutie: Averted. As rough as I can be on Harley girl, I just brought out her pre-existing crazy! When I torture her it's just to get a few good laughs at her expense.
• Bright Is Not Good: What can I say, I'm one of the most colorful characters in all of comics. But I'll kill you and your whole family for fun without a second thought.
• Calling Card: Take a wild guess.
• Can't Unhear It: invoked You've been reading this page in Mark Hamill's or Heath Ledger's or even Jack Nicholson's Joker voice, haven't you? HAVE YOU NO CONSIDERATION FOR THE OTHERS WHO PLAYED ME!!! Oh, who am I kidding, it's not like any one of 'em weren't the best portrayals of little old moi.
• Captive Audience: What's the point of killing Batman or one of his sidekicks if nobody's there to see it?
• Cardboard Prison: Arkham's a great place to kick back and relax for a while, and it's never too hard to get out and about when I feel like a stroll through the guts of Gotham's gentry. Then again, that time I took over the place, that was glorious.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Is it so wrong that I take pride in making a good joke?
• Car Fu: Once ran over a woman while reporting it to the police with a tied up Robin in the car. Did I mention this was Christmas time!
• Catch Phrase: While I'm certainly not cliché enough to use the same material again and again, it seems that classic line from Heathy has become my unofficial motto: "Why so serious?" Hey, if it sticks, it sticks! (Just so long as I get a cut of all that glorious T-shirt revenue...)
• Characterization Marches On: In my first appearances, the only real quirk I had was an association with a certain playing card — I was just a straight-forward, humorless murderer and thief who merely grinned a lot, rather than the comedy-obsessed and always laughing maniac you all know and love today! And I gotta say, boy howdy have I come a long way! Heck, according to that bald Scot, my ever-changing personality is another facet of my being...ahem...differently sane.
• The Chessmaster:
  • To the point that you'd think I'd move onto checkers already.◊
  • Literally, too. You're looking at one of the only 2 people (the other being Bane) to ever beat Ra's al Ghul at a game of chess.^note He said it was my ability to switch between different strategies so quickly. Like they always say, nobody can predict me.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: I was last seen busted by a SWAT team after my little "social experiment" failed at the end of The Dark Knight, and didn't even get mentioned in The Dark Knight Rises simply because that damn Heath Ledger punk bit the dust before TDK was even released! Maybe that also has something to do with the Dollmaker ripping my face off (see Put on a Bus for some more on that little incident, my pretties).
• Civilian Villain: Every once in a blue moon, usually when the Bat manages to get himself killed, something inside me snaps and I won't be my usual, cheerful self. I might even pass off as being, gasp, almost sane! How lucky for me that Batsy never stays down for very long.
• Clear Their Name: Wouldn't you know it? I'm on the "their" list, and The Joker: Devil's Advocate revolves around the whole plot: I was arrested, tried, and condemned to die for the poisoned stamps incident that I insisted that I wasn't involved with. I asked the Dork Knight to save my life, hoping that Bat-Head would find the real perpetrator for the poisoned stamps and clear my name. And surprisingly, it worked, just when I was mere seconds away from execution by the electric chair! What a lucky clown I was, just lucky to be alive... in jail again, knowing that at least my name was now in the clear. But still... LUCKY!!!
• Cold-Blooded Torture: I'm very well known for doing this. There have been a few occasions where I actually create a new villain this way.
• Combat Pragmatist: A few notable examples include beating unarmed enemies with a crowbar, setting hungry dogs on them, spraying various unhealthy substances in their faces, trying to kick the Dork Knight in the ribs with a knife that came out of my shoe — and who could forget the time when I hopped myself up on Titan? Though I tried to get Batboy a chance there, but he refused.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Now, don't look at me like that. You'd be surprised at how good a true expert in pain can make you feel. As I once told Lexy, "pain is my one true love".
• Comedic Sociopathy: You know you love it...
• Complexity Addiction: It's just more fun than just shooting him!
• Confusion Fu: I'm crazy! You can never predict what I'm about to do!
• Cool Pets: Have you met my hyenas Bud and Lou?
• The Corrupter: Because madness is like gravity, and as you know, all it takes is a little push.
• CPR (Clean, Pretty, Reliable): One time (in Last Laugh) I got beaten to the point of death by Nightwing (because the rumors of little Birdbrain becoming lunch to Killer Croc had pushed Nighty's Berserk Button too far) until my heart stopped beating! Almost gave up the ghost, too! Fortunately, Batsy showed up just in time to resuscitate poor old moi by CPR in order to keep Nighty from stooping down to my level as a murderer. Within a few minutes, I returned to life again! Once again, LUCKY!!!
• Crazy-Prepared: You think old Bats always has a contingency plan for each and every occasion? Trust me, I got him beat in that little competition.
• Create Your Own Villain:
  • In a few incarnations, old Batsy had a hand in my origin. Makes it more delicious wouldn't you say? Sometimes I invert the trope myself by being the one that made poor little Bruce an orphan, such as in my first movie appearance. Heck, I even lampshaded it!
  • I suppose I was also responsible for the birth of the Phantasm and the deaths of my old mob gang.
• Critical Research Failure: Okay, so I made a mistake the first time I dealt with that flying do-gooder when I thought hiding hostages in lead coffins would make it hard for him to find them in time, because, you know, he can't see through lead. All it did was make it EASIER for him to find them, since they stood out more. At least Lexy saw it coming... invoked
• Crossover: I've met Spider-Man at least twice, but he didn't remember me the second time,◊ even when I flashed my best winning smile! Maybe there was a little discontinuity involved, maybe it was because our realities were out-of-whack, or maybe the Spider-Man I met wasn't the same one. With all that goes on over there, who knows WHO was under that mask? I was also a Dark Judge for a bit too, but constantly killing the living got boring after a while.
• Cry for the Devil: Hey, I never asked for sympathy, and I don't expect it! Still... It's amazing what one bad day can do to a person...
• Cute Kitten: "Cute Kitten"?! How should I know? I don't remember Catwoman ever reproducing.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Are you kidding? Merely selling that flying saucer to NASA would have been so boring! And I wouldn't have sold it to the Soviets, in case you were thinking that. As I told that Red Skull fellow, I'm an American criminal lunatic.
• Dance Battler: Oh yes! I'm very good at it! The PlayStation 3-only DLC for Batman: Arkham Asylum shows that I'm mastered in a combination of Capoeira, Drunken Boxing, and lethal novelty toys! In fact, I've been pretty good at it ever since the time that I fought my tormentors in a very graceful way in the Comedy Club àa la A Clockwork Orange, complete with somersaulting and leap frog! Well... at least that's what my mind perceived it to be while I was speaking with the Doc who would be dear ol' Harley at Blackgate Prison, anyway.
• Dartboard of Hate: That poster of Bats was really too good for me — the animated me — to resist! And I was pretty upset in that series...
• Deadline News:
  • How ol'Jacky Boy's version of me likes to advertise mouthwash that'll give you "hair color so natural, only your undertaker will know for sure!!"
  • Breaking news, this just grin! Deadly clouds of Joker Toxin spread across six continents! Billions die in horrendous agony! Wife's guts, wife's guts, wife's guts, WIFE'S GUTS!!!.... and now, here's Chuck with the weather. How's it look out there, Chuck?
• Deadly Prank: My modus operandi.
• Deadpan Snarker: Maybe, maybe not. You know what I mean? It-it's almost like there are dark forces conspiring against me, twisting me like a puppet on a string... Naaaah!
• Dead Sidekick: People tend to focus on that one time I killed one of Batsy's kids. And it didn't even take! How's that for gratitude?
• Deal with the Devil: Ah, the nineties. While other villain-y sorts wasted their souls on dumb stuff like arcane power or craploads of green, I put what little I had to good use: a box of Cubans. Oh, ya shoulda seen ol' Neron's face.
• Death by Adaptation: Oh please, even when I am "killed", I always manage to return. ALWAYS! Well, except for that one night back in the '80s. And that little incident over at Arkham City...
• Death Dealer: I'm always a card, but sometimes I like using them as throwing weapons too! What better way to show off some style than by slicing a man with razor-sharp metal playing cards? You can always be sure I have an extra one or two up my sleeves, too...
• Death Is Cheap: Oh sure, the J-man's been in a few scrapes now and then, but rest assured, they love me too much to let me stay in the big down under.
• Death Seeker: Played up moreso in my scene-stealing appearances in The Dark Knight and Batman: Arkham Origins. I'm a horrible, despicable person surrounded by horrible, despicable people I won't hesitate to murder for giggles. Or simply because they're in my way! Or maybe just because it's Tuesday! It's Guano-Man's absolute refusal to give sociopaths like me what we deserve that starts my fixation with him.
• Delicious Fruit Pies: Sure, I may be crazy for not loving the great taste of a Hostess fruit pie, but I'm not that crazy all of the time.
• Depending on the Artist: Some artists, like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo, give me a long pointed chin, while others, such as Marshall Rogers, gave me a square one. I'm sometimes lean and mean, while other times I'm of average build. Some depict my lovely smile as being stuck on my face, while others have me capable of showing... other emotions. Gotta admit, having the grin cut into my mouth so I can make two expressions at once, that worked out decently enough.
• Depending on the Writer: So tell me. Am I a harmless prankster, a homicidal maniac, a hostage to momentary whims, or a chessmaster capable of constructing elaborate plans? All these and more, at various times. (The current official theory is that I'm so mentally unstable my brain turns right over every now and again, and I become insane in a whole new way. That Grant Morrison, what a kidder.)
  • My ability to give people the ol' one-two also flip-flops between authors. In some cases Batsy takes me down in one punch, while other authors write me as being able to kick Grayson's rear into next Tuesday without breaking a sweat! Gotta give Scott Snyder props for that.
• Despair Event Horizon: You ever have a bad day? I mean... a really bad day?!. Ha. Aha. AHAHA. AHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!
• Diabolical Mastermind: No joke. Just because I'm kooky doesn't mean I'm not a genius.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: I don't know how Lex has such a hard time with Superman when he has so much more money and kryptonite than me. But you don't need much of the latter to put Supes in his place, right, Batsy?
• Didn't We Use This Joke Already?: Sadly, a joke is never as funny the second time, so I try not to repeat myself. Believe it or not, I came close to telling old Bats one I'm sure everyone remembers in Batman: Arkham Asylum, but I caught myself:
  Me: There were these two guys in a lunatic asylum... Oh hell, you've heard that one before, haven't you?
• Die Laughing: I try not to repeat myself, but sometimes there's just no substitute for the old tried-and-true Joker Venom to put a smile on people's faces for the rest of their lives.
• Disguised in Drag: Hey, if you had my figure, wouldn't you be looking opportunities to flaunt it in a slinky dress? And you gotta admit, I make one dead sexy nurse!
• Disney Villain Death: Heck, I've probably subverted this one as many times as Ol' Walt's boys played it straight.
• Disproportionate Retribution: People keep saying I go into this, but I don't know why. A henchman who refuses to fork over the money he owes me when he loses a twenty-dollar bet on the World Series should be clubbed to death with a bunch of bananas (Note to self: takes too long. Use plantains instead). Anyone who would dare deny me first prize in a comedy competition just because I never actually entered it deserve to be mind controlled into becoming D-List criminals. And all those people who claimed that I couldn't legally trademark the fish that I arranged to grin like me seriously had it coming. Honestly, what's so disproportionate about all that?
• Dissonant Laughter: It's only dissonant if you don't get the joke. Why doesn't anyone get the joke?!
• Does Not Like Shoes: My costume in The Batman? A straitjacket and bare feet. It was a legitimate fashion choice! Well, I did adopt a variation on my trademark purple suit in later appearances, but I still went barefoot. Hey, it was the turn of the millennium. We're all entitled to try new things with our image once in awhile.
• Domestic Abuse: I resent the accusation. After all, Harl always comes back!
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Imagine how boring a battle with Superman would be if I didn't let him know I kidnapped that Lois woman.
• Don't Explain the Joke: If you have to explain a joke, there is no joke! I can't even tell you how many times I've had to explain that to dear Harley....
• The Dreaded: Like good old Batboy, I even scare the pants off of those who are far more powerful than myself. Some at the beginning believe me to be beneath their notice, but they soon learn.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Nope, this one's not just for the good guys, kiddies! If you're wearing a police uniform, no one really worries that you're standing near the mayor holding a shotgun.
• Drop the Hammer: I'm no thunder god but someone taught Harley how to swing a hammer!
• Drives Like Crazy: Vehicular is my 11th favorite form of homicide!
• Due to the Dead: Seen a few ideas on what to do with my body when I die.
  • One example is that after the little bird-brained brat offed me, I could watch from the afterlife how Jimmy's little girl and Batsy were at least kind enough to give my body a decent burial deep within Arkham Asylum... unaware that I had implanted a microchip on little Timmy beforehand so that I could continue wreaking havoc after 40 years... until Bat-Fake, that is! Ahhh, such a simple time.
  • Another example is that after I finally croaked from the Titan disease, I again watched from the afterlife as Commissioner Jimmy secretly kept watch over my corpse for two weeks, and then, after that Bat-Brain somehow survived my remaining traps, they showed me the kind favor of burning my body to get rid of it! Oh, well... it was fun while it lasted... Unless I somehow reincarnate in a different form. You never can tell when I may be coming back elsewhere, you know.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: A world without rules, baby!
• Edible Bludgeon: I tell you, death by bananas is an absolute riot! Unfortunately, beating someone to death with a bunch of bananas can also take all night. Plantains make a much better weapon. I also taught lil' Andie a thing or two about killer bologna!
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunet: "Vertet", actually. Ooh la la!
• Electric Joybuzzer: It sure left a shocking impression on Antoine. But remember kids, always exercise caution when using these things, or you might, oh I don't know — fall into a waterfall and electrocute yourself to death, say? But that'd just be crazy. Not to mention that they can be used to fry a microchip that allows you to inhabit a body.
• Electric Torture: Making people glow like Christmas trees is a wonderful use of electricity. Ain't that right, Bats?◊
• Empowered Badass Normal:
  • During my reign as Emperor Joker, after stealing the powers of that imp. I became omnipotent during that time and reshaped the world in my image. Good times.
  • There's also that time I borrowed Banesy's venom and became as buff as him. I even improved it into a variant called Titan, which I also used on myself.
• Enemy Mine:
  • I'm as shocked as you are! When my Batman: The Brave and the Bold incarnation made his first appearance, he actually joined forces with Batsy in order to take down Owlman, mainly because he just wasn't as much fun. In the end, he made a smart move and joined forces with the alternate double, but not before telling Bats that he tried to be good. That better not be signs of me decaying, otherwise I might need to have a little chitchat with those writers...
  • Oh, I should have trusted the writers more. I got to kill the Bat nine times! On a show for children!
  • Heck, if you thought my repeated comical, off-screen murders of the Dork Knight in the Lighter and Softer Animated Adaptation of Emperor Joker were bad enough for kids, you should have read the original comic book (which was way worse) where I committed those murders in all their graphic, gory... uh, glory that put Mortal Kombat or even Brain Dead 13 to shame. I even got to traumatize him and send him crying... until old Supes saved the day!
• Enemy Within: My whole role in Arkham Knight! That strong dose of Me-Blood I injected ol' Fatman with left a whole bunch of me in him. And thanks to good ol' Crane's toxins, I get to spend the whole game taunting him about how I'm taking control of him, making him relive horrible stuff I did to his Bat-buddies, and almost took control of him!... Almost... Damn Scarecrow.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: I just don't get it!! I shout at her, I even give her a shiner and a love tap or ten, but that dame Harley just keeps coming back for more.... (sulks off to corner) I do love ya babe!! I just can't change who I am... (Wipes tear) Please forgive me..... Hahahahahaha!! I just don't get dames.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • I may be a criminal lunatic, but I'm an AMERICAN criminal lunatic! When I found out◊ that Red Skull fellow was a Nazi, I turned on him, right then and there. And don't talk about that selling-nukes-to-Arabs thing. Fanon Discontinuity, plain and simple, got it?!
  • Funny thing — to other villains, I'm below their standards (perhaps that would make me the Spear Counterpart to ol' Jimmy, if I'm to believe that Dick Flass). Well, phooey! I didn't want their help, anyway...
  • For reasons of good taste, Joel Schumacher wasn't invited to my House Party at Arkham Asylum.
  • Oh yes, and there was that one time I met that Warren White guy in the showers, pointing out that while I kill people, I don't steal their kids' college funds — but knowing me, I probably just said that to get under his skin. Of course, now White looks like a dried up tuna, and is just as nutso as the rest of us. Like I always say, all it takes is one... bad... day...
  • And don't even get me started on that lunatic of a "hero" who keeps ripping off my style! That guy makes ME look sane!
  • If there's one thing I won't stand for, it's poor customer service!
  • Now, look, my rude friend. We can't have people cursing at each other on the freeway. It's simply not polite. I'm just going to have to teach you some manners.
  • And don't even get me started on those Aryan thugs in Blackgate — there's being a murderer, there's being an extravagant murderer, but those guys are just plain mean, not a funny bone in their body.
  • For some reason, killing Jimmy's wife during NML in front of all those babies wasn't as funny as I thought it would be.
  • As for that red, gooey psychopath, well, he's right in that everything is a nihilistic joke, but I have style, and his standard of mass mayhem isn't up to my standard. As I told him, I'm Orson Welles, he's David Hasselhoff. I dunno, maybe he should try Germany. Geddit?
  • Even I'm not dumb enough to mess with the IRS.
• Everything's Better with Penguins: Are you crazy? Me? Fond◊ of that old featherbrain? I don't know what◊ you've been reading, kiddo, but I only team up with him when the plan requires it. On the other hand, I gotta say, he runs a hell of a nightclub. And I'm not above just chilling with him and ol' Eddie Nygma.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Averted! I can damn well understand the good guys if I please. Even been one just a couple of times. It's just that it's out-of-your-skull boring. Though, for the life of me, I can't understand why Batsy doesn't get the joke...
• Eviler Than Thou: Carnage? Puh-leeze! The guy is an uninventive, style-less dunderhead! Like I told him that one time we met, "Any idiot, nothing personal of course, can go out and slaughter a few thousand people, but where's the laughter and tears? The handstands and histronics? In short, my dense and sanguine pal... where's the theater?"
• Evil Eyebrows: They're marvelous, aren't they!?
• Evil Feels Good: Does it ever!
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Aw, come on! I've got a great sense of humor! It's not my fault if not everyone can appreciate it!
• Evil Is Hammy: Well, where's the fun in having inhibitions?
• Evil Is One Big Happy Family: It certainly is◊. We got even happier when we decided to have a kid.
• Evil Is Petty: Petty? You snot-nosed little punk, I'll KILL ya for that one! Oh, I kid.
  • Still, that "report card incident" has gotten a lot more mileage than I expected....
  • In my debut in that Dini guy's classic Batman: The Animated Series, I went through one of my patented convoluted plots, nearly ruined Christmas for Gotham, kidnapped ol' Jimmy Gordon, that fat buffoon and that annoying reporter lady, all to... trick Batman into opening a present with a springloaded pie in it. Not a poisoned pie, or an acid pie, just a regular cream pie. Hey, it's a classic! We have fun, Batsy and I!
• Evil Laugh: Let's face it, I don't do any other kind. Don't believe me? Here's some of my best ones.
  • If you're itching for more (you know you are), try watching this. Or this.
• Evil Mentor: I've done this more than once. Sometimes I'll take on a sidekick of my own to mimic Batsy and the Boy Blunder, and other times I'll employ good old-fashioned mental torture to "persuade" good people of just how screwed up this world really is. In some stories, I've even turned some of Batsy's allies into villains-namely Harvey Dent and Ethan Bennett, in addition to helping Basil Karlo realize that he still had his Clayface powers. Admittedly, I failed with with old Jimmy Gordon, but nobody's perfect...
• Evil Plan: I dabble in everything from the classic robbery to pay the bills to Mind Rape for kicks. Though they usually involve Batsy somehow.
• Evil Twin: Word is there're some worlds out there where my counterparts are on the good guys' side. Is that messed-up or what?!
• Evil Versus Evil: I tussle with the competition all the time! The penultimate issue of my own magazine pit yours truly against ol' Jonathan Crane, for example. The bet, entitled "The Scarecrow's Fearsome Face-Off", is which of our fearsome weapons is the best, and my laughing gas won out. Ha, that'll teach him.
• Explosive Cigar: Who says cartoons should have this little gadget all to themselves? 'Course, mine are filled with naughtier stuff... Happy birthday, anyone?
• Extendo Boxing Glove: What can I say? I live to bring the punchline! Monkey-Me actually made it one of his standard weapons.
• Eye Scream: The magic trick of making a pencil disappear into a crony's skull, that was all. Care to see for yourself, Pearl?
• Face Palm: Batman has probably dodged thousands of bullets fired by my mooks over the years. My reaction is usually something like this◊.
• Facial Horror: Wouldn't you know, I lost my whole face at the start of the New 52. Naturally, I couldn't lose this trademark winning smile of mine, so I ended up stealing it back from the cops and wearing it like a mask, even if it was getting... ripe. Not to worry, though; a little healing factor, and it's back good as new for Batman: Endgame.
• Faking the Dead: And a pretty good one at that, too! As part of my backup plan in Batman: Arkham City, I stole one of those "magic feign-death potions" that ol' Sharpie had made, and then, while the Bat was fighting off Mr. Hammer, I pulled off a Juliet Capulet by drinking the bottle of it, and then drifted off into slumberland, with Clayface in hiding and dear ol' Harley right by my side. After a few minutes, the potion's effects wore off, and I woke up just in time to find the Dork Knight, knocked out cold by both Clayface and Harl', so I could infect him with my Titan blood. My plan worked like a charm! Bitter irony, though, as I was only hours away from death by Titan poisoning anyway.
• Fan Disservice: If you've got the pasty white gams (and other things) needed to rock a pair of scale panties◊, I say flaunt 'em.
• Faux Affably Evil: Ol' Lexy said it best: "Frighteningly sick in the head, but strangely compelling company."
• Filk Song: Of course I have one! Or two...
• Flanderization: Sometimes writers portray me as your average psycho serial killer, forgetting I'm supposed to be a FUNNY psycho serial killer. Of course as Characterization Marches On shows, I was originally lacking a sense of humor more or less to begin with so it isn't that jarring, all things considered...
• Flat Scare: Oh yeah, I've pulled this a few times, notably with Vicky Vale in Burton's movie, or on a poor Arkham warden schmuck. You wouldn't believe the effect a little "boo" can have when it's coming from me!
• Flechette Storm: When the writers give me more unusual weapons besides just guns and knives (not that there's anything wrong with that, of course...), razor-edged playing cards are always a perennial standby.
• Flying Saucer: The Sixties were a strange decade, boys and girls. Of course, with today's gas prices, I might as well walk to Mars...
• For the Evulz: What better reason could there possibly be?
• Fountain of Expies: Hoo boy, it's harder to find a modern example of a Monster Clown villain who isn't cribbing off little ol' me. Off the top of my head there's Kefka Palazzo (who in turn inspired a jester who played the biggest joke ever on the Galaxy Far, Far Away), and that Terumi fellow (he even went so far as to borrow some of my lines! And my hair color! Cheapskate!^note  Too bad for him he has to deal with his own rodent problem of the tree-dwelling variety. Reap what you sow, kiddo! ) There's also some nobody called Rake who stole my looks wholesale and has the brilliant idea to try to backstab the guy or gal who's currently taking down an entire army by themselves, guess how that ends up for him!^note  Seriously, they're taking more bullets than Boyscout In Blue does on a good day without going down and you think you can pull that off with just a handgun? Should've just stayed with those other clowns, at least they brought backup... Really, boys, being a role model for a new whole generation of psychos and lunatics is flattering, but make your own damn material!
• Fourth-Wall Observer: Don't mind if I whistle my own theme tune. Or glance at the camera in all too many stories. Or chat about the editors. Or write my own article right here, right now.
• Freak Lab Accident: Classic Origin, of course. You'd be surprised how taking a bath in a vat of chemicals can really bring out the worst in you!
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Batsy foiled my plan to hold international delegates hostage, but the joke was on him when they got mixed up in Instant People, Just Add Water form.
• Freudian Excuse: Oh, I've spun at least dozen yarns about why I turned out like I did: The Alcoholic Dad who'd smack me around whenever he was on the sauce, the beloved wife who died tragically... Who knows, some of them might even be true.
• Friend to All Children: Just look at their joyous expressions!◊
• Funny Animal: My Earth C-Minus counterpart, the Porker, has constantly fought Batsy's counterpart Batmouse.
• Fun with Palindromes: I once suggested going through Gotham's phone book and killing everyone whose name was a palindrome. It's as good a reason as any!
• Gender Flip: Thrillkiller made me one Bianca Steeplechase, while Flashpoint turned me into ol' Batsy's mother! Or, rather, wife, given it's Brucey who died there, not his parents, and his dad who became Batman. Over in that Tangent place, I'm Lori Lemaris, Madame Xanadu and Mary Marvel. Simultaneously.
• Genius Bruiser: Some versions of me have not only been smart enough to give Batsy fits, but also keep up with him in a straight-up fight. Monkey-Me was especially notable for my martial arts fights with Batboob. Bruce Lee, eat your heart out!
• Genre Savvy: I've been known to be this from time to time. Sometimes it even gets a little dangerous.
• The Gimmick: Compare Silver Age me with The Dark Knight me, and you'll see how far I can go while still staying in the same gimmick.
• Glasgow Grin: Sometimes I opt to carve my trademark cheerful smile right into my face! Assuming, that is, it wasn't done for me; I can't quite remember anymore. If I don't have any of my happy gas on hand, maybe I'll give one to my victims as well!
• Go-Karting with Bowser: What, you don't like surfing? And turtle guy wishes he was the current image for this page.
• Gonk: Why, whatever are you talking about, kiddies? Sure, your ol' Uncle J. might be a little... spooky-lookin', but can't he be considered handsome in a sort of unconventional way?... ALRIGHT, FINE! YOU WIN! HAPPY? Admittedly, my looks do tend to vary somewhat, but you know what? At least I'm still more handsome-y than Bat-Brain! Seriously, how ugly do you have to be to want to hide your face at all times? (Now, if I could just get my mitts on Sam Kieth...)
• Good Counterpart: Ol' Creeps borrows a lot from me. I suppose it would be flattering if he weren't so crazy.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars:
  • The version of me played by Heath Ledger has a nice happy Glasgow Grin, instead of my usual permanent smile. Wanna know how I got them?
  • Jacky Nicholson's version of me did it first; a gunshot through both cheeks, a nice dip in my usual chemical bath, some amateur plastic surgery, and voila!
• Go Out with a Smile: Hey, if ya gotta go, you might as well be happy! Here, have a whiff of my flower, you'll know what I'm talking about! Matter of fact, ol' Jacko's version of me practically said so at the parade!
• Greater Scope Villain:
  • In Batman: Arkham Knight I influence the actions of almost every character! This is burned into the players' mind through the completely unsubtle method of putting me in the very first scene and some cop guy talking about me and my effects on Gotham. In fact, during that very first scene, my dead body is shown burning inside of a blazing incinerator. Get it? Also, there's the teensy, tiny fact that I'm torturing Bats from beyond the grave, plotting to take over his body and mind.
  • I also take this role in Birds of Prey. While I only appear in a few crummy flashback sequences in the pilot and I am said to be currently locked away far from New Gotham, I am in a way indirectly responsible for the conflict because I was the one who crippled Barbara and hired someone to kill Helena's mother. There's also the fact that Harley planned to fill in the void I left when I was brought to justice by attempting to become the city's new greatest criminal mastermind.
• Groin Attack: It may not be as fatal as a stab or gunshot, but it works, doesn't it?
  • Even Aquaman knows I can deliver a good kick to the valuables when given the chance.◊
  • Heck, one time Bat-Fake McGinnis did this by fighting dirty with a knee to my... let's just say... manhood. And not just once, but twice!!! THAT really had to hurt!
• Hannibal Lecture: They named this gag after Hannibal?! I appreciate a good bit of wordplay as much as the next homicidal maniac, but the old purple people eater has nothing on me! I don't recall Clarice Starling ever dressing up like a clown and busting him out of jail (which would make him the lucky one...).
• Happily Married: Wouldn't you know it? I finally tied the knot with dear ol' Harl' in the prequel comic to Batman: Arkham City! In an Unholy Matrimony sort of way, of course. Unfortunately, our marriage was fated not to last for over six months in the game itself thanks to the deadly Titan disease that I had inflicted upon myself. Well, you know what they say: "Till death do us part."
• Happy Dance: What, ya don't like Prince? That man has a great taste in purple.
• Happy Fun Ball: That Toyman shmuck ain't got nothing on yours truly!
• Hates Being Touched: My old boss, Salvatore Valestria, found this out the hard way.
• Have a Gay Old Time: Laugh at MY boner, will you?!
• Healing Factor: Batman: Endgame revealed I had this power. It does explain why I have my face again.
• The Heckler: Let me be clear, Batsie, whatever other faults he has, is a wonderful Straight Man and my act would not be the same without him. I consider myself a professional stand-up comedian and so, even when I should be prepared for them, I cannot stand them. Amateurs like Charlie Collins or that lunatic, the aptly named Creeper, believe they can steal my act unpunished — and they prove themselves right. I hate them. And please, don't make me talk about that punk McGinnis.
• The Hero Dies so The Bad Guy Wins And Then What? Bored With Insanity!: Those tropes are the plot of Going Sane, when I thought Batman was dead, I decided to go on with my life. Could Batsy ever had the guts to renounce being a hero and do that? I'm mad, but not stupid.
• He's Back: After a year-long absence, I finally brought my happy smile back to Gotham to the horror of everyone in it. I hope Gordon appreciated the dead police officers I left him.
• Hidden Depths: In the first issue of my short-lived series in the 70's, I tell the guards how irritated I am that the thugs broke Two-Face out of Arkham because they thought he was a better criminal than I. (Preposterous!) The guards ask if I'm going to cry, and I respond with "That would be grotesque—tears trickling down..." They don't get it, so I explain "I was quoting Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, illiterate imbecile!"
• High Voltage Death: Part of my plot to exploit my Joker Immunity via electric chair in exchange for my freedom from being arrested in one storyline ("The Joker Walks the Last Mile"). And I even did the same electric chair thing to Batsy as one of the Death Traps in The Brave and the Bold's take on Emperor Joker. Heck, some say I even died like this in the censored version of that Batman Beyond movie, though many objected that it was much, MUCH worse than getting shot at by that Bird-Brain in the uncensored version! Ow.
• Hoist by My Own Petard: My exploding marbles would have been my end if not for my immunity. And Charlie tried to kill me with one of my own bombs. Oh, the shame of being killed by a nobody instead of dying during a fight with ol' Batsy. And to think I fell for a bluff.
• Hollywood Acid: Have a little whiff of my posy. Flowery pun, I know, but...
• Hollywood Psych: According to the good doctors in Arkham, I'm not Insane, oh nonono. I am Super Sane! It's like Tourette's but mass murdery! Another one of dear Harley's bright ideas — fortunately, I managed to get to her just in time, because lunacy like that needs a wider audience.
• Homoerotic Subtext: It was kinda obvious in the Batman: Arkham Series that I had this subtext for Batsy, albeit wholly one-sided. A lot of these—for example, my monologue to Harley (Harleen, at the time) about how I met someone special who had given my life meaning (though my romantic subtext accidentally seduced her into thinking it was about her), and my rendition of "Cold, Cold Heart" in Arkham Origins; so many of my voicemails on Bats' cellphone, and other subtext in the Post-Climax Confrontation from the Clayface-Me in Arkham City—have made me act as if I'm kinda gay for the Bat-Freak! Rocksteady and WB Montreal have been listening to way too many interviews with Grant Morrison lately. I'm defending myself, so let me tell you clearly that I'm not gay! Oh nonononono! Au contraire, the Bat and I are Heterosexual Life-Partners through and through, even 'til my death in Arkham City. Understaaaaand?
• Horrifying the Horror: The Trickster said it best: "When super-villains want to scare each other, they tell Joker stories"◊.
  • And just to clarify some points about my Batman: The Animated Series incarnation... remember how I was seen afraid of Charlie Collins after TheReveal about the bomb being a dud? Well, I am not afraid of him! And remember that annoying guy, the Creeper? I am not afraid of him either! And Harley being a Yandere and exclaiming "Welcome to the club"? Well, I didn't fear her either. Oh please! Have you forgot who I am? I AM NOT AFRAID OF THOSE LOSERS! I am crazy enough to take on Batman! ... but the IRS? Well, maybe I gave you this one...
• Horror Host: DC gave me a whole two series of Joker's Asylum to get my Alfred Hitchcock on! Although they PROMISED me the woolly slippers would be kept out of shot...
• Hostile Show Take Over: After teaming up with Bat Guano, joining the races, and killing him repeatedly with my 5th dimensional powers, this was only the next step. Even blew up Kamandi's earth in The Teaser!
• How I Stole Christmas: During that grand year, The Long Halloween. While quoting good ol' Doc Seuss, no less!
• Humiliation Conga: Less-Than-A-Pennyworth once outfenced me and trapped me on a pole-elevator of some sort, zipping up and down, up and down, for five minutes. Never did quite see what the pole was for...
• Humanoid Abomination: One theory Scott Snyder throws out there.
• Humans Are Bastards: Oh, we certainly are. People tend to claim that I'm the best in that category◊, but I've long held the belief that all it takes is one bad day to make anyone just as crazy as I am.
• The Hyena: It's always a laugh-a-minute around me, especially when the punchline involves a bomb and a busload of orphans. So many happy memories. I do remember some sort of amalgamated version of me with that name, but who can keep track?
• Identity Impersonator: A good one too! There was this one time when I had no knowledge of the Bat as of yet, but when I eavesdropped on this Roman Sionis wearing a black mask and taking control of the cops to capture someone who called himself the Bat, I figured that, hey, maybe I should take over Blackie's business. However, Roman knew he and his girlfriend, Tiffany Ambrose, were being watched, so she went to Lacey Towers to call for help, but I gave her the knockdown and tied her to the chandelier. And then a fake guy posing as Black Mask walked in while the real Black Mask was hiding. However, I saw through the trickery and wouldn't be fooled, so I killed the little impostor, then subdued the real Blackie and forced him to Mercy Kill his little bitch in exchange for freedom. But that wasn't enough! No. I knocked him out cold, then captured him, placed a frame-up for the murder on the fat Penguin, then posed as the real Blackie and tried to sound like him, but came off more like a mafia gangster. I could then hire eight assassins and send them out to kill the Bat on Christmas Eve so I could give them a Christmas bonus. However, the Bat-Freak soon found me out, and when he confronted me, I tried pretending I wasn't that clown while bringing out the real Blackie. I guess I should have gagged him with duct tape earlier, because the moment I took off his black mask, Blackie became quite a nasty tattle-tale, ratting me out before I had my fun and forcing me to give up the façade. Papa spank!
• Idiosyncrazy: Depending on the Writer, my crimes may or may not follow a comedy theme. One of the best things about Monkey-Me was that he was so committed to the whole "clown" theme.
• Idiot Ball: Hoo boy, there are some Idiot Balls out everywhere, even in the Arkhamverse, but the #1 Idiot Ball has to go to that one moment near the end of Batman: Arkham City, when, after that Bat-head ruined my chance at immortality by destroying the Lazarus Pit along with Clayface, I noticed that the Caped Crusader finally had the cure I was looking for (he had drunk up half of it and gotten cured of the Titan disease I had inflicted on him and saved the other half for later). I just thought: FINALLY! Now's my only chance that I can still be saved! I demanded that he give me the antidote for it, but Bat-Brain just hesitated a bit. I just didn't know that he was pondering on his thoughts and considering giving me the remaining cure; I mistakenly assumed that he wasn't doing it in fear that I may commit more crimes again. And then something snapped inside of me: I let my anger and impatience get the better of me by stabbing him in the arm with a knife for the cure, forcing him to drop it and let it shatter onto the floor, and resulting in my ultimate, fatal downfall. What an Idiot I was, just Too Dumb to Live! *sniff* ..well, them's the breaks! HAHAHAHA!!
  • And besides, old Bats did give me one last laugh: He'd really save me after all I've done? That actually is pretty funny!
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him: Apparently, this is the only reason Bats hasn't put me down. In some cases, I'm actively trying to get him to, either to show him we aren't so different or as the ultimate revenge. One of these days.... AHAHAHAHH!!
• If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten: I often have my men prove just how evil they are. Sometimes against each other.
• Ignore the Fan Service: Honestly, I have more important things on my mind than "revving up my Harley", as she calls it. Most of the time...
• I Kill The Bus Driver: In The Dark Knight. Oh, did I fail to mention that part of the plan? So sorry. NOT!
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Oh, there was the time I thought Batman was dead and I became a normal, 9-to-5 guy because there was no Batsy. (Makes me nauseous thinking about it.)
• Image Song: Prince captures me very well on "Electric Chair," if I do say so myself.
• I'm a Humanitarian: What? Those Chinamen were really tasty. *Burp*◊
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Not me personally, but I'd wager my animated version's voice actor isn't the only Star Wars character in Batman: TAS. Would it really surprise you if my goons were the mooks in white?
• Impersonating an Officer: When I tried to kill the mayor, my goons and I used this tactic. Unfortunately, ol' Jimmy saw through it, but at least I got him as compensation! Except he was smart enough to wear a bulletproof vest to his boss's funeral... and captured me the day after, using good ol' Harvey Dent as bait. Guess I should've checked the body first...
• Impossibly Cool Clothes/Iconic Outfit: Hilarious carnage is simply not the same if you're not wearing a purple tux.
  • Heckuva ordeal to clean, though.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: My aim should be this good after all these years of using Gotham's people as practice. Need an example? Fine! Remember that one animated movie that's criminally underrated? In it, I unload an entire magazine from a Tommy Gun at those singing robots, all of them being headshots which blast off the heads of all 4 robots. The camera reveals me to be the shooter and my left hand was in my pocket the whole time.
• Improbable Weapon User: I try not to limit myself. Razor-edged playing cards, lethal joy buzzers, exploding kewpie-dolls...
  • And then there was the time I smacked Andie Beaumont with a salami. Insert your own joke here, this one's too easy for me.
    • Oh, and that other time where I took on Batsy and his lightsaber with a rubber chicken. You can call it stupid, I call it comedy.
  • Of course, nothing beats a good old-fashioned crowbar.
• Improvised Weapon: You may want to be on your guard if I ask you to pass the remote.
• Incurable Cough of Death: You ever noticed the coughing from the real me at the beginning of Batman: Arkham City? Well, that's a sure sign that yours truly will soon be dead from Titan poisoning by the end of the game. Lesson learned when you OD on super-steroids, kids.
• In Love with Your Carnage: But he's sooo magnificent when he loses it... Especially when he loses it on me. Ahh, but dear Bats is in deep denial.
  • Not to mention that time when Harley and me made up after she proved that she was more than willing to pull the trigger on me. That's my girl...
  • Let's be straight here, though. I'm not in love with that Carnage.
• Insanity Defense: Let's face it, by all rights I should have gotten the death penalty a long time ago. Although I wonder which would be the best way to go... the electric chair would be an absolutely heavenly sensation, while dying by lethal injection would allow me to leave a beautiful corpse (and I do love the irony)...
• Insanity Immunity:
  • Put it this way: I once wore The Mask without any ill effects. Can't lose what ya don't got!
  • Crane hates this. Can you believe the buffoon actually tried using his fear gas on me? HAHAHAHA!
  • Want to know just how much of an advantage this can be? In issue 7 of my self-titled comic, after a day where Lexy and I accidentally swap our main characteristics (madness and intelligence, respectively) Luthor is in his jail cell, remembering that when he was mad he had thought of "the ultimate theory", an explanation for the universe that he'd need to be crazy to come up with that would have made him world-renowned. Unfortunately, he was unable to remember it when his sanity was restored.
  • Happened to me again when ol' Ra's decided that I'd outlived my usefulness after coming up with a new plan to murderize five sixths of the human population (I probably shouldn't have killed so many of his homies. Or made passes at his daughter. Or won versus him at chess. Naaaah.), and promptly had me shot. Luckily for everyone involved, Bats found my pasty, lifeless body and tossed me into the old boy's Lazarus Pit. Strangely, instead of coming out crazier, as users of the Pit are wont to do (and what an experience that would have been!), I came out, like you'd say, with every screw perfectly tightened and a conscience in working order. You cannot believe just how heavily that yoke you call sanity pressed on my head on the few hours I had to live with it.
  • Of course, little Acey-poo showed me that no matter how wacky you are, there's still new depths to plumb. What a trip that that was...
• Instrument of Murder: I can do things with a violin bow you would not believe...
• Insult Backfire: People say that I'm a sick, depraved, twisted, evil psychopath. I say "Thank You." Hey, it's not offensive if it's the truth, right?
  • For example, in Arkham Asylum:
    Batsy: Filthy degenerate!
    Me: Flattery will get you nowhere.
  • On The Batman.
    Me: Medical Report! Stat!
    Doc: Y-you had a bad accident. You're a very sick man!
    Me: Flattery won't save you!
  • Batman: The Long Halloween
    The World's Greatest Defective: You're Insane!
    Me: Has it really taken you this long to notice?
  • One of my oldest cases:
    Boy Blunder: You're out of your mind, Joker!
    Me: Gloriously so! Isn't it wonderful?
  • And an even earlier example in The Joker's Five-Way Revenge (Batman #251). Yeah, I really like this trope.
    Guanoman: Joker — you realize you're utterly... hopelessly... insane!
    Me: It's my most charming trait!
  • Subverted, however, in The Dark Knight.
    Gambol: You're crazy.
    Me: I'm not... No, I'm not.
  • Aaaand played straight in Tim Burton's Batman:
    Vinnie: You're crazy.
    Me: Ever hear of the healing power of laughter?
  • Later:
    Vicki Vale: You're insane...!
    Me: (feigning surprise) I thought I was Pisces.
  • And again in The Batman Adventures:
    Henchman: You're insane!
    Me: I know. I've got a certificate and everything.
  • Though it did work one time, but it backfired on him in a different way.
    Me: Tell your men they work for me now. This is my city.
    The Chechen: They won't work for a freak.
    Me: Fuh-reek? Why don't we cut you up into little pieces and feed you to your pooches? Hmm? Then we'll see how loyal a hungry dog really is.
    • The novelization made me sound even more commanding to that Chechen fuh-reek's little cronies, and boy, did I sound more menacing there!
    Me: This is my town now. Tell your men they work for me.
    The Chechen: They won't work for a freak.
    [I throw a knife to one of my men and try not to stab him in the process]
    Me: Cut him up and offer him to his little princes. Let's show him just how loyal a hungry dog is.
  • I've even pulled this on my dear little Harley in "The Laughing Fish" after I throw a giant rubber fish head costume on her.
    Harley: You're really sick, y'know that, Boss?
    Me (blissfully nodding): Mmmm-hmmmm.
• Intercontinuity Crossover:
  • I even faced up to Ol' Chinface, what a death count! It was a real hoot, but Chinface's got even less of a sense of humour than the Bat! Jeez, some people just can't take a joke.
  • And, as noted elsewhere on this page, I met Captain America and teamed-up with the Red Skull until I found out Skully was a wacky Nazi. (They say that's off in its own little world. Isn't everything?) I also survived a couple of encounters with The Punisher, got fused with the furball called Sabretooth, and even met Spidey twice. Sadly, the second time, during Marvel vs DC, it wasn't Petey, but his clone, Benny.
    • While we're on the subject, let's just say Frankie Castle doesn't have the same patience with me as The Bat.
  • Ooh, can't forget those crazy kung fu guys, I sure showed them a thing or two.
  • And as noted in "Insanity Immunity", I once put on The Mask! Didn't see hide nor hair of ol' Jimbo, but hey, he'd been riding my coattails all through the Nineties, so...
• Intimidating Revenue Service: I'm crazy enough to take on Batman, but the IRS?? No, thank you!
• It Amused Me: Well, duh.
• Jetpack: Honestly, Batman can ruin anything if given the chance. Even if you're a regular guy looking to fly◊.
• Joker Immunity: They named this trope after me. You can't keep a good clown down! (Except when Jack Nicholson plays me, or when I get so old I could get my own neck broken, or when I poison myself with super-steroids.) Does more need to be said? Even that time in the Tooniverse they did get rid of me, they had to do it twice over just to be sure.
  • One time I tried to subvert my Joker Immunity in Batman: Vengeance, when I jumped off the exploding blimp and was free-falling to my death, for real this time. I even tried preventing the free-falling Bat-Freak from saving my life four times, but on the fourth and last time, he somehow finally succeeded in catching me in time and preventing a Non Standard Game Over. So much for that!
  • Throughout the Arkhamverse, I kept trying to subvert my Joker Immunity again and again in Batman: Arkham Origins, and Batsy kept on saving me! It was not until Arkham Asylum that I finally succeeded... by OD'ing myself on Titan while the Bat-Freak was too helpless to stop it. Of course, it would take yet another painful year for the Titan poisoning to settle in my bloodstream before taking it over completely, thus fulfilling my death wish (though unexpectedly) at the end of Arkham City. And even then, my public still couldn't get enough of me, so they made a new game about my first run-in with Bats so I could return to the spotlight. And another game where the blood I left in Batsy and Scarecrow's fear gas come to life and taunted him ''all'' night long. What fun!
  • Then there was that brat who shot me with my own gun. That wasn't funny. And don't get me started on that fake Batman who said I wasn't funny.
• Joker Jury: Another one named after little ol' me.
• Jump Scare: Batsy's dream version of me had a habit of doing this; if you've seen the New Game+ version of the opening, you'll know what I mean...
• Kick the Dog: A robot dog at that.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: Sometimes Crane needs a reminder◊ of who the people fear most.
  • A lot of readers seem quite happy that I killed that little punk Alex Luthor. Well, that's what he gets for not inviting ME to his Secret Society Of Villains!
• Killed Off for Real: Once upon a time, I injected myself with Titan. It should have been just like all the other times I dabbled with toxins, but sadly, it ended with me having to Go Out with a Smile in Monarch Theatre, or what's underneath it anyways. The lesson is, Drugs Are Bad — but only when they are used on you. Still, what a Downer Ending, huh? Though I'm still kicking everywhere else, as far as the Arkhamverse is concerned I'm done for; they even put my body into the fire in Arkham City: Endgame.
  • One alternate version of me tried to give Superman a bad day. It got him a superpowered arm through the chest. Sheesh, it's amazing what nuking Metropolis and tricking a superhero into killing his wife and unborn brat will do to a guy. Considering what happened after that, one of my greatest triumphs!
  • Then there's that Magog character, who thought Sic Semper Criminalis was the punchline. Crude and unfunny.
  • Over on Earth 2, I got bumped off by Bats without even the chance for a joke. 'Course, that was old Tommy Wayne, filling in for his dead son, who'd gone and got himself killed saving the world. Tsk, no style, that man; it's obvious where my Batsie got it.
  • This seems to be the case at the end of Batman: Endgame. Of course, Bats is still alive after being crushed in a collapsing cave with me, so who knows?
• Kill Sat: In my comeback attempt, I tried to use one of these wonderful toys to mark New Gotham as Joker territory. Unfortunately, Bat Fake had to ruin the fun.
• Knife Nut: You know why I like knives? Guns are too quick. You can't savor all the little emotions. You'd be surprised at what people reveal at their last moments. Also, soup tastes better when it's difficult.
  • Of course, if I need must soil my pinkies with a dirty ol' firearm - and I must, I absolutely must — I stick with the classics.
• Knight of Cerebus: My role in Young Justice Abridged. So far I'm the most seriously-portrayed character in the damn show! (Ironically enough)
• Kryptonite Ring: Sometimes I bump into Superman and have to remind him what dirt tastes like. Honestly, the only thing to be defeated by a rock more than Supes is those unfortunate pair of scissors. Maybe Supes should try carrying around paper.
• Kubrick Stare: I do enjoy giving folks this look from time to time (especially that one time).
• Lack of Empathy: Oh, it's always about you, isn't it? What about me, huh? I nearly broke my arm swingin' that crowbar around!
• Lame Pun Reaction: "The Joker's Wild?" Nah, that one wasn't funny. Still, if you think that one was corny, you should see the one at the end of the movie with Jack where I died by falling off a building due to a statue pulling my leg!
• Large Ham: I may be a ham, but I'm good at it!
• The Last Dance: Doc once told me I had cancer. The incurable sort, ya know. Hoped I'd repent, become The Atoner, and undergo a standard Heel–Face Turn. What did I really do? Blaze past all Five Stages of Grief in thirty seconds, destroy the world's most secure prison and poison Earth's atmosphere with a big cloud of the ol' laughing gas in a massive Crisis Crossover. Then it turned out, the doc who made the scan drew the "tumor" on it. Wanted to pull a joke on me. He. Good one. Heeeehah. Hoohoo... HAHAAHOOAH... AAHAHAAAHAHAAA!!
• Latex Perfection: Every once in a while I've felt the need to cover up my ol' rubber face of comedy with a literal rubber face. And I'm good at it, too. I've even fooled Batbrain with this one once or twice.
• Laughably Evil: Again, duh. I don't supply the trope image just because I'm so handsome, you know.
• Laughing at Your Own Jokes: I do it all the time, and I expect everyone to join in... or else.
• Laughing Mad: Haven't you ever heard of the healing power of laughter?
• Laugh with Me: And you'd better know when to laugh. I hate it when somebody doesn't get the joke!
• Lean and Mean: Don't hate me because I'm beautiful, folks!^note There's so many better reasons... Yes, it seems whenever I'm not some boxy-suited musclehead, I'm cursed with the physique of a stringbean. Ooh, I'm not complaining, mind you — I gots me enough vim and vigor to go toe-to-toe with Tall, Dark, and Gruesome any time I please! (Craney-boy, however... now he's got a problem.)
• Legacy Character: I get a street gang dedicated to my humble self over in Batman Beyond. And in The Movie, there's little Joker Junior (Tim Drake).
  • You think Batman's little swarm doesn't do him justice? Wait 'til you get a load of my various blood brothers, the results of a plan to bathe Gotham in my own blood - not literally, of course, that's more Ivy's thing - but I digress. Point is, none of them could hold a wink of a candle to yours truly - I even had to take over Bat-brain's mind, just so he wouldn't have to hear their atrocious singing! Granted, I probably would have done that anyway...
• Legion of Doom: I REALLY don't like being left out when this happens.
• Leitmotif: Every good comedian with a little self-respect should have a little easy-to-remember introductory tune, such as this sweet little whimsical melody. Now, good luck getting it off of your mind again! Heh... ahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA! Sweet dreams...
• Light Is Not Good: I wear bright clothes, and my skin is bleach-white. Does that make me good? Batman certainly doesn't think so.
• Love Makes You Evil: Maybe. Maybe I did all this because I lost my beloved wife as part of my One Bad Day. Maybe I didn't. Hey, wanna know how I got these scars? Then again, I've lied so much about my past. The way Batman tells it in Confidential, I never had a wife and it was the allure of Bats himself that drove me over the edge.
• Luxury Prison Suite: Once upon a time, I used to maintain a minature version of my hide-out beneath my cell in Arkham. Ah, good times.
• MacGyvering: Did I ever tell you about the time I mixed Joker Venom outta stuff in a janitor's closet at Arkham? Or why they won't let me have a remote for the TV anymore?
• Mad Artist: Like Jacky-boy said in the movie, I make art until someone dies.
  • Then there was that little incident at the Gotham Art Museum — that Pennyworth stick-in-the-mud put his work in my place, though.
• Mad Bomber: I'm a man of simple tastes, you know: gunpowder, dynamite, oh, and explosives.
• Mad Hatter: Can't blame me for wearing my little neuroses on my sleeve! I do it better than ol' Jervy!
• Madden Into Misanthropy: It's all a joke. Life is just a cruel joke. Why doesnt anyone else get the joke?!!
• Mad Love: Me and Harl' have this kind of relationship... that's completely one-sided. Took the girl well into Batman #663 to get that through her head.
• Magic Kiss: Yes, even in those rare moments when I became a Mad God Emperor bent on destroying the universe, my darling Harley thought she was gonna die after all she had done for me. That was when I came closer to her and gave her my special kiss that transformed her into a constellation. Ah, such a Heartwarming Moment.
• Magical Clown: Oh, please. I don't NEED all that supernatural mumbo-jumbo to have fun, but if the opportunity arises, I will take advantage. I have to admit, screwing the world up (and even killing Batsy!) was fun while it lasted.
• Manipulative Bastard: Well of course. If you have any doubt, check out this outing.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Though sometimes I skip the wealth part. The good things in life? Bombs, guns, all that? They're cheap. Though I do love my threads, I'll give you that much.
• Masochism Tango: I like taking it as much (or more) than I like giving it — but only if it's Bats. He enjoys our little dances too, he just won't admit it.
• Master of Disguise: Maybe not one of my more renowned talents, (I don't use it all that much because, hey, who'd want to cover up my gorgeous mug?) but from time to time I pull it off. I once even tricked Catwoman into thinking I was her boyfriend.
• Master Poisoner: You bet yer boots! Say, you look a little pale... more wine?
• Mermaid Problem: I solved this one quite handily In "The Laughing Fish". As Ol' Fry said, fish-half on top is the way to go.
• A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Scary in there, isn't it, green-jeans?
• Mind Rape: I do these so often you could almost say they're my specialty! (Well, aside from jokes, of course.) Made 'em the happy souls they are today...
  • My most famous instance of this occured in The Killing Joke. Thanks, Alan!
  • Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Two words. Tim Drake. Ain't I a stinker?
  • There was also a certain Detective Ethan Bennett. Tragically, his condition was less than permanent.
  • One incarnation of Harvey, Harvey, Harvey Dent.
  • Some may say this is what I did to Dr. Quinzel. But I say, look at how much happier she is now!
  • Even got to run old Batsy himself through this during my glorious reign as Emperor!
  • Once, I did this to a surfer to get his skill. Bats, the Boy Blunder, and Batgirl all overreacted. Get a sense of humor, people!
  • ... Once, that damn Marvin wannabe did this to me. It was not funny. Making me sane - who does he think he is?
  • Once I believed I did that to little nobody Charlie Collins, but he was invoking this trope just to make me let him alone... What? Oh come on! Just read the list again! It was a perfect set up, I mean, I have this effect on a lot of people!
  • One version of that Jason Todd punk had to put up with a WHOLE YEAR of this (and other things) from me. Even got him to call me "sir" right before I "shot" him! Ah, the memories...too bad I wasn't around to see the results of my handiwork in person....
• Mind Screw: I just looooooove messing with you people's heads. Did I mention I'm immune to fear gas & hypnotism? Well... most of the time
• Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: During that time I took over Arkham, I often taunted my minions. However, considering they're total idiots, can you blame me?
• Money, Dear Boy: Occasionally, even I have to pull boring old regular bank heists and robberies just for the money. Chemicals and explosives ain't cheap, you know!
• Money to Burn: Literally.◊
• Monster Clown: One could argue that I'm the prime example of this trope, mentally and physically.
• Morality Pet: Dear little Harley really has mellowed me out, don't you think? Sweet kid... makes a fella consider giving up all the wild oats and settling down... (Maybe I should ask ol' Eddie Nygma — he seems to have this problem a lot...)
  • Kick the Morality Pet: Although... I am gettin' sick of all the hyena crap around the lair... and she has foiled more than a few schemes through sheer incompetence... and Jiminy Christmas, that insufferable voice of hers! No doubt about it, it's time for a little corporate restructuring! So long, Harl ol' girl! Say "hi" to Bob for me! HAHAHAHAHEEHEEHOOHOOHA! *sniff*
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Depending on who's capturing my fabulous smile on paper, of course!◊
• Mouthing The Profanity: After Batsy fails to hit me in The Dark Knight and swerves out of the way, I can be seen mouthing the word "fuck". After all, committing on-screen murder is just entertainment, but using one of the Seven Dirty Words in a PG-13 movie? Now there's a real crime!
• Muggles Do It Better: I don't need to shoot magical lasers out of my ears to put Superman down faster than Darkseid usually does. Everyone gives poor Croc grief for his grand plan of "I threw a rock at him!" but it works so well against our favorite Kryptonian.
• Multiple-Choice Past: If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be that way. And well, between all the made-up sob stories I've fed those gullible good-for-nothing therapists over the years and the chemicals that ran through my system, I'm actually a bit confused about what happened on that fateful night and who I was before it myself. Not that it kills my buzz; mysteries are the spice of life!
  • Since that whole "New 52" nonsense, I've recalled a few memories involving a horribly cruel grandmother who liked to bleach my skin. Is it true? Eh, who cares?
  • I'm actually an interesting case: while I'm often stressed to have it in-universe, the origin given is almost always the same one over and over. Almost always, but you get the picture.
    • At Shadow of the Bat #38, Tears of a Clown, I celebrated my anniversary of the day I was a still sane, but hapless comedian, and I was thrown out of an exclusive Stand-Up Comedy club for an unfunny act the patrons mercilessly heckled. Being desperately poor, this marks my Start of Darkness as I agreed to provide to my family by pulling a job for the Red Hood gang. So I kidnapped all the patrons and made them reenact my act with control collars that would kill them when they laughed. The funny thing is that the patrons were really hardcore Stand-Up Comedy fans, so they claimed to have seen (and heckled) so many acts that nobody remembered the act of a bad comedian. So I cannot even be sure that my Start of Darkness even really happened or it was all Through the Eyes of Madness.
  They throw me out, and I had a wife and an unborn child… or it was two cows and a goat? Sometimes it's so confusing…
  • Maaan, you just don't know how annoying it is when the writers forget stuff like this. Why, a pal of mine apparently was an eyewitness to events that seemed to confirm Alan's version. And then they stopped caring. Still, as bothersome as it is, you have to admit having a specific origin confirmed would just ruin my dashing mystique. For the best, I guess.
• My Card: Strangely, not everyone appreciates the pun.
• My Death Is Only The Beginning: I tried to make Bat Guano go all He Who Fights Monsters on me after the ferry boat fiasco, but the spoilsport didn't rise to the bait.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Unusually, I of all people have been forced to go through this. Don'cha worry, hombre, Status Quo Is God. It's just that it was during that time that weird green guy forced my poor brain to think in such bizarre, diseased thought patterns. Last time a psychic ever tried to make me sane, though.
• Narcissist: From time to time. With a beautiful face like mine, can you blame me?
• Nice Hat: A stylish chapeau◊ is just the thing to top off my memorable outfit.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: And a pretty bad one at that, too. I remember that one time when I set up the bombs all over the cathedral, then told Bat-butt the plan and urged him to get out. I then counted down the seconds from ten all the way down to zero... and for some odd reason the Caped Crusader just kinda stood there, as if he had no clue what to do. I tried coaxing him to get out, but he didn't seem to hear me. Then I got REAL ticked off and started making minor threats, but in doing so I blurted out a few hints that foreshadowed my own Downer Ending, probably breaking the whole "Do Not Spoil This Ending" rule, right before I made a major threat to blow this whole damn place sky-high, for real this time. And it's likely I would have blown him up along with it had he not somehow been intimidated by my major threats and hightailed it the hell out of here. Maybe I should have kept my big mouth shut and blown him up to bits sooner after my countdown to zero while I had the chance.
• The Nicknamer: You made it all the way down here, and you still need me to tell you? Not exactly the brightest hammer in the henhouse, are ya, Tropesy?
• No Fourth Wall: And lovin' it! I'll happily chat directly with readers, and I've been doing it for years before that Anonymous — in the "chan" sense of the phrase — over at Marvel made it "cool"! I do it so well, even you can't be sure if I am or not sometimes!
• No Name Given: What was my name back before that little incident with the vat of chemicals? Jack? Joe? Y'know, I'm not sure I remember it myself... And I prefer it stays that way, thank you very much!
• No Sense of Humor: No, really! In my very first first appearance, I was a smiling psychotic gangster with no sense of humor whatsoever — and during my fight with Bats, he's the one making puns while I'm just screaming "I am going to kill you!"... (Well, I did get him to laugh once, but mostly because I wasn't in the happiest of moods.)
• No Shirt, Long Jacket: Every now and then I'll forgo the full purple three-piece and just throw on the coat instead. And don't think I don't see you staring, folks! Seems Jerry's gonna be sporting this look for Suicide Squad. When he's wearing anything at all up top, that is.
• Not Me This Time: If there's a drawback to the insanity stuff, it's that it's pretty hard to convince Gotham's finest that no, it doesn't matter how much it looks like I did it, no matter how damning the evidence is, no matter how funny I thought it would be, there are times when I just ain't responsible for the latest punchline.
• Not So Different: Batsy and I are two peas in a pod, and I keep trying to show him that. His response is predictable.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: You'd think a villain with a clown theme would be the most pathetic and lowest rogue in the gallery, right? Boy, you gotta love the imagination of those writers!
  • There was even a universe where Batboy himself and the entire Gotham City mob underestimated me. It didn't end well for any of them, but I had a lot of fun showing them otherwise.
  • Flyboy donned a radiation proof suit and thought that'd be enough to defeat me. Also, he believed the marbles I dropped were just to trip him. He had an exploding surprise.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Shut uuuuuup. It's really Depending on the Writer.
  • Good ol' Paulie said I was this in Batman: Black And White - Case Study. Here, some docs find a file where a certain doctor said I was actually completely sane and that before I took that chemical bath, I was a mob boss who reveled in my anonymity. However, I then became the clown we all know and love so I could waltz in and out of Arkham whenever I please...
    • But the best part? They found that it was dear Harley who wrote it, before she began counseling me. That's right kids, I may have driven dear Harley insane to invalidate her findings once I caught wind. And who left that file? Yours truly. After all, I gave them the truth yet there's nothing they can do about it to stop me. It was priceless.
• Oh Crap!: There was that one time I ran into someone with even less of a sense of humor than the Bat.
  You're really going to do it.
• Older Than They Think: A lot of fans think that my famous Venom - poison that not only kills, but puts a grin on the victim's face - is relatively new, started in that Tim Burton movie. Actually, that can be traced back to my very first appearance. Yes, it was a brilliant plan... I publically announced that I would murder a millionaire at precisely midnight and steal a priceless diamond he owned; naturally, the police surrounded him with armed guards, but at midnight exactly, he collapsed, dead, with a gruesome smile on his face, even though I was nowhere to be seen, and when they checked his wall safe, they found the diamond had been replaced with a fake one. I guess it's safe to tell you how I did it now. (It's been what, almost eighty years??) I snuck into his house the previous midnight, stole the diamond, and gave him a dose of my Venom while he was asleep that would take exactly twenty-four hours to kick in. A lot of work, but worth it to give those cops the scare of their lives!
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Biology, Physics, Mathematics, Anatomy, and of course good old Engineering, Psychology and Chemistry; all the stuff at boring old school that actually makes life fun for a prankster like me. The only subjects a genius like me has trouble with is that boring old inter-whatchyouaycallit-net, too much logic. Oh no, I wasn't a teacher's pet, it's quite the other way round actually. As a matter of fact Ms Crabtree over there has been licking water from her dish since I put her "facing your childhood fears" lecture to practice.... on a roller coaster showing the "movies" her daddy made with her back in sweet-16..... I wonder if it will work on Sheriff Gordy.....
  • And Jacky Boy likes to imply that I'm also a fella who is gifted in poetry, theatre, literature, and all that lovey dovey, boring pansy stuff..... Tell anyone I read that Shakespeare sonnet to my dear Harley and I'll tear your lungs out, buddy boy!!
• One Phone Call: I know my rights, and I'm going to make sure I get my phone call when I'm visiting the slammer. Of course, I might not be making a call to anywhere outside the lockup. Or outside a person, for that matter.
• One-Winged Angel: Not really my thing, but...
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The Bat is mine. Capiche? And yes, I have enforced that. Violently.
  • That also includes Robins and Batgirls, understand? Black Mask learned that the hard way...
• OOC Is Serious Business: I stopped laughing? As the kids say these days, shit just got real. Either that, or that little punk got under my skin.
• Our Vampires Are Different: I decided to give the whole bloodsucker routine a shot. Reviews were good. Real good.
  • I'm not above playing dress-up as one either. Especially when my fellow villains don't invite me to their party.
    • I've even heard tell that off in the glittering cosmos, on Earth-Eleventy-Whatever, I led a whole army of Dracs, even though I never got switched! Of course, the poor fella's dead as disco now, buuuut... he was bumped off by Bat-Fink, so points for effort!
• Out-of-Character Moment: I'm not sure why, but... Killing Gordon's wife during the earthquake... Well, it just wasn't as fun as I thought it would be...◊
• Outside-Context Villain: In The Dark Knight, Bats and the police are in a fight against the mobs. Neither side sees me coming...
• Painful Transformation: And it's been hurting ever since.◊
• Pay Evil unto Evil: My ultimate goal: To make Batsy stop with all this "No Killing" nonsense and give me the ultimate finale. Can't see why he's so stubborn. The Big Blue Boy Scout caught on pretty quick. Ow.
• The Pen Is Mightier: I demonstrated this rather pointedly back in '89 with my quill pen.
  • And then there was my famous Pencil Trick...
• Perpetual Smiler: What can I say? Life's... been good to me.
• Pet the Dog: Alright, alright! There have been occasions (very infrequent occasions) where I might throw ol' Batsy a bone (shut up) and played nice. But keep your fat mouth SHUT about it! I have a reputation to maintain!
  • The novelization of The Dark Knight has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment where I slipped an old lady a hundred-dollar bill. Of course, that may have been me practicing for my big confrontation with Bats down the line, to try to imitate his every move so as to confuse him, which would help to drive an ordinary person mad... wait a second, Bats is no ordinary person! That, or I got tired of waiting around for my henchmen to pick me up and had nothing better to do to pass the time.
• Physical God: There have been a few occasions where I became an omnipowerful force to be reckoned with, most recently in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold's version of Emperor Joker. You boys shoulda seen the original... I managed to break the Bat's spirit, and reduce his soul to mere confetti scraps!
• Pie in the Face: Batman's favorite present had to be the pie I gave him in the Christmas episode of the animated series.
• Pietà Plagiarism: Sure, the Bat and I are Vitriolic Best Buds, always mean to each other from time to time. But there are some times when even the Bat-Freak felt a little pitiful and looked on me in sadness, holding me in this way. One example is the time when Bat-Cop shot me in the face, and even then, the poor Bat had to save me, carrying the unconscious me to an ambulance, bleeding face and all, through the pouring rain. Not a pretty sight, I can tell you that.◊
  • And towards the end of Arkham City, after I breathed my last from Titan poisoning, the poor Bat-Jerk had to carry my body out of the Monarch Theatre and Arkham City in this manner◊. Also in the comic incarnation.◊ Oh, if I could have seen it while I was alive instead of viewing it from the afterlife...
  • Then there was the time that I hid a bomb without telling anyone about its location and got sprayed in the face by my own toxin. Batsy had to carry me◊ into the ER◊ so he could interrogate me before the thing blew up.
• Pirate: The actual pirate, not those illegal downloading kinds. And in my expert opinion, I looked damn good.◊
• Pistol-Whipping: Guns aren't too quick in this case, Heathy boy. I'm indiscriminate when beating someone with a gun, even if it's my dear Harley.◊
• Poke the Poodle: I'm not above stealing a kid's report card when I'm feeling down. Just as long as it makes someone else feel worse.
  • Behold, if you dare... the time I lowered Bruce Wayne's property values! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
  • Y'know, for the life of me, I can't imagine why people think I'm always a crazy murderer. I've certainly proven I don't need to hurt a single person to punt you straight into the Despair Event Horizon. Why, I once drove half the nation to utter horror with just a normal playing card, a squirting flower full of ginger ale and pure gift of gab! All those ripoffs up there under Fountain of Expies - bleh! Corpses and Mind Rape may be incredible goldmines of comedy, but if those second-stringers don't get the basics of showbiz (even, or should I say, especially the cheap jokes), they're never gonna get their Walk of Fame star!
• Playing Card Motifs: What were you expecting? I didn't pick the Joker card for nothing, ya know.
• Poker: I play from time to time, whether it be with those other villains or even Bruce Wayne. I'd call Wayne a cheater but...
• Police Are Useless, unless his last name is Gordon.
• Pragmatic Villainy: I'm the Clown Prince of Crime, not the Clown Prince of Stupidity! I never put my venom on postage stamps. I'm also not invited whenever my fellow villains team up, saying that I'm too unprofessional and untrustworthy. Lexy on the other hand, sees that it's safer to have me on their team, than have me angry at them. Can't say I blame them though...You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry.
• Prima Donna Director: I still think the movie "The Death of Batman"◊ would be a smashing hit.
• Psycho for Hire: Even though I got into the super villain biz more for the fun of it than the money, I do take the occasional odd job from other villains. Even the best criminals have to keep bread on the table too, you know.
• Psychopathic Manchild: In the end, I'm just somebody who enjoys a good joke or a game or two! I don't need a reason, it's just fun!
• Punch Clock Villain: One short comic had me and Batman before a comic book "shoot", rehearsing our lines before the performance. You can see it in the What Ever Happened To The Caped Crusader omnibus.
• Pungeon Master: I happen to like jokes. In case y'know, you hadn't figured it out by now.
• Purple Is the New Black: And how! Honestly, can you imagine me dressed in any other color?
• Put on a Bus: I appeared in the very first issue of Detective Comics published in our brave DCNu world, only to let the Dollmaker cut off my face and hang it on a wall. Suppose I should get around to having that sucker stapled back on one of these days...
  • The Bus Came Back: I might have not shown my face in Gotham again, but I've been back since October 2012, kids!
• Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": Deary me! Is this a Trope Namer I see? Also, my dear little Harley says I put the "fun" back in funeral.
• Rags to Riches: One time, when I had hit rock bottom and was destitute, I received an Unexpected Inheritance from King Barlowe, a rival mob boss. Naturally, I was overjoyed and started living it up. Unfortunately, I later found out that the inheritance was a final joke the old kook pulled on me when it turned out that the majority of the fortune was all fake and that I had spent all the real money I had. Even worse, the IRS was on my back to pay a huge tax and I couldn't tell them the reason otherwise I wouldn't be able to show my face to the rest of the Rogues Gallery ever again. Let me tell you, if Barlowe hadn't been dead, I'd kill him!
• Reality Warper: Emperor Joker, huh? Why so formal? Simply call me Your Maniacal Majesty Who Hijacked Ol' Mxy's Powers And Almost Caused The Multiverse To Snap In Half Like A Dry Twig...
• Red Baron: Ooh, it seems my reputation precedes me! Let's see here... I've been called The Clown Prince of Crime, The Harlequin of Hate, The Thin White Duke of Death, The Ace of Knaves, Maurice...
• Redemption Rejection: *beat* No, no, I'm sorry, but it's too late for that... far too late. Pffthahaha, you know, this reminds me of a joke...
• Red Right Hand: My green hair, white skin and ever-present grin, of course! Usually attributed to a chemical bath, although Jacky's take on me added bullet wounds to the cheeks and bad surgery to help explain the grin.
  • Averted with Heathy's take on me, who just slaps on dye and makeup over a Glasgow Grin.
• Removed from the Picture: It would be interesting to know exactly how many times I've "died" over the years.
• Repulsive Ringmaster: As much as I love clowning around, it's also fun to be the ringleader every once in a while! There was this one time back in the good old days when ol' Batsy thought I was dead^note Talk about stupid!, so some friends and I took the opportunity to start our own little circus! We would go to the homes of rich folk to perform, just for them... and then steal their riches.
• Retirony: My father was a cop, who was one week from retirement when the mob killed him. At least, that's what I told Doctor Young...
• The Reveal: Hands up. Who was expecting me to be Oberon Sexton in ol' Grant's Batman and Robin, eh? See, I like people who get the joke...
  • Over in one particularly lovely little hellhole, I'm dear old Martha Wayne. I like the way this world thinks.
• Robot Buddy: Good old Captain Clown!◊
• Robotic Spouse: Honey, I'm home!◊
• Room Full of Crazy: Oh, come on! Who hasn't indulged in a little defacement of city property from time to time? The boys at Arkham have pretty much given up entirely when it comes keeping my walls clean.
• Rugged Scar: The The Dark Knight's version traded in my Frozen Face for a Glasgow Grin. Probably something about being Darker and Edgier but they still wanted to make it clear that I'm not going anywhere.
• Sad Clown: You ever hear of the one about that loser who lost his wife, his baby and his face all in one day? You too? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! *shoots troper, dances to shadows and silently sheds a Single Tear before laughing again*
• Sadist: Of course! From this comes my sense of humor!
• Sadistic Choice: In Arkham Origins, I made a master plan in forcing Batsy to break his "one rule" by strapping myself to an electric chair that's wired to the heart of a Spanish muscleman, then taunted the Bat-Freak to try to force him to make a choice: either kill Bane or let him live, so that his heartbeat can charge up the chair until it's at its full power to kill me! I even added that if the Bat tried to remove the heart monitor from the muscleman, the bomb that I had planted within Blackgate Prison would explode and blow everyone up real good! And to make matters worse, when Gordy the Lieutenant tried barging in to save the day, I subdued him by grabbing him and transferring the shock crown from my head to his in the hopes of taking the old fart with me! After a while, when Batsy used the Shock Gloves left by the Electrocutioner on Bane, I thought for sure that the so-called Dork Knight would break his moral code after all. It was later revealed, though, that he Took a Third Option by temporarily stopping the muscleman's heart, then taking off the monitor from his Only Mostly Dead body and using the same Shock Gloves as Magical Defibrillators to restart his heart again, thus saving all three of us! Boy, was I shocked when I found out! And I knew that that wasn't even funny AT ALL!
• Sanity Slippage: Depending on which story you believe, a slip is what caused my sanity slippage.
• Sarcastic Clapping: At Chief Jimmy's promotion.
• Scary Teeth: Why, thank you, I do my best with them. All the dental work Ol' Batsy gives me certainly gives plenty of opportunity to try them out.
  • Though, seriously what was Monkey-Me doing to get jigsaw-patterned teeth?
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: When my old boss, Sal Valestra, thought that Ol' Batsy was after him, he offered me a Briefcase Full of Money to finish him off. My response?
  "What do I look like? Pest control?"
  • And of course, I made it perfectly clear in The Dark Knight...
  "All you care about is money. This town deserves a better class of criminal; and I'm gonna give it to 'em."
  "It's not about money, it's about sending a message; everything burns."
• Secondary Color Nemesis: I've always liked purple, green, and orange.
• Secret Identity Apathy: Yes, I've had the occasional opportunity to unmask Batsy, but why should I ruin his mystique? He's much more enjoyable a challenge as he is as his charmingly mysterioso self. What's that? BRUCE WAYNE?! Who've thunk that beneath all the beatings and batarangs was Gotham's least interesting citizen, crying for mommy and daddy. It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic...Oh, what the heck, I'll laugh anyway! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
• Secret Identity Identity: Averted by me that time (Going Sane) when I thought I really killed The Batman, And Then What? Bored With Insanity! I tried to be... Joseph Kerr... I met a woman... eh... What in the world am I talking about? That's funny, for a moment there I thought I remembered... Ah well, whatever it was... it's gone now.
• Self-Made Orphan: Depending on my past du jour. ... And then there's little J.J.
• Serial Killer: I don't kill people randomly. I only kill people when it's funny.
• Sexy Jester: Sure, Harl's more famous for this one, but I'm sure we all agree I look better in tights and ruffles.
• Shadow Archetype: Oh yes. I'm the yin to Batsy's yang. He's just as crazy as I am, he simply refuses to admit it!
• Shoot the Television: I did this after seeing King Barlowe's Video Will and learning of the mess he'd got me into.
• Shoot Your Mate: I even had one of my Mooks crush another with a school bus!
• Shout-Out: Oh you know me, a quick reference is always good for a gag. Like that one time I got mixed up with those kung fu whackos. When I found out who was behind it, well, I just couldn't resist.
  • During my laughing fish incident, I pointed out to Mr. Francis that Colonel What's His Name could copyright his chickens, and they didn't even have mustaches!
  • If Bats happens to bite the dust while I'm stuck in his head, there's a chance you'll see moi screaming his name thrice.
• Show Some Leg: I wanted to make sure Harley saw me, 'kay? I was due to have a very important business meeting with Lex Luthor, you know. Who was trapped, I mean, waiting in the back of the limo she was driving.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: I've been on the receiving end. Most often from the Crazy Chiroptera, the Turd Migratorius, and the Cute Chiroptera; but more than once from a criminal! I just don't get it. How can anyone honestly believe good and evil exist when I've proven beyond reasonable doubt that they don't?
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Did you really believe I would go straight?
• Sidekick: Mostly my cartoon incarnations — me, I stick with regular mooks. So much more convenient. (I'd prefer if you didn't mention Gaggy.)
  • This guy started it all, with his very own "hench wench" Harley Quinn. Well, she was so fun I just had to get one of my own.
  • Monkey-Me, on the other hand, really went overboard. I mean, running around with two mute bruisers in clown-puppet get-up called Punch and Judy? Trying to get his own Harley Quinn (out of a radio pop-psychiatrist)? And then there was that wanna-be Kid Sidekick Prank!
• Signature Laugh: I've had a few iconic laughs across my various incarnations. Of course, ol' Hammy Hamill's is probably the one you're most likely to recall.
• Sissy Villain: I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, darling.
  • Miller Time, God bless 'is heart, took this simple little concept and ran it into the freakin' end zone. Poison lipstick? Balls nasty.
• Slasher Smile: See this cheerful fellow?◊ My very own dashing good looks were modelled on him.
  • Detective Comics #880◊ shows what I look like when I'm high off my own joker gas.
• Smug Smiler: Mostly around Bats and Jimmy. Especially Jimmy◊.
• Snuff Film: What, you think I wouldn't try my hand at something like this? My attempt at becoming a cinematic auteur was to be entitled The Man Who Killed Batman, although unfortunately I had a number of "creative differences" with my star. Old Batsy can be such a prima donna at times... and one of those "creative differences" was it wasn't bloody him, but Azrael. Thanks, Bane.
• Someone to Remember Him By: So the titan incident ended badly for me, but apparently I left a little present cooking inside of Harley. Or maybe she's just imagining it. Fun!
• Spell My Name with a "The": Folks usually call me The Joker (except during my barefoot-and-dreadlocked phase).
• Split Personality: One of the many theories as to why my actions are so random and varied is because I have Multiple Personality Disorder, like good old Denty.
• Spring Coil: I once loaded one into the prison yard to get me out of the clink, in the middle of a ballgame, no less.
  • For some reason, Lexie didn't think the whole "booby-trap the coffins of your latest rampage's victims with springs to turn them into a wave of Jack-in-the-Boxes at their funerals" was funny at all. Can't imagine why.
• The Starscream: Lexy's boy thought he was playing it smart. He didn't let me join his little league team because he thought I'd be unpredictable. ME? UNPREDICTABLE?... To be honest he does have a point, but out of all the mistakes he made, the biggest one was not letting me play.
• Straw Nihilist: Nope, not Craney. I learned an important lesson a long time ago, one that makes this whole crazy, screwed-up world make sense: nothing makes sense. It's all just one big joke! But you guys, you don't get that — so I've got to show you. One way or another. And those times that people didn't take to the lesson don't count!
• Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred: No one can say I don't give my all to the joke.
• Suicide by Cop: Case in point. During the Last Laugh storyline, Nightwing (Robin #1 for those keeping score) did me in. However, Batsy ruined the fun bringing me back because he didn't want his boyfri-I mean, ex-sidekick to be a murderer. Still, wished I'd filmed it though.
• Supervillain Sobriquets: I've got so many I don't even know if I can remember them all! Let's see... The Clown Prince of Crime, the Thin White Duke of Death, the Harlequin of Hate, the Mountebank of Menace, the Lord of Laughs, the Ace of Knaves, and old Grant added a few special ones too, the Laughing Leper, the Dandy of Death and the Clown Prince of Pain. Almost makes "the Joker" seem a little passé nowadays. (Well, almost, that is.)
• Taking You with Me: Think I won't do it? I can and I would have, along with all of Gotham, when Carnage tried to kill Bats. (And he almost wet his pants, too. All I ever got from that guy was a big laugh.)
• Tattooed Crook: Jerry Leto's version of me in Suicide Squad has got more ink than the Sunday Funny-Papers.
• Tear Off Your Face: Thanks for being such a doll, Marty! Great to have a new start. Endgame sees me having my face back!
• Terms of Endangerment: Bit of free advice, sweetcakes: just because I've got a pet name (or seven) for you, doesn't mean I like you.
• That Man Is Dead: "Jack is dead, my friend. You can call me... Joker. And as you can see, I'm a whole lot happier."
• Themed Aliases: I generally use either re-arrangements of my name, such as Rekoj, J. Reko, Joe Kerr, or famous clowns like Bozo, Krusty or Pagliacci.
• Thememobile: My very own Jokermobile◊.
• Theme Serial Killer: I've done this on occasion, when it seemed like a fun thing to do.
• They Were Holding You Back: If only Bats' would stop worrying about his so-called "Bat-Family" and focus more on little old me.
• Together in Death: My dear wifey Harley herself had said, while I was still alive, that she would want to be with me in the afterlife should my own demise from a deadly disease befall me. If only!
• Too Kinky to Torture: But you're welcome to try...
• Top One Hundred Comic Book Villains: I can't believe I'm second banana to some walking magnet with a bucket on his head! What's he do, erase all your old video tapes? Are people that attached to their copies of The Star Wars Holiday Special?
• Troll: It's fun making people mad!
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Harley and I are like Beauty and the Beast. Of course, if anyone else calls her beast, I'll rip their lungs out.
• The Unapologetic: I really have to tell you that the one thing I hate more than everything is apologies.
• Underestimating Badassery: Flyboy thought it'd not take more than a radiation-proof suit to prevent me from using his Kryptonite Factor on him. If at least Batsy didn't get in the way. And Lexy saw my inability to handle Bats as a reason to believe I couldn't kill Supes. Well, that's what allowed Batsy to stop me, so Lexy wasn't completely wrong. For once.
• Unexpected Inheritance: I didn't expect to inherit Barlowe's money. It changed once I learned the catch.
• The Unfettered: There's nothing I can't do that I've already done. Name one: torture, mass murdering, bombings, arson, poisoning...I could name hundreds of'em, pal !
• Unhand Them, Villain!: Ohhh, very poor choice of words...
• Utility Belt: I tried using one of these during a story in the Silver Age. (What? "The Joker's Utility Belt!"^note Batman #73 Duh!) I figured, if guys like Bats can use them, why can't guys like me? (Well, seems the reason was, guys like him can use them pretty well, no matter whose they are... I guess that's why he never tries using my stuff...)
• Victory Is Boring: A lot of folks say that I could have killed Bats a long time ago, but I never have because this whole thing is fun. What can I say? IT IS!
• Villain Ball: Yes, even I make mistakes occasionally.
• The Villain Makes the Plot: And damn, am I good or what?
• Villainous Breakdown: I admit it. Even the greatest among us can't keep from going a little crazier from time to time.
  • My most notable one was probably when Bat Fake mocked me. But can you blame me? Ol' Bruce never said anything like what that punk said!
  • There was this one time... I was holding the Philosopher's Stone... just waiting to remake the world in my glorious image... and then that damn green guy did something to me. Something 'orrible. Something I don't want to remember. Methinks he may have made me — gasp! SANE! Fortunately, it didn't last.
  • When you're trying to prove that evil's stronger than good, it's really off-putting to be derailed by a criminal who's gone straight while in the jug.
  • Then there was the time I accidentally got all the powers of that freaky fanboy Bat-Mite, killed Batsy repeatedly, and finally decided to hop into his mind and loosen a few screws! Unfortunately, it all goes horribly wrong and Guanoman shows me my worst fear: not having an arch-nemesis to keep me company and therefore being... normal!. Oooooh, I hate to even THINK about it!
  • And then, there's Arkham Knight, and with it, my worst fear EVER... Being forgotten by a city that was once scared shitless by the mere mention of my name! When Bats had me down for the count (for good this time) I was BEGGING him not to forget me! — shudder... Oh well, who wants Chinese?
• Villainous Crush: Ah, Miss Vale... she was gonna trade up, you know. And in issue four of my self-titled mag I fell for, of all people, Black Canary. Twas during a time she was more a damsel for that Batman wannabe to rescue, however.
• Villainous Harlequin: Less serious works like Batman and Batman: The Brave and the Bold depict me like this. Just so long as I have a smile on my face! Well, that and whats-her-name.
• Villainous Legacy: Hey, I had nothing to do with this! It seems some guys are admired, even years in the future.
  • In Batman Beyond there were the Jokerz, a group of motorcycle punks. (Not the best group until yours truly decided to take over.)
  • There was also Duela Dent, a would-be heroine who called herself Joker's Daughter. (No actual relation, by the way, although she claimed be my daughter, and Two-Face's daughter, and Doomsday's daughter, and... Well, she was crazy, okay? Guess maybe she at least had the right idea.... All right! She was the daughter of an alternate good version of me! Happy now!?!)
  • There's a guy way in the future where the folks from DC One Million came from too called the Laugher (kind of looked like a spitting image of myself but with a huge robotic set of toy teeth in place of legs); too bad we didn't see much of him...
• Villain Song:
  • I finally had one in Batman: The Brave and the Bold's adaptation of Emperor Joker called "Where's the Fun in That?"
  • And then there was the one Jimmy Steinman wrote for me in that musical they never got around to making.
    • Some fan who was disappointed that the musical never saw the light of day also created this fabulous number for me, where I sing about adding some color to Gotham City by decorating it with "ribbons" of blood.
  • Then there's Harley and Monkey-Me, livin' it up and out on the town back when we first met in The Batman. Notable for not actually being an original song, and for being the last time a consummate professional like me does a friggin' duet.
  • And then there was the number I sang for that old fart Gordon in The Killing Joke. (That's right, I sang an original song in a comic.) Shame, really — if only Al had included, say, a piano, maybe you'd know what it sounded like!
  • The Great Luke Ski wrote "House Party at Arkham Asylum" for me.
  • Oh, and there's that one time I did my own spin on a certain Christmas carol. I'm sure most of you will sing along with me!
  • And here's yet another one, same "Jingle Bells", which goes like this: "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Gotham's quite a mess! Blackgate's mine and you're out of time, which means you'll soon be dead!" HOOHOOAAAHAHAAHAHAHA!!!
  • And now I have this lovely number courtesy of Miracle Of Sound.
  • And "Deranged" by Coheed and Cambria is all about Bats and me!
  • Even Cesar Romero did me justice with a sprightly little ditty worthy of me.
  • This little number from Arkham Knight. Makes you wonder what that What's-His-Face ripoff was singin' while Bats was hallucinating me over him... probably something suckish.
  • Also, in case the Bat finally wallops and forgets me, I have a sad, Dark Reprise of this one for those lucky enough to get a 100% Completion. Still, since that Marky was sad enough when he had to leave the final Arkham game with a send-off like this, I cry along with him. As we both say: Thank you. I'll be here all week... try the veal.
    • Oh, and here's one more, to the tune of "Rock-a-Bye Baby":
      Rock-a-bye Batsy, I'm getting free.
      Soon you'll be the one trapped inside me.
      So keep taking breaths, great lungfuls of fear.
      Soon Bats will be gone, and I will be here.
  • Cover Version: As for myself, I had a heartwarming, yet haunting voice when I did a cover version of that Platters guy's original song "Only You (And You Alone)". And believe me, it still brings me to tears just hearing the sound of my own voice (well, my Mark Hamill one, anyway) at the end credits of Batman: Arkham City. Though, of course, many of you may think of it as creepy, Black Comedy Ho Yay when they hear my singing voicemail to the good ol' Bat-dude. But hey, that Country Music cowboy Travis Tritt's rendition would have been my choice, but I didn't wanna sound like a cowboy freak anyway, so what's the point?
  • And here's yet another cover of mine of a classic song, this time "Cold, Cold Heart" by another Country Music cowboy, the late, great Hank Williams. I kinda admit, my Troy Baker voice kinda sounds a little like a sad cowboy at the end credits of Batman: Arkham Origins, even though it doesn't fit the holidays. Again, still brings me to tears.
• Villains Want Mercy: Sometimes. Most of the time, I'm totally cool with the idea of dying. (And if it's at the hands of the Bat, that's the grand prize.) Buuut then again, if it's a particularly painful or humiliating way to die, I'm not above calling uncle.
• Villain Team-Up: For some reason, my fellow baddies don't like hanging with the J-man. Well, except maybe good ol' Lex, and he makes a great Straight Man. When other villains gather and try to scare each other, they tell Joker stories.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • Sure, we try and beat the crap out of each other whenever we get together, but truth be told, I consider ol' Batsy one of my closest pals.
  • I suppose that one also fits me and Baldie. Sure, he tries to have me shot, and then I tie him up and make him watch as I blow up all his stuff, but we're working together again before you know it.
• War On Cops: With Knightfall and The Dark Knight standing out as major examples.
• Wasteful Wishing: Sold my soul for a box of cigars once!
• Water Source Tampering: I frequently plot to slip Joker-venom into Gotham's water supply. Then there was the time I turned the water supply into jelly.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: I just want people to see the world as I see it! Just 'cause the way I see it is a little... disturbing doesn't make it wrong, does it?
• What Could Have Been: I could have been a part of the Legion of Doom in Challenge Of The Super Friends, but as it turned out, I was in The New Adventures of Batman instead. Their loss as far as I'm concerned. I mean, they had Bizarro of all people! He's not a menace, he's a nuisance! And don't get me started on The Riddler. Why him as the Bat's counterpart? I mean really, riddles are boring, not to mention too easy for the Bat to solve. Where's the fun in that? Then again, in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, they wised up and included me among their ranks. THAT was one heck of a baseball game.
• Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?: HEY! I said that! I was going to add, "Well, don't just stand there! Ask him!", but the editor thought the movie was too long as it was.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Admittedly, only one time in my life (or rather my next life), did somebody get the better of me when it came to getting under other people's skin. And that ended up as quite a "shocker!"
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: What?! Just shoot him? The death of Batman must be nothing less than a masterpiece! The triumph of my sheer comic genius over his ridiculous mask and gadgets! Oh, what the heck! I mean, it's not like he's gonna wriggle out of... AAAAAAAAGH! Ow, ow, ow, OUCH!
• Wicked Cultured: I've taken a few aliases from opera.
• Wicked Toymaker: I can sometimes came across as this. My base in the cartoons seems to be some kind of abandoned hideous toy factory that still haunts some viewers' dreams.
• Wild Card: What can I say? I like to keep people on their toes. For this reason, I'm not the most popular guy to work with, but I won't take 'No' for an answer.
• Wild Mass Guessing: My Multiple-Choice Past tends to do that. Hell, one of the best Epileptic Trees I've heard is that I used to be some kid named Calvin! Not that I'm giving you any hints....
• With Friends Like These...: I... might enjoy the company of a certain aquatic, flightless bird more than I let on. Don't tell Pengers I said that.
• Wolverine Publicity: My face was made for the spotlight! I can't help if I'm so marketable! They've even got my face on shoes for crying out loud!
• Woman Scorned: Huh? Where'd you hear that? Harley would never hurt me! Even if I did try to... Uh... Replace her... And even if she did, she'd never get away with it... And... (Guh, I'm a lousy liar...)
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: One bad day. That's all it took. That's all that separates good people like you from monsters like me. Way I figure things, any world that lets a guy like me live deserves to die. Assuming something actually did happen. I am crazy after all.
• Worthy Opponent: How I view Ol' Batsy, in case you haven't figured it out by now. (Seriously, we're in the W's. It really should be obvious by now.) What can I say? He's the only human being who can keep up with me.
• Would Hit a Girl: And with a smile, kiddies! Just ask dear ol' Harl if ya don't believe me.
• Would Hurt a Child: Why should adults have all the fun?
  • At one time in the 1989 film I, as a teen, came pretty damn close to killing little Brucie along with his parents before he could become the Bat... right before my childhood partner showed up! Lucky Bat-Jerk.
  • And in No Man's Land, I captured 36 cute, little babies and attempted to kill them in order to break Gotham's morale! However, Jimbo's wife Sarah offered to save the little brats at the cost of her own life, and so I wished her a "Merry Christmas" before giving her a Pretty Little Headshot. But when I saw those poor little babies gathered around her body, it kinda made me wanna cry for them. So I turned away with a frown, knowing that her death was not funny at all, not bringing myself to offing the little cuties. Oh well...
• Xanatos Backfire: Maybe I should've checked whether or not my attempt to force Batman into his greatest boner was foolproof enough to not wind up becoming Out-Gambitted. For starters, I should've sent Bats and his sidekick into the Atlantic via plane, and not England like I wound up doing. But I certainly didn't count on Bats tracking the signal to my hideout!
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Hey, what can I say? I'm an opportunist, and if I see a chance for a little mischief, I go for it. Especially if I'm in Arkham and need a little murderous vacation.
• Yet Another Christmas Carol: Ya gotta hand it to good ol' Charlie Dickens, whose one short story on the True Meaning of Christmas has been adapted into a wonderful story of ours: Batman: Noël, in which the Bat-Scrooge plays the role of the stingy old man named... well... Scrooge; the second Bird-Brain I had murdered is the Jacob Marley; the sneaky Catwoman is the modern-day Ghost of Christmas Past; the big, flying Blue Boy is the modern-day Ghost of Christmas Present; and I, of all people, make a spectacular, frightening appearance as the modern-day Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come!!! And I even demonstrated to the Bat-Jerk a Bad Future by burying him alive!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I truly scared him straight that time!
• You Gotta Have Green Hair: Well, you gotta have it when you take a bath in toxic ooze, anyway.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: I really love it when Batsy does something un-heroic or letting people down, and in fact, I congratulated him when he Took A Third Action, and let poor Jason down.
  Me: "I can't believe you've got him! You expert rootin' tootin' eagle-eyed goth-loving marksman! I love it! You managed to find a way to win, AND EVERYBODY STILL LOSES! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
  • Of course, this happened to me of all people when the Red Numbskull told me that I'd make a great Nazi!
• You're Insane!: Ain't it glorious?
• Your Little Dismissive Diminutive: Ah yes, your little observation that I use this a lot is quite fitting, especially if you got it from The Dark Knight. I use it at least six times in that movie.
  Me: (to the organized crime community) Look, I know why you choose to have your little group therapy sessions in broad daylight...
  
  Me: (to the organized crime community) Soon little Gambol here won't be able to get a nickel for his grandma.
  
  Me: (to Batman) You just take off your little mask and show us all who you really are, hmm?
  
  Me: (to Batman) Does Harvey know about you and his little bunny?
  
  Me: (to Harvey Dent) They're schemers. Schemers trying to control their little worlds. (referring to the police and the organized crime community alike)
  
  Me: (to Harvey Dent) I just took your little plan and I turned it on itself.

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Ahh, that was fun, but I really should be going. I'm late for Battyman's funeral. Wish you could come, but this jet pack only holds one! Up, up... and AWAAAAAAAAYYYYY! AHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

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