History ComicBook / ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth

** It's 20 years later, but in his ''[[ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman Batman and Robin]]'' series Morrison has Joker admit to the new Robin, Damian Wayne, that he isn't really crazy ("just different sane") and affirms Damian's accusations that he really isn't as crazy as he lets everyone think he is, confirming that these doctors are not meant to be taken seriously and SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker is supposed to be nothing more than a sophisticated ManipulativeBastard and an evil, murdering psychopath. Again, this is ''20 years later'', so its not exactly the best authority on the subject, even if it is the same author.

* HollywoodPsychology: The brilliant idea that SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker reinvents himself every day because he finds reality so overwhelming, so that he might be a harmless prankster one moment and a homicidal maniac the next, which amongst other things reconciles the wildly different versions of the character that have appeared since the 40's. The problem is the doctors call this "Super Sanity" and imply that perhaps he is perfectly sensible to live this way, maybe more so than the rest, and that this "Super Sanity" is unprecedented. Apart from not knowing what sanity means, the doctors are actually describing a very much precedented condition, namely dissociation or a psychotic break from reality, albeit an extreme case. Maybe {{justified|Trope}}[=/=]{{subverted|Trope}} since the doctors are obviously quacks, but the term has become popular in the Joker's fandom.

* AprilFoolsPlot: The story takes place on April Fools Day.

* MentalTimeTravel and StableTimeLoop: According to Morrison's script, the madness of the asylum's inmates echoed back through time which drove Mrs. Arkham (and, later, her son Amadeus) insane. But Batman's anger and confusion is what drove the two Arkhams over the edge, which leads Amadeus to write about the Bat, so [[spoiler:Cavandish]] would set the events of the comic in motion, which caused the Arkhams to go insane. All because Dr. Destiny's dream-based reality-warping powers had allowed the Asylum to turn into a nightmare landscape where the veil of time was thin to begin with. And that only happened because the inmates had taken over, and ''that'' only happened because Batman had in his anger and confusion put them in there to begin with. Finally, Cavendish finishes Arkham's spell, which is intended to exorcise the mad demon that infests the asylum, but because it's April Fools Day, everything works backward and he instead is the one to send it back in time and infest the asylum in the first place.

* AprilFoolsPlot: The story takes place on April Fools' Day.

* MentalTimeTravel and StableTimeLoop: According to Morrison's script, the madness of the asylum's inmates echoed back through time which drove Mrs. Arkham (and, later, her son Amadeus) insane. But Batman's anger and confusion is what drove the two Arkhams over the edge, which leads Amadeus to write about the Bat, so [[spoiler:Cavandish]] would set the events of the comic in motion which caused the Arkhams to go insane. All because Dr. Destiny's dream-based reality-warping powers had allowed the Asylum to turn into a nightmare landscape where the veil of time was thin to begin with. And that only happened because the inmates had taken over, and ''that'' only happened because Batman had in his anger and confusion put them in there to begin with. Finally, Cavendish finishes Arkham's spell, which is intended to exorcise the mad demon that infests the asylum, but because it's April Fool's day, everything works backward and he instead is the one to send it back in time and infest the asylum in the first place.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: In one of the anniversary paperbacks, Grant Morrison recalls how an early version of the script was passed around for people to look at. Most of them thought the psychological horror and heavy symbolism was not only a failure, but the dumbest Batman story ever. They all laughed their asses off, and in the paperback, Morrison asks them WhosLaughingNow.

** It's 20 years later, but in his ''[[GrantMorrisonsBatman Batman and Robin]]'' series Morrison has Joker admit to the new Robin, Damian Wayne, that he isn't really crazy ("just different sane") and affirms Damian's accusations that he really isn't as crazy as he lets everyone think he is, confirming that these doctors are not meant to be taken seriously and SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker is supposed to be nothing more than a sophisticated ManipulativeBastard and an evil, murdering psychopath. Again, this is ''20 years later'', so its not exactly the best authority on the subject, even if it is the same author.

** Another example of this led to it being ExiledFromContinuity: [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Two-Face ignores a flip of his coin.]]

** Another example of this led to it being Continuity: [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Two-Face ignores a flip of his coin.]]

** Maybe 'addicted' is not the right word. He describes himself as a martyr, like Attis and Jesus; and he is supposed to be the lord of lightning. Maybe he just grins and bears it.

More recent editions come with a full script, which is a ''huge'' help in understanding what the hell is going on.

** Another example of this led to it being ExiledFromCanon: [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Two-Face ignores a flip of his coin.]]

* [[spoiler:FakeKillScare:]] This is how Joker provokes Batman into coming for him: [[spoiler:over the phone, he acts as though he's blinding a nurse with a pencil through her eyes.]]

* {{Deconstruction}}: Oh yeah. Batman's rigid and stoic demenor is just his way of covering his severe emotional issues and sexual repression, Mad Hatter's love of blond little girls is taken to {{Lolicon}} levels, and Maxie Zeus is a weak skeletal man with delusions of granduer.

* {{Lolicon}}: Morrison ran with the idea of the Mad Hatter having a taste for young blonde girls.

* SmallReferencePools: No and yes. We have SigmundFreud, ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', ''Film/{{Psycho}}'', Literature/TheBible: Jungian psychology, Creator/AleisterCrowley, TarotMotifs, quantum mechanics, and much, much more.

* AGodAmI: Maxie Zeus, to rather disturbing effect.

* FoeRomanceSubtext[=/=]HomoeroticSubtext: Part of Morrison's interpretation of Batman. Joker, sensing Batman's fragile state of mind and repressed sexuality, deliberately fucks with him, the most memorable part being when he [[TheComicallySerious slaps Batman's ass]].
* FreudWasRight: {{Invoked}}. If you read Grant's notes, you'll find that a LOT of the scenes in this story have to do with [[ChasteHero Batman's screwed-up sexuality]]. And it was mostly based on Jungian psychology, an outgrowth of Freud's work. Even {{Lampshaded}} in the comic when Arkham goes to study with Jung in Europe.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
** In the notes to the script included in the 15th anniversary edition, Morrison admits that this interpretation of the Batman (as an insecure, sexually repressed, infantile mama's boy) can only apply to this comic, that it's meant to be a death and rebirth for Batman. {{Invoked}} by Morrison in response to all the interpretations of Batman as [[ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns borderline sociopathic]], and partly because this was one of Morrison's and [=McKean=]'s earliest professional projects.
** Though the abstract storytelling makes it hard to know for sure, the story also leaves open the suggestion that Bruce Wayne may (or may not) really be either...
*** A) Possessed by an evil spirit that gives him a symbiotic connection with Arkham Asylum.
*** B) The latest reincarnation of the [[PsychoPsychologist deranged psychologist]] who founded the asylum.
** Most incarnations of Doctor Destiny have him as a 7-foot tall, muscular titan with a skull for a head. Morrison re-imagined him as an emaciated cripple, trapped in a wheelchair, wasted by his inability to dream. This incarnation was used by Creator/NeilGaiman in ComicBook/TheSandman, to good effect.

* ImAHumanitarian: An early version of the script had [[spoiler:Arkham eat his dead wife and daughter following their deaths]].
** Morrison stated in the highly explanatory fully annotated script in the 15th Anniversary Edition that this is still slightly implied as is, and meant to be.
** If you look carefully in the scenes directly after [[spoiler:Arkham discovers his dead family]], you can see he has some [[spoiler:blood around his mouth and beard]].

** Most incarnations of Doctor Destiny have him as a 7-foot tall, muscular titan with a skull for a head. Morrison re-imagined him as an emaciated cripple, trapped in a wheelchair, wasted by his inability to dream. This incarnation was used by NeilGaiman in ComicBook/TheSandman, to good effect.

** In the notes to the script included in the 15th anniversary edition, Morrison admits that this interpretation of the Batman (as an insecure, sexually repressed, infantile mama's boy) can only apply to this comic, that it's meant to be a death and rebirth for Batman.{{Invoked}} by Morrison in response to all the interpretations of Batman as [[ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns borderline sociopathic]], and partly because this was one of Morrison's and [[=McKean=]'s earliest professional projects.

* SmallReferencePools: No and yes. We have SigmundFreud, ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', ''Film/{{Psycho}}'', Literature/TheBible: Jungian psychology, AleisterCrowley, TarotMotifs, quantum mechanics, and much, much more.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: ArkhamAsylumASeriousHouseOnSeriousEarth: That is line 65 from Phillip Larkin's poem [[http://www.artofeurope.com/larkin/lar5.htm "Church Going"]], that describes the fascination Larkin, an agnostic, feels for churches, recognizing that even when humanity will lose all faith in gods, it will always need churches as a place to reflect about life, death, marriage, etc... then you realize that the comic is about a BedlamHouse, and [[FridgeHorror humanity will always need a place like that...]]