Line #10 NightmareFuel/TheKillingJoke


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/qybpfyy.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/TheDarkKnight Let's put a smile on that face.]]]]
3	* The [[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rzdB5a4kLAo/R_GGVDP2o0I/AAAAAAAAGVk/8hnG5jgIpwE/s1600-h/KillingJokeCompare03.jpg iconic image]] of the Joker going insane for the first time. The left image is the original; the right image ([[TearsOfBlood with]] [[EyeScream blood!]])[[note]]Given that he fell into acid and likely suffered head trauma, the eye blood makes sense[[/note]] is from Bolland's 20th anniversary redo. The expression on his face is nothing short of ''horrifying''.
4	** It's not even just the reveal of Joker's face. It's the panels leading up to it - the gradual horror of how a simple little nobody having a ''really'' bad day finally cracks - that's full of dread. That first little "ha" he lets out is like the leak dripping out of a dam about to burst. He's finally getting the joke, and '''''OH GOD''''', everyone else is going to get the punchline...
5	** The opening page of the deluxe anniversary edition of the graphic novel is completely black except for the title of the novel and the Joker's widened, bleeding eyes staring directly at the reader, lifted directly from the aforementioned frame. It speaks a lot to the lasting effect of that image that only his eyes are needed to convey the horror of his character.
6	* Several of the Joker's expressions are deeply unsettling. Not just his smile, but also his eyes - Brian Bolland's art really seems to portray just how insane the character is. The Joker's face, as he goads Commissioner Gordon during the torture sequence, will send shivers down your spine.
7	** The look of sheer ''insanity'' as Joker prepares to shoot Batman is also chilling.
8	** Joker's face at the end of his song looks practically demonic.
9	** And don't forget the Joker's tourist outfit when he shoots Barbara Gordon. Those glasses he wears look like black, unfilled eye sockets peering straight into your soul!
10	** Joker's face as Batman arrives at the funfair and emerges from the Batmobile; it's not the long-toothed leer featured in the other nightmare panels, but an utterly satisfied SmugSnake look that is utterly chilling given we know he's done everything to provoke a reaction from Batman.
11	* What happens to Barbara -- gunned down in front of her father with a shot that paralyzes her from the waist down, and then stripped naked and photographed by the Joker to use in his attempted MindRape of her father. It's one of the most criticized aspects of the story because of just how ''cruel'' it is, and [[CreatorBacklash even Alan Moore eventually went on record regretting including it.]]
12	** Doubly disturbing is the fact that everything that happens between the Joker and Barbara is left undepicted, leaving it to the imagination [[NothingIsScarier if taking pictures was all he really did to her...]]
13	* The after effects of the Joker venom on the guy who sells the carnival to the Joker [[NightmareFace is one of the most frightening depictions of the venom ever]], especially considering the image comes [[JumpScare right out of nowhere]], as the scene had been focusing on the Joker beforehand.
14	* The song the Joker sings as Commissioner Gordon is tormented in the tunnel ride with photos of his daughter's paralyzed and naked body, trying to persuade Gordon into plunging into the depths of madness just as he did.
15	--> '''The Joker:''' ''Mister, life is swell in a padded cell/It'll chase those blues away/You can trade your gloom for a rubber room/And injections twice a day/Just go loo-oo-ney like an acid casualty/Or a moo-oo-nie or a preacher on TV...''
16	* In this story, the Joker's henchmen are a trio of midgets who look like deformed cherubs (two of them even have prop wings), apparently under the effect of the Joker serum, what with their grins and dilated pupils. They are also clad in either S&M gear or a ballerina costume, and only speak in monosyllabic grunts. The part where they strip Gordon naked and put him on a leash is disturbing to say the least.
17	* There's a creepy little detail in one of the Joker's flashbacks. After being told that his wife has died and still being press-ganged into committing a heist, the failed comedian is so overwhelmed he can't even drown his sorrows and instead just sits and shudders, oblivious to the onlookers who take some twisted joy in his misery. [[https://rightearleft.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/martin-dupuis-killing-joke_17.jpg One of them (on his right) bears a disturbing resemblance to the Joker]].
18	* In the special collectors' edition hard cover, there is a second story (originally from ''ComicBook/BatmanBlackAndWhite'') about a man who's talking to a camera about how he plans to kill Batman. The mood of it is just chilling: he talks about Batman, he talks about how he's a normal ordinary guy as casually as how he intends to just walk up behind Batman after he's stopped a bad guy and just out and out shoot Batman. It even lacks a proper ending; just stopping after the guy states his belief that [[InsaneTrollLogic he'll "live a good and blameless life, and go to heaven when [he dies]."]] However, the fact that he ''genuinely believes this'' adds on to the unnerving nature of this story, as the man well and truly ''does not have any remorse for what he desires''.[[note]]Luckily, any actual worries can be dispelled completely since it's a one-shot (hah!) story, but still, it never shows him getting stopped or anything it just ends with the implication that he's about to go out and act out his plan.[[/note]]

Context NightmareFuel / TheKillingJoke