#2
The Joker
98 Points, 7 Lists, #1 Johnny Unusual
The real joke is your stubborn, bone deep conviction that somehow, somewhere, all of this makes sense! That's what cracks me up each time!
Wanted For Mass murder/whoopie cushioning.
ProfileThe Joker is a villain in the DC Universe and the arch-villain of Batman. The Joker’s true origin has never been revealed, though some stories posited that he was a member of the Red Hood Gang and that a fall in a vat of chemicals changed his complexion. However, this has been unverified in most versions and the Joker himself stated that he views the past as “multiple choice” meaning it is difficult to know where the truth lies. He first encountered Batman and Robin as he was declaring who his murder victims were, killing them at the time he stated and stealing their valuables. Since then, the Joker has been Batman’s greatest foe, one of the few men who could outthink him, all the while treating it as a game (or in some cases, a work of art).
The Joker is a criminal whose ultimate motivation seems to be his own entertainment. He doesn’t seem to care much for money or revenge in most stories, though there are many where he avenges his own vanity or reputation. His modus operandi tends to be humour, joke and clown themed crimes, themselves often designed to be elaborate and humourous, at least to him. The Joker’s natural skin color is chalk white (presumably due to some form of accident) and his hair is green, giving him a clownlike appearance. He is a genius chemist as well, creating a poison called Joker Venom that kills victims and leaves them with a rictus grin.
In his initial appearance, the Joker was to be killed off but editors quickly changed their minds, having the Joker barely survive and creating one of the most iconic villains of all time. He’s a very malleable character, allowing for sillier and more humourous stories (like many of Paul Dini’s) to outright grim horror tales. If Batman is a man trying to put order into the universe, the Joker, for whatever reason, is trying to destroy it. I think that’s why despite the fact that there are some good origin tales for the character, his strength is that he is sort of unknowable. It also helps that his flamboyance allows for fantastical set pieces and plots that a regular plainclothes criminal could not. He’s been played by some great actors over the years, including Caesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamill and Heath Ledger to name a few and is even getting his own movie this year. The Joker has had a lot of approaches but in the end what makes him a delight is that he’s the one guy who always keeps the world’s greatest detective on his toes.
https://www.youtube.com/v/rDXHWWLGzN8 Trivia The Joker was visually inspired by the 1928 film The Man Who Laughs.