"The Dark Knight" 2008 !!!!!!!!!

[Dr.Mirakle32]

Jack's Joker was funny. Ledgers Joker is evil.

There ya go.

I take it you've seen the movie? Last time I checked, The Joker is supposed to be evil AND funny. If he's a dead-serious psycophath, then Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson would have called him "The Buzzkill".

 

[The Mike]

That's a common misconception. The Joker IS NOT supposed to be funny to anyone but himself. That is where the jaded sense of laughter comes from. To The Joker he could shoot a guy in the head point blank and it be like the funniest joke he has ever heard and someone tell him an exceptionally funny joke and not get a grin. He is a psychopath but his psychosis comes from the need to go that next step, that extra mile for the next laugh or giggle. He enjoys the misery and pain of others and he will continue to inflict pain and misery just to make himself smile.

 

[Dr.Mirakle32]

That's a common misconception. The Joker IS NOT supposed to be funny to anyone but himself. That is where the jaded sense of laughter comes from. To The Joker he could shoot a guy in the head point blank and it be like the funniest joke he has ever heard and someone tell him an exceptionally funny joke and not get a grin. He is a psychopath but his psychosis comes from the need to go that next step, that extra mile for the next laugh or giggle.

I always thought he could be pretty funny and likeable in BTAS, JL, the earlier films, and even the comics. That's why he's by far my favorite Batman character. He's a flamboyant showman who just doesn't give a ^^^^...


and he's a psychotic serial killing gangster, but at his heart, he's still a charmer.

 

[The Mike]

Anything aimed at kids has toned him down considerably. They took the jaded conception and made it campy and cuddly.

This is why The Killing Joke is such a loved story for the Joker:

In the present day, the Joker kidnaps Gordon, shoots and paralyzes his daughter Barbara, and imprisons him in a run-down amusement park. His henchmen then strip Gordon naked and cage him in the park's freak show. He chains Gordon to one of the park's rides and cruelly forces him to view giant pictures of his wounded daughter in various states of undress. Once Gordon completes the maddening gauntlet, the Joker ridicules him as an example of "the average man," a naive weakling doomed to insanity.

He does all of this just to prove a point that anyone can be driven to insanity and does this all to make himself laugh, even ending the story by making Batman laugh with the punchline of the joke he began in the beginning of the story. Then as he chokes him he continues to laugh insanely.

Tim Burton based his idea of The Joker from this very story but when Nicholson came in they allow him to play the character as he saw fit and it was obviously perverted past the initial intention.

Fans of The Joker are really split depending on why they like the character. For me, Ledger's Joker seems to be leading up to the way I always wanted him played, sick, twisted and laughing all the way. Cartoon versions and versions of him played by Nicholson or Romero were molestations of the base material IMHO.

 

[Dr.Mirakle32]

Anything aimed at kids has toned him down considerably. They took the jaded conception and made it campy and cuddly.

This is why The Killing Joke is such a loved story for the Joker:



He does all of this just to prove a point that anyone can be driven to insanity and does this all to make himself laugh, even ending the story by making Batman laugh with the punchline of the joke he began in the beginning of the story. Then as he chokes him he continues to laugh insanely.

Tim Burton based his idea of The Joker from this very story but when Nicholson came in they allow him to play the character as he saw fit and it was obviously perverted past the initial intention.

You see, at the end of TKJ, the Joker still manages to make Batman laugh.
And people talk ^^^^ abot Nicholson all the time, but I think he gave a fantastic performance that echoed the Joker from the early stories, and later Denny O'Neil stuff.

 

[DarkArtist81]

Mike hit it perfectly. Joker should be insane and funny only in his own twisted mind. We should laugh a bit, but nervously...

 

[Sick Boy 82]

Mike hit it perfectly. Joker should be insane and funny only in his own twisted mind. We should laugh a bit, but nervously...

You know me, I'll be laughing like a 5 year old at fart jokes.

Is that wrong?!

 

[The Mike]

It should be the kind of thing where if you laugh at what The Joker does you should question yourself, like wondering "why did I laugh at that....I shouldn't have".... I know there are fans of Nicholson and his performance but for me it was forgettable.

 

[Kabukiman]

I disagree. I think Jack's Joker thought he was funny, and everybody else was too afraid to tell him otherwise. I always appreciated that extra dimension to the character.

That's a common misconception. The Joker IS NOT supposed to be funny to anyone but himself...

 

[MaulFan]

Cover of this month's STARLOG.

 

[Sick Boy 82]

So like I said, if I laugh when the Joker does as he is ^^^^ing people up, should I be worried about my mental health??

 

[Buttmunch]

So like I said, if I laugh when the Joker does as he is ^^^^ing people up, should I be worried about my mental health??

I'm not

5 hours for me and counting!

 

[The Mike]

Nah. Its just a chuckle....

 

[Sick Boy 82]

I'm not

5 hours for me and counting!

And I say this with all due respect, you my good sir, are a whore!

There had better be some good spoilerage later tonight if not tomorrow morning!

 

[Kabukiman]

There had better be some good spoilerage later tonight if not tomorrow morning!

Some non-spoilerage as well please!

 

[Voorhees27]

And I say this with all due respect, you my good sir, are a whore!

There had better be some good spoilerage later tonight if not tomorrow morning!

Yeah buttmunch, you, dirty pirate hooker!

 

[Brent72]

I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but 3 of the 4 current negative reviews at RT are from Time Out New York, New York Magazine and The New Yorker. I guess all that talk about New Yorkers being pissed that Nolan filmed in Chicago instead of using their city as Gotham was true after all. It's absolutely ludicrous that these "critics" let something like that play into their review of a film, but in this case the bias clearly shows. What a bunch of a-holes!!!

 

[8th wonder]

Claiming Nicholson's Joker is funny while Ledger's Joker is evil is a retarded notion. Nicholson's Joker was evil to the bone and twisted as hell. Talking to corpses he just murdered, mutilating a woman with acid, shooting one of his own men. Wanting to kill an entire city. Basically there was nothing funny about him, he WAS only funny to himself. There is no doubt in my mind that both Joker's are just as psychotic and evil. Nicholson's Joker is just more heavy on the laughs and jokes.

 

[Dr.Mirakle32]

Claiming Nicholson's Joker is funny while Ledger's Joker is evil is a retarded notion. Nicholson's Joker was evil to the bone and twisted as hell. Talking to corpses he just murdered, mutilating a woman with acid, shooting one of his own men. Wanting to kill an entire city. Basically there was nothing funny about him, he WAS only funny to himself. There is no doubt in my mind that both Joker's are just as psychotic and evil. Nicholson's Joker is just more heavy on the laughs and jokes.

That's what I'm talking about. The Joker is evil and hell and a complete psychopath. But that doesn't mean he can't be charismatic and likeable.

 

[Voorhees27]

Claiming Nicholson's Joker is funny while Ledger's Joker is evil is a retarded notion. Nicholson's Joker was evil to the bone and twisted as hell. Talking to corpses he just murdered, mutilating a woman with acid, shooting one of his own men. Wanting to kill an entire city. Basically there was nothing funny about him, he WAS only funny to himself. There is no doubt in my mind that both Joker's are just as psychotic and evil. Nicholson's Joker is just more heavy on the laughs and jokes.

I will judge which Joker is better after I see the film this Friday and this is coming from probably one of the biggest Nicholson fans! 1989 Batman to this day is the only film i've seen 4 times in theatre and Nicholson is the primary reason for that, he was wonderful as the Joker.

If I were to "Guess" which actor played the part better, as of right now I would pick Ledger, however I could count on one hand which actors IMO are the very BEST of all time and Nicholson is one of them.

We'll see.