Fools Day — The Joker Is Wild: A Round Up Of Favorite Jokers

Welcome to the table,

April Fools’ Day is one of those holidays without a clear origin point. In my short lifetime, it’s always been part of the cultural conversation with pranks being pulled by jerk kids, random lies being told, followed by someone with a snotty nose screaming April Fools in your face, and radio DJs convincing entire regions that landmarks were on fire, resulting in regional panic and chaos.

I hated April Fools in school, if you can’t tell, and it was only second to my loathing for Saint Patrick’s Day because being pinched is one of those things that will instantly have me asking questions like “Can I throw this table?”

Rather than focus on childhood irritations, though, we are here today to discuss something way more fun.

Much like the holiday’s mysterious origins, the Clown Prince of Crime has murky beginnings that have been rehashed and revised across multiple media, resulting in a multitude of incarnations across the pop culture landscape. So on this day of fools, we are looking at the various versions of the entity known as Joker.

 

 

The Joker (1960s, Batman TV Show)

Played by the wildly talented Cesar Romero in the Batman TV Show also known as Batman ’66, this incarnation of ‘The Jester of Jackanapes’ was a bit predictable but always fun. Of the various live-action incarnations, what Romero brought to the role in the syndicated episodes I watched as a small child felt like it set the stage for how I viewed The Joker in every other media form in my lifetime.

 

The Joker (1986, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns)

The Joker in Frank Miller‘s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a mass murderer who was locked up in a psychiatric facility after the retirement of Batman. Without his “beloved” Batman to play against, The Joker slips into this very melancholy state, forgetting his murderous impulses, and becomes fairly catatonic. As Batman rises once more, in what may be one of, if not my very favorite version of the character, The Joker reawakens and begins another bloody and brutal campaign until Batman has to snap his neck to stop him from wrecking things in an already grim future.

The Joker (1988, Batman: The Killing Joke)

In this incarnation of The Joker, from Alan Moore‘s Batman: The Killing Joke, Batman heads over to Arkham Asylum to try and broker some kinda peace between the two, only to find The Joker has escaped. The Joker goes and finds Barbara Gordon, whom he shoots and paralyzes, and then kidnaps Commissioner Gordon to take him to a rundown amusement park where he sticks him in a cage and tortures him.

This story is brutal and something I read way earlier than I should have, but it is still one of those definitive incarnations of The Joker that really defines how the character has been portrayed across all media that came after this book.

The Joker (1989 Batman)

As a small child in the late 80s, seeing The Joker on the big screen in a flashy movie was a revelation. I did not understand most of what I was seeing, but as a kid around five years of age, I quoted the heck out of this movie until I was sat in a corner for being too anoying for my parents to deal with. “You … are my number one … guy” is still one of the most amusing things I have ever heard in a film.

Jack Nicholson‘s portrayal of the character felt more over the top and somehow grounded than the Cesar Romero incarnation, blending an almost nightmarish horror element to something that up and to that point was more silly. It was very much a pivot point for me, realizing that superhero stories could have permanent losses.

The Joker (1991, Batman Vewmaster 3-pack)

The Viewmaster was a cool little device I had as a tiny kid that looked like really wacky red goggles with a little orange lever you could click to rotate these small paper discs with little film cells inside showing you a story in a handful of frames. One of the only discs I had on mine was a three-pack collection of Batman stories where The Joker has a hostage at a rundown aquarium, and he tells Batman he is going to toss the hostage into the tank with this massive shark, unless Batman goes into the tank all chained up like a stage magician.

Batman goes into the tank, uses the chain to break the shark’s face, and then escapes while the Joker runs around being an absolute agent of chaos. I can’t tell you the number of childhood nightmares I had where I was worried The Joker or my Grandmother, very similar villains for me, had captured me and tossed me in a tank of man-eating fish.

The Joker (1992, Batman: The Animated Series)

While I do not own in any way, shape, or form any DC intellectual property, I lovingly refer to the Batman: The Animated Series incarnation of The Joker as “my Joker.”

Voiced by Mark Hamill, this incarnation of The Joker was unpredictable, sinister, yet somehow charming and comedic, while always feeling dangerous. It was a real departure for me from cartoon villains like Gargamel and the kids who would hit me in elementary school. This villain had dimensions that were unexpected, and sometimes what he did seemed to move counter to anything that was remotely predictable or expected, without turning into some kinda wacky Looney Tune.

Hamill’s voice was also iconic, giving this sound to the character that was menacing and multidimensional with a bombast that worked in a shrill cackle or a sinister whisper. The chaotic nature of the character really came across in the series and to this day remains one of the best incarnations of the character to date.

The Joker (1997, Superman: The Animated Series )

With Batman having success in the animated world, DC went ahead and brought a new incarnation of Superman to the small screen with Superman: The Animated Series. As is the nature of crossover media, there was a three-part episode event called “World’s Finest” that saw Batman and Superman teaming up against The Joker and Lex Luthor.

The Joker underwent a slight redesign that we would see explored more in the last season of Batman: The Animated Series, in which The Joker’s red lips were dulled to a black color, his suit’s color was toned down to a lighter green with sharper edges, and his eyes became solid black with little pinpricks of light.

Mark Hamill was still sounding off in the voice acting role, and playing up against Clancy Brown‘s interpretation of Lex Luthor gave The Joker an even more unhinged demeanor with a stoic in control businessman villain to play off of. The whole thing really showcased what action-adventure animated television could be, and in the late 90’s it was one of the coolest things I had seen on the small screen up and to that point.

The Joker (2000, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker )

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is a phenomenal animated movie that not only served as a cool offering in the Batman Beyond animated series but also wrapped up some plot points from the Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures.

“The Joker” was brought back through an implanted personality within Tim Drake, the former Robin, who was brutally tortured for weeks by The Joker and Harley Quinn as an awful play to give The Joker, Batman’s sidekick, and some kinda sick family to call his own.

It’s terrifying and traumatic to see a kid have to go through that, and even though The Joker was technically this implanted personality and not the original article, it was just as worrying and still voiced by Mark Hamill, who brought an even more terrifying level of evil to the iconic clown prince of crime.

Joker (2000, The Batman)

A visual departure from the suit-wearing neo-deco incarnation of The Joker that appeared in Batman: The Animated Series, Joker, as he was known in The Batman: The Animated Series, was nimble, animalistic, and seemingly always in motion. Serving as the perfect foe for the young up-and-coming Batman, and voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, Joker felt like a really solid evolution of the character I grew up with, almost mirroring my teenage angst and chaotic with his own brand of fingerless gloves, nail polish, and unkempt locks. I really liked Joker both in artistic design and his odd physicality that seemed to make use of every surface he was wandering near, there was something concerning about a super bendy murderer who could spin-kick you while doing a handstand on a rusted pipe or spring up from a prone position like a kung-fu master, all the while laughing with a manic glee.

The Joker (2008, The Dark Knight)

The Dark Knight, film number 2 in Christopher Nolan‘s trilogy of Batman films, features the late Heath Ledger in the role of The Joker. I know people with this incarnation of The Joker as tattoos, I know he is a well-loved version of the character, and I think Heath Ledger was a fantastic actor in everything I have seen him in, most especially A Knight’s Tale. All that said, this version of The Joker is probably one of my least favorite of the “major” appearances of the character across pop culture.

I know it can be a shocking take. Most people adore this incarnation and think it was a performance of a lifetime, but for me, someone who grew up with this character as a boogey man, I felt The Dark Knight film version of the character was more of a weird guy who acted like those dude who make you uncomfortable at the bar because they want to tell you their strange stories of that one time they fought a bear with their clown themed hatcher, or how they plan on never marrying their seven girlfriends in Canada because they have to keep their options open, or how they “totally powned” some guy on a message board about a virtual RPG based on some children’s’ show about friendship and magical ponies I have never seen.

I have tried to figure out the draw at least fifty times, if not more. I just don’t get what the excitement is about this version of The Joker. Full disclosure, just so you can be baffled a little bit more by me, I also really liked Tom Hardy as Bane, so maybe I hit my head or something. I don’t know, I just really don’t think Heath’s version of The Joker works.

The Joker (2011, Batman: Death of the Family)

The New 52 Batman comic came to me at one of the darkest, most turbulent times in my life. Everything had melted down around me. I had moved across multiple states. I was freshly out of a long-term relationship. I had all but given up on comics, only really reading Hellboy, The Sixth Gun, and the occasional B.P.R.D. story, so when the owner of the comic shop I once worked at handed me the first three issues of New 52 Batman, a book that had sold out in who knows how many editions, and said “You will like this.” it felt like a hug from someone who actually cared about me.

To this day, it’s still one of the most powerful moments in my life. I can remember what the air looked like with dust particles caught in the afternoon sun coming through the front glass windows of a small comic shop. I know what the store smelled like, and I know what the pizza tasted like from the restaurant next door that I grabbed dinner at.

Batman, by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, is probably my favorite incarnation of Batman in a mainline “official” universe, and in his version of The Joker was a chilling addition to the story he was telling.

What happened was that The Joker, wanting to melt into anonymity so he could take out the Bat-family, had the Dollmaker cut his face off so he could pretend to be dead for like a year or so. His plan was to make a bunch of Home Alone-style traps and take over Arkham Asylum, kidnapping the Bat family to force them to do some kinda weird family dinner where they would be all laughing gassed up and have some kind of fight to the death battle royal. He then straps his cut-off face onto his faceless face and wanders around like an unhinged murderer who was bested by the power of love and fell down into the depths of the Batcave.

Later, he would come back and unleash more suped-up Joker Gas on Gotham, resulting in both he and Batman dying and coming back with amnesia after a final fight. Batman was then Super-Heavy robot Batman Commissioner Gordon, and then they did away with the New 52, and things got kinda mehh for me again.

The Joker (2016, Suicide Squad)

If you have made it this far, then you and I both know that the Suicide Squad movie happened. You and I both know that there was a version of The Joker in it. You and I both know that we can’t go back in time and stop that from happening.

Moving on.

Joker (2019, Joker)

Joker was a 2019 film where Joaquin Phoenix played Arthur Fleck, a guy who had a string of really bad luck and gave in to his internal chaos, becoming some kind of proto version of the character from the comic books.

I think Joaquin Phoenix has been really cool in a lot of roles; he is a really talented actor. This role, however, was not one of those that captured me. The film looked great, it was uncomfortable to watch, I think that was the whole point, honestly. If Joker is meant to make you feel something, this worked, but I have only watched it once and have had no desire to visit it again.

Joseph “Jack” Grimm V (2025, Absolute Batman)

Scott Snyder is back with a new book called Absolute Batman that is an Elseworlds-like story where Darkseid has influenced the creation of a universe where all the heroes are darker and weirder than we knew them to be in main-line comics.

Batman is a civil engineer, whose dad is dead and his mom is a community activist. Batman is this hulking blue-collar worker who uses brutal melee weapons to take down really strange versions of villains we know from his established canon.

It’s honestly been a freaking fantastic time to read this book, and while I know next to nothing about this incarnation of “The Joker,” this Joseph “Jack” Grimm V character is clearly being set up to be an absolutely awful entity into the things Absolute Batman is going to have to go up against.

One part Ra’s Al Ghul, one part classic Bruce Wayne, this guy is absolute evil and is pulling a lot of strings behind the scenes, only showing up in glimpses like Shanks from One Piece. Much in the same way as Shanks has a huge impact while only being around for short bursts of panel time, when things come to a head, I have a feeling old “Jack” here is going to be a real problem for our battleaxe-wielding Batman.

Until next time, if you have made it this far, I am sure I have missed some of your favorite versions of The Joker. Hopefully, I did not offend or upset you too much. I think about The Joker as a character way too much because he’s this weird reflection of The Batman, who, in a lot of ways, I really adore in some of his incarnations.

Hopefully, your April Fool’s is a good one. Stay hydrated and take care of yourself out there.