The Joker Was Always Evil | Batman The Animated Series

In this video I look at the version of the Joker we see in Batman the Animated Series and highlight how unlike the other villains he was. He wasn't some tragic figure, driven by revenge, he was just plain evil long before he he took that fateful dunk in a vat of acid.

#batman #batmantheanimatedseries #joker #batmanmaskofthephantasm

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
01:05 The Comic Book Joker
03:42 The Killing Joke
05:15 Who Was BTAS' Joker?
06:26 The Joker's Origin
07:05 Mask of the Phantasm
09:22 Mad Love
11:33 The Joker's True Passion
13:20 Conclusion
14:20 Self-Promotion
14:47 Next Time

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[qwefg]

I think Mad Love sums him up the best.

He can lie well enough to pretend to be sympathetic... but deep down he is exactly the same on the surface. Just a monster with a twisted sense of humor.

[poweroffriendship.]

Making The Joker, of all supervillains, coming off as a tragic character because "we live in a society" pretty much defeats the purpose of what makes him a true menace to Gotham City. He is called a "Clown Prince of Crime" for a reason. Redeeming qualities doesn't matter to him as long as he's committing more crimes and wreaking havoc as possible as he can just for kicks, like telling Batman that there are no laws against the Pokemon.

[Fingerprint-face]

I think making him sympathetic would be mistake. He supposed to be a psychopath…a monster. Not a tortured soul crying for love and acceptance.

[PoopaPapaPalpatine]

The Joker is one of those rare characters of fiction that never needs a backstory. They never satisfy who he eventually becomes. He works better as something that just exists.

[dougwalker]

I think Joker having once worked in organized crime actually does work as a solid contrast to the chaotic clown he is now. It's why I prefer Paul Dini's backstory in Case Study to The Killing Joke.

[janeyrevanescence]

The reason the Joker works well against Batman is because they really polar opposites. Batman is an empathetic man. He even has sympathy for some of his rogues and even helps them at times.

Making the Joker sympathetic destroys why he works so well.

[battlesheep]

Maybe the reason he's so insistent on proving all it takes is one bad day is so he can convince himself he wasnt always a monster.

[jacktoma]

One underrated moment that I think does a great job illistrating your point is in the episode Harlequinade. When Joker's going to nuke Gotham to get all his eniemies at ones, Mayor Hill asks about all the innocent people that will die. Joker doesn't go into some great speech about society or showing them who they really are inside, he simply replies "some Joke on them, eh? Think of it as the ultimate Punchline!" He does the most dispicalble things because he just finds them funny and that's a lot more scary to me.

[PrinceSilvermane]

My favorite bits with the Joker are when he just completely loses it and drops all pretense of being a clown and just straight up kills someone. Like Return of the Joker's "You're not Batman!" line followed up by him just trying to choke Terry out. He so desperately likes to pretend he's above it all and he's got it all figured out.

[ivanhunter]

I liked The Joker as a madman. A monster, not a misunderstood individual

[GoblinFromOblivion]

My favorite origins for Joker were the ones where he wasn’t a victim of society or a family man with a tragic story, it was the ones where he was already a deranged lunatic who just needed that bad day to trigger his true evil. You’re not supposed to like or sympathize with him, he’s a character meant to be feared. That especially works perfectly with the kind of Batman story where he wants to help and rehabilitate his villains. The Joker is the one he cannot fix because he wasn’t broken, he’s just evil plain and simple.

[GodzillaX]

In the Killing Joke, loved the line Joker has "sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another. If i have an origin I like it multiple choice". Love the idea of no origin and he keeps making one's up when he needs one

[juliagoodwin]

While I'm tired of the Joker being overused, I will admit that when done well, he can be very entertaining.

[QueenMonoChrome]

The Joker craves an audience to be shocked and awed at him. Sure he could'a killed Andrea but then he wouldn't get to hear her reactions. The funeral for Batman (and Sydney) was just him coming up with a good bit for Harley and his grunts and once it's over, break for lunch!

The guy even ripped off Mad Hatter and made three comedians almost ruin their lives by forcing them to become costumed villains because a year ago they mocked him routine at a comedy show he went to in disguise. And at that year's contest after making fun of their situation, he drops the disguise and just steals the trophy even though the crowd liked his routine. The man is compulsively committed to The Bit

...it's this compulsion that paints his weakness very, very clear. He **needs** to be the star of Gotham's real life horror story. When his favourite 'hobby'Charlie Collins almost killed him in some alley or when he's standing, pantsed in front of a crowd who are laughing AT him, when he's being yelled at by Ivy, Hatter and iirc Crane at the end of Joker's Wild because he changed the channel in the Arkham rec room showing his most recent defeat **and** the fact he was whipped up into a fury to blow up the titual casino for an insurance scheme-that ALMOST worked if Bats hadn't told him

He wilts like his fake flower at the idea he's being looked down on

And eventually, in the Return of The Joker film for Batman Beyond, this attitude bit him in the arse...TWICE.

[TheGrayMysterious]

this and the '89 movie's take on the Joker were the only ones that ever made sense to me. The Joker is not some sad little weepy boy who hurts people cuz he's all broken up inside and wants to lash out, he's a bully and a monster at heart and getting disfigured just meant he didn't have to pretend to be "normal" about it anymore.

[Joe_Kerr_]

I prefer Joker being pure evil, he's not meant to be a victim like some of the other villains, to me it makes more sense that he was always a bad guy with no redeeming qualities rather than him being a normal guy before he became The Joker.

[seanwieland]

The Joker is the natural nemesis for The Batman. Batman is methodical, disciplined, trained, researched, purposeful. The Joker represents the chaos and absurdity of life, which all of those things epitomized by Batman can never truly overcome.

[The_Phantasm]

To me, the greatest summation of Joker as a being in the DCAU was in Batman Beyond Return of the Joker when Bruce responds to Terry when he asked if Joker was his biggest villain by saying "It wasn't a popularity contest. He was a psychopath. A monster." The way I have always interpreted the Joker is as a force of nature, not a representation of the mentally ill. Joker is completely aware of his own actions and basks in the glee that causing carnage and misery brings him.

[SleepingGroke]

The Joker is a prime example on a great usage of "Evil for evils sake" trope. Not all villains need a tragic backstory or a deep reason as to why they are doing things. In the cases of pure evil, the past does not matter, what matters is the now and gettin that greatest of duels with their sworn nemesis, or finalizing that one big plan for the simplest of reasons.

In a similar sense there have been many people who have gone to do various things just to see what happens. Whether those be the "I wonder what happens if I fire the airsoft gun at my foot" or the ones who ponder "what makes the fridge work". One will have a visit to the hospital, the other will have a broken fridge. Same goes for those who know what will happen, but do it anyway to see it happen. Regardless of the end result.

[jacktoma]

I love that DCAU Joker gets progessively more evil and scary as his chronological appearences progress. He's a pretty Silver age/Romero esk Joker in Christmas with the Joker and Last Laugh. To Be a Clown is more creepy just because of the overlooming threat to an unsuspecting child. Joker's Favor and Laughing Fish is where the tone of the character really shifted and the suggestion that this Joker is a killer is really inforced, while not explicitly stated. Mask of the Phantasm and Mad Love are really the next major stepping stone. Showing how depraved and abusive he can be. Of course the major culmination is Return of the Joker, which makes Death in the Family seem friendly family. At least in the comics this was just a spur of the moment thing he thought to do. But what Joker did to Tim was well planned out, done slowly, and greatly enjoyed every step of the way. You can tell in Joker's monologue to Bruce just how much he's savoring every torterous word to him.