Joker Puts a Smile on That Face!

Spoiler Warning!

Just because the Joker has some serious dark mojo going, doesn’t mean he is devoid of some relatively harmless attributes to attract women as well. He has all those old clichés covered—a very active sense of humor; an expressive face and body language; and he is without a doubt the consummate bad boy.

Those things will be covered in the next three articles, starting with the Joker’s odd sense of humor.

The Joker’s sense of humor may be dry and dark, but there is no arguing it’s there. The very first time we see his face, he is cracking a joke: “I believe…what doesn’t kill us…simply makes us stranger!”

His second crack is darker and much more frightening. “Ha. Ha. Hee. Ho. Ho,” he says, deliberately without mirth, while lumbering into the meeting of mob bosses in his second scene. “And I thought my jokes were bad.”

In the same vein, the Joker’s magic trick—making a pencil disappear into the eye of a would-be attacker—is such a study in juxtaposition, the audience isn’t sure whether to laugh or be horrified. First, there is a quick and grisly murder sandwiched between silliness, which has been a hallmark of more traditional Jokers for decades. But then, this particular Joker gives us something that seems to be his alone—a moment where he seems almost childlike in the simplicity of his reaction. Granted, he has learned to use those moments to his benefit, but they are still there. After the pencil “disappears,” he puts his face close to the table as though searching for it, before turning to his audience and announcing, “It’s…it’s gone!”

The ability to appear strangely childlike in the midst of mayhem is one of his more horrifying and endearing qualities.

At the same meeting, he alludes to the mob gatherings as “little group therapy sessions” and to mob accountant Lau as “the television,” because Lau is attending the meeting remotely. Just before his exit, after being threatened by Gambol, the Joker shows them the gangsters the grenades in his coat and suggests that they shouldn’t, “…blow things out of proportion,” in an obvious hats off to the corny cracks made by Jokers of the past.

As interested as the Joker is in annoying his victims with humor, however, it is difficult to say whether he means all of his funny moments to be funny. One of the things that work to humanize him (whether certain fans want him humanized or not) is the fact that things don’t always go smoothly for him. The hospital explosion scene is one of those moments.

After he breaks jail and masterminds a plan to protect Batman’s identity, using the possible destruction of a hospital as the linchpin of the plan, the remote he’s rigged for a simple explosion doesn’t even work properly. The hospital does go up, but it isn’t the grand show the Joker has planned. The humor is in his all-too-human reaction. First we see him waving his arms in frustration, then smacking his remote. When the thing finally decides to work, the man who has been instilling terror in the hearts of fellow characters and fans alike for the past couple of hours, startles dramatically before fleeing the scene.

Before that, we get to enjoy the Joker in a quiet moment, ironically taking care to wash his hands after being in Harvey Dent’s hospital room.

Another humorous moment that may or may not have been exactly controlled by the Joker happens in the very first scene after one of the mobsters asks him if he expects to just rob them and get away with it. His reaction: “Yeah…?” The accompanying facial expression suggests we are seeing a moment of vulnerable honesty, which is one of the most humorous things we can witness, to which anyone who watches prank shows can attest.

The Joker’s humor is necessarily dark. The side of the big rig he has appropriated for the night’s adventure originally proclaimed “Laughter Is the Best Medicine.” But someone has painted a large, red “S” in front of the motto, making it “SLaughter Is the Best Medicine.”

In light of the previous articles in this series exploring the Joker’s “fear as aphrodisiac” approach to winning fangirls, it may seem counter-intuitive to suggest that part of his popularity with women stems from the fact that he’s just so darn much fun. Though the clueless goofball never gets the girl, a man who can make her laugh as well as push her other buttons has a leg up on the more serious-minded competition. Take Batman, for instance. He is much more sexually appealing as Bruce Wayne because he lightens up and cracks a smile once in a while. “Not fun” is not sexy for long.

Part of the Joker’s appeal centers on the fact that, even though he is obviously dealing with a circus truck load of issues, he does seem to have a good time in the moment. Settling into the driver’s seat of the “SLaughter” truck, he insists, “I love this job. I love it! I love it!” Driving manically through the streets of Gotham makes him cackle with glee, as does the opportunity to beat the stuffing out of Batman. In fact, he seems to genuinely enjoy all of his interaction with Batman.

In one of the most memorable moments from the film—and there are plenty—he uses a well-known line from pop culture—“You complete me”—to humorously express his attachment to the dark knight.

Ironically, and very appropriately, the Joker’s shining moment of humor comes mere seconds before what is arguably his most frightening scene in the entire movie—the moment he first notices Rachel Dawes. The only thing he does, is to preen in preparation for the approach. Since the Joker has very carefully crafted his frightening, anti-sex symbol appearance, he knows he isn’t making himself more attractive for the female, at least not in the way he pretends to. He is preening for the laughs, for yet another juxtaposition calculated to throw his victims off guard.

He is mocking Rachel, and Bruce Wayne’s other party guests, while playing it up for the theater audience. In yet another ironic twist, the Joker’s “Hey, beautiful” moment is actually one of his sexiest.

In spite of how terrifying a man he is, no one can say the Joker isn’t fun. The laughs, the car chases, the party-crashing, the anarchy and chaos all come together to make the viewer feel as though she has just been through one heck of a joy ride. True to his name, the Joker is a laugh a minute, between more somber, frightening moments. He is well-rounded and immediately confusing, which gives him a sense of reality to go along with his larger-than-life persona. In the end, it’s easy to forget shivering in the dark while waiting for him to dispatch with Gambol, or cringing through his videos, in favor of remembering the frenzied adventure. As a result, the idea of playing a Bonnie to his Clyde, or even simply being a torture-room plaything, becomes a very tempting proposition.

This is post No. 6 in my article series Sex and the Joker: Batman's Nemesis as Underground Sex Symbol. Read the previous post in the series. Read the next post.