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Post by darkseraph on Mar 16, 2022 20:47:18 GMT -5
So talking on Tumblr (a risk I do on a daily baisis) Many people view the Joker as the nutso serial killer/Terrorist that he is in modern media, that it is hard to link up to the Joker I saw as a kid in Adam West reruns, Batman the Animated Series and The Batman cartoon.
What happened to him, when did city wide pranks become less popular that mass bombings?
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Post by Matrix Dragon on Mar 17, 2022 0:02:52 GMT -5
In the comics, the 80s. In animated and live-action, after the DCAU. Since then, they've done mass murdering unfunny clown to death.
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Post by SporkBot on Mar 17, 2022 10:23:44 GMT -5
Eh, I think it may've been with Scott Snyder and the New52. Yeah, I know, blaming THAT again, but hear me out.
The reboot essentially turned him into this sinister horror-movie antagonist with plans that see more steps ahead than Batman. Peels off his face to to be all gory. Expertly photoshops images to make people think he's some eternal demon. He doesn't wreak some havoc in this part of Gotham or that, he always wants to disintegrate the entire city or whatever...but somehow incorporating smiles or something, so it "fits". I honestly couldn't tell you the last time he cracked an actual joke before I dropped the bat-titles, let alone was actually funny.
They made him overtly scary and threatening, instead of humorous-but-menacing-slash-deadly. I guess you could say, they took him too seriously.
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Post by triumshockwave on Mar 17, 2022 11:54:24 GMT -5
I still contend that one of the scariest Joker scenes ever is in that episode of TAS where he's following that guy in traffic.
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Post by Paladin on Mar 17, 2022 13:21:57 GMT -5
The movie sure as hell didn't help.
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Post by Optimal Megatron on Mar 17, 2022 16:05:11 GMT -5
I find it funny that Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker manages to make him one of the darkest takes on the DCAU version of the character and yet STILL actually be kinda funny. Like the bang flag that turns out to be a harpoon, or his "Daddy had to do discipline" in the video recording while in the foreground it shows him *electrocuting* Tim. It's black humor at its finest.
I do think that the Dark Knight with Heath Ledger wasn't a full shift. You had bits like the pencil trick, "I killed the bus driver" "What bus driver?" and the delayed detonation as he's walking out in the nurse outfit. There's still humor there. But there was a real fixation on the scarred "wants to watch the world burn" aspect that was people taking exactly the wrong lessons from it.
Really, the Joker's always been horrifying, what with the Joker gas and rictus grins and such. But people keep forgetting that the core point of it is he's a clown and there's supposed to be a punchline. But somewhere along the line, clowns being funny seemed to get dropped compared to the cultural changeover of all clowns being inherently creepy and I feel the Joker wasn't a cause, but definitely a casualty of this. When's the last time you saw *any* clown played straight for humor? Not just the Joker, but ANY of them.
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Post by Greatshot on Mar 17, 2022 19:55:14 GMT -5
I still contend that one of the scariest Joker scenes ever is in that episode of TAS where he's following that guy in traffic. Oh man that episode was terrifying. And awesome!
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Post by Matrix Dragon on Mar 17, 2022 21:52:13 GMT -5
The last real Joker moment for me in the comics was during Infinite Crisis. Namely, the comic points out he's the wild card, which is why he was avoided by the Society of super villains... but you NEVER say the Joker can't play.
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Post by darkseraph on Mar 17, 2022 21:53:00 GMT -5
Hamill Joker could be creepy, but there was always a punchline, a joke. Then we get shit like Leto, who is a punchline, a bad one
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Post by SporkBot on Mar 18, 2022 10:57:07 GMT -5
Setting aside the "all must be dark and gritty" mentality, maybe some people are thinking that, considering he IS a murderer, he should be portrayed as more serious, less humorous?
I dunno, different writers could have different reasons.
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