>>6294979>>6297035>>6297525>>6297771Why does everyone focus on Nicholson as if he's just a comic clown? Does no one consider the raw violence and insanity of someone literally burning a man alive and then sitting there next to the corpse and talking to it like nothing is wrong. He threw acid on people's faces. Yes, he was corny, yes, he was ridiculous, but isn't that the epitome of the Joker? He was beyond insane! He is the very definition of chaos and a discordant avatar... Laughter and celebration of the violence that, frankly, we eat up like it's candy. Nicholson's joker is a joker that children could watch, but adults could be terrified of if they ever met. The kind of guy that would walk into a room and you're not sure you're going to make it back out. Because the man is unhinged, his "jokes" are funny to only those that get with his sort of humor, that see the joke for all the rules that Batman continues to defend, the society he thinks he's saving from people like the Joker. Yet, underneath it all, there's the Joker Smile whenever we stare into the abyss and realize that it was all for nothing, that there are no prizes, no greater good, no one but ourselves and nothing but this moment, this glorious moment when sanity and making sense are no longer acceptable.
Make fun of him as you will, but Nicholson's Joker was terrifying in the way that he was America without any paint on. He joked and laughed and murdered in the same breath. He was a mirror into what we could become, and that's why the Killing Joke hit hard for a lot of people... Nicholson just made a different aspect of that...
As this man put it:
>>6299754, it's also a consideration that every Joker is a reflection on the Batman that has come into existence. If none of you has seen it, go read Neil Gaiman's "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" It is a perfect example of this.
