Should Joker be likable?
I kind of think that he should be. You can try and crank up the weird edgy horror and psycho thriller and supernatural elements but after a point he just turns into Freddy Krueger.
To me, the notion of someone who is basically Hannibal Lecter except a charismatic stand up comedian instead of a snooty academic, strikes me as much more interesting
Unpopular opinion, but yes. Thats why i kinda liked the version in SS that actually loved harley, because it wasnt all in your face horror and he was still kinda funny (the parts we saw atleast).
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I could see that working, but then you run the risk of why he cannot be reformed. I mean even the Riddler got reformed despite his brain compelling him to be the Riddler, so the Joker would need a way for that work without the question coming up.
But then you also run the risk of re-inventing the character.
I'd just say to lower his kill-count, have him own a club or two like the Penguin does, and have him perform and foster other local comedians. He runs schemes out the back-end of it, but he really does like it when people find him funny.
Hell, just making him more about commentary on comedy (like how people don't really joke anymore) could make him entertaining.
The Joker as a character you like only really shows up when he's at a low, human point. So giving him something he invests that side in could help cultivate that.
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thats harleys job
Charming psychopaths can be quite terrifying.
>But then you also run the risk of re-inventing the character.
The character's been reinvented a billion times already. He's been the absurd Clown Prince of Crime, a psychotic monster, and everything in between.
He cannot be reformed because he's mentally deranged but that doesn't mean he can't be likeable or charismatic.
I think this is why BTAS's Joker resonates so much. It struck a good balance between likable and menacing. He was charming and fun but you always felt something beneath that, which came out in full force now and then.
That wasn't very charming tho
The ironic "Hunka hunka" scene was really funny to me. How could people not see that praising your victim is a joke?
>Suicide Squad was too deep for viewers
Harley's not supposed to be particularly threatening in the first place
Or at least, that was the case conceptually. But now she runs around with the Suicide Squad so maybe she's some kind of super badass now
If that's the case, then I'd play him up like Christopher Titus.
youtube.com
Factor in the "quit being a wussy" aspect and take all the nasty parts of who he was growing up and rather than allowing him to bounce back, he does crime on the side. The Red Hood Incident was his breaking point of exploration and he can't go back because there's so much further he can delve.
Have him own a comedy club like the Penguin owns fancy clubs. Have him pull jobs that are related to his mob ties, but also so he can do something like steal an original Carlin record that was never aired because it was too edgy. Give him a little "hollywood badboy" mystique in that people know him and know he's done shitty things, but he's like Shia LaBoeuf, you can't stop it.
Give him a full Funny People treatment, maybe explore him through other comedians who he's had work his clubs. What if one of them turned into an Adam Sandler; what would that make the Joker do?
Batman is absurd to him because he's a man in tights who dresses like a bat but uses crazy technology; it doesn't stick to theme. Bats aren't about justice. Batman is a bad joke, almost a non-joke that the Joker contends with like a heckler who needs a constant beat-down because he just doesn't get how someone like Batman can be. Being Joker makes sense, its the shitty human experience getting explored for laughs. Batman is like being a Catholic priest; except he doesn't fuck little kids---and that's when the Joker makes a remark about Robin and gets his teeth punched in.
Maybe just let him be associated with the mob but not the big man on top---he doesn't want to be that, and he doesn't answer to that; but they have an understanding and they can have fun.
He's unable to get better, he doesn't want to get better. Joker gas becomes something that takes off all the inhibitors in a person; a suped up party-drug he uses on the job but never in the club. It doesn't kill, usually.
Throw Harley in as his shrink turned partner in crime, someone who is not funny at all but because he got her to remove that stick from her ass; thinks she's hilarious. But people laugh at her shitty jokes because she's hot, not because they're smart and that is part of the reason the Joker is able to treat her so poorly; she brings out his hatred of how shitty the field has gotten.
She's done the open mic night there and Louis C.K.'d her way through therapy notes on perverts before, and people laughed; but the Joker didn't. He admires that she seems to be trying, but she just fundamentally doesn't get how it works and she isn't willing to delve deeper because she knows the math behind the human mind and she also knows she's not anything of substance deep down.
So Joker and Harley become your arsonists, bomb-makers, bank-robbers, money launderers, gun-runners, and Waco Texas a Gala people for hire by the Mob. They're career criminals, but they have an honest front that ties directly into their personalities and relates to their criminal passions.
He'd lack the menace of a big bad evil doer, but he'd work well as an antagonist in a more crime-inspired story. He's the active agent that Batman works against, but he's not the person who wanted to rob the museum.
I feel like I"m the only one that hates this artist
>The character's been reinvented a billion times already. He's been the absurd Clown Prince of Crime, a psychotic monster, and everything in between.
He's never been a hero.
Brave and the Bold Joker is likable as hell and it worked wonderfully for that series. He (begrudgingly) goes out of his way to save a small boy's life at no benefit to himself and without even being pressured into it by Batman (who he is working with and in the company of at the time) at one point.
have you seen Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths yet?
He's always protected the citizens of Gotham from the horror of the Bat-Man.
That's kind of cheating. I can think of a few alt-universe Jokers who were heroes, but I'm pretty sure there's never been a normal universe hero Joker.
I feel like Joker should be likable and come off as silly until he does something completely scary and you realize he views murder and mutilation just as trivially as rubber chickens and fake guns.
The people who know him realize how scary he is, while the people that don't know him are disarmed and let their guard down because they view him as a fool.
You could do a solo mini from Joker's crazy POV, where he sees himself as saving Gotham from the Bat-Man's maniacal obsession with order. Killing people is helping them escape the Bat-Man's vision of Gotham and showing the city the possibility of different, mad way.
The Batman.
Damn it, they stole my idea. Looks like it's suicide again for me.
Oberon Sexton
What do you think is wrong with it? I definitely find it more unique than their usual house style.
>Charming
that joker is a rat. not muh miller joker tbqh
Joker is likable.
A fictional character doesn't have to be a good guy to be likable. Plenty of people like Hannibal Lecter, there was an entire show about him.
