Would the Joker be more popular if he didn't have such a stupid name? I hate just saying it. It's a real word, sure...

Would the Joker be more popular if he didn't have such a stupid name? I hate just saying it. It's a real word, sure, but it's so uncommon that it just feels weird to say. At least Scarecrow is common enough it's sounds normal, you know. Outside of the context of Batman I never hear anyone say "joker". Maybe it was different in the 40s.

First, the name is one of the many reason it's so popular now. You can't look up Joker on google without running into him.

Second, Joker is crazy popular already. Overexposed, even. Why would you want him to be even more so?

Third, there is such a thing as "joker" card games, which is where he gets his name from in the first place.

Short answer: No.
Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooo.

how about "guason"

This.

Joker is overexposed. Especially because so many edge-lords love his "agent of chaos" schtick.

Thanks Christopher Nolan.

>Would the most popular dc villain be more popular if he had a name i personally liked

So, bizarro Sup Forums thread?

The Joker was an edgelord way before the Nolanvese, blame Batman Beyond for making him an edgelord.

>faggots that don't learn comics
The joker was the same character since his first comic, killing people for no reason, and almost killing batman but sparing his life just to make a point.

*read

And all writers write every character in the same way every time. Yep. Everything is always consistent all the time.

I don't want the Joker to be more popular.
Criminals in my country do Joker tatoos to show they don't fear being killed by the police because they are crazy

The trick its that he isn't just "Joker" he is "The Joker"
I bet you hate the comedian too.

Bottom left is from a god tier book. Batman fakes his own death and the city sets up a fake mausoleum to trick Joker out of hiding.

Brazil?

...

Riddler
>Constantly puts Batman's detective skills to the test and sets up elaborate traps and mind games to prove he's better than the caped crusader

Two-Face
>Shows the choices to Bruce's actions by having him operate on the grey line that Harvey can't; giving great psychological stories and a compelling villain

Scarecrow
>Pushes Bruce's buttons by exploiting his fears. His parent's death and the constant looming threat of "crossing that line" by killing someone is a major theme in Batman comics

The Joker
>Some faggot in a clown costume
>"WOW 10/10 BEST DC VILLAIN EVAR HOW CAN BATMAN EVEN COMPETE THIS IS ARCH RIVAL MATERIAL HERE! NIHILISTIC AND WICKED SENSE OF HUMOR HE'S GOT BATS ON THE ROPES!!"

Maybe being on this site turned me too much into a jaded asshole, but fuck everything about Joker. You can replace every story he's ever been in with someone like Penguin and it'd be a thousand times more compelling than Reddit the Clown.

who? that's not Joker.

I blame the Tim Burton movie. That was a lot of kids' first exposure to Batman and cemented Joker as his "main nemesis" in their minds. Now they're all grown up still thinking it's always gotta just be Batman vs. Joker 24/7 or it isn't a "real" Batman story.

Why would you want the Joker to be more popular ?

>You can replace every story he's ever been in with someone like Penguin
Not really because Oswald has a completely different gimmick and he occupies a unique spot in the Rogues gallery, and his best stories are the ones tailored to fit his character.

But there are dozens of wacky psychos with a sense of humor in Batman's rogues gallery, Joker was not even the first.
You replace Joker with Mr.Zsasz or whatever and nothing changes except there is no more overblown self-importance to the character.

The comic series did that itself just fine

I haven't played P5, but why is he called Joker other than to circumvent calling him The Fool?

Not even the best Joker in Persona

Nope, oldfag here, we were singing "the Batmobile lost its wheels and the Joker got away" long before that came out.
Joker has been probably Bats' most iconic villain, since forever.
Though I agree with a lot of points made above about overexposure, and especially poor interpretations.
Personally I like the Joker to be funny -- when he's depicted as just a regular psycho who happens to wear clown paint and call himself "Joker" for no reason, there's no point to the character anymore.

yeah

what about that idea of him trying to prove everybody is crazy

>Outside of the context of Batman I never hear anyone say "joker"
Look at this joker. He lives in his tiny American world where he can't imagine people talking differently outside of it. What a stooge.

>Nope, oldfag here, we were singing "the Batmobile lost its wheels and the Joker got away" long before that came out.
>Joker has been probably Bats' most iconic villain, since forever.
He's right. I had this lunchbox as a kid 30+ years ago.

>Outside of the context of Batman I never hear anyone say "joker"
You've never played a game of cards? Even still it's a phrase I hear people use to describe someone from time to time. I heard my grandmother use it today.

Because Joker is a cool name? Phantom thieves are kind of trickster-like characters. The reason he has a nickname to begin with is so the other characters have something to refer to him as in voiced lines.

I hate when they stick Joker with a shitty clown/circus motif instead of a deck of cards motif

Alrighty, thanks. Really got to get P5 sometime

>Maybe it was different in the 40s
It wierds me out how long these characters have been around for.

Would you prefer "Clown" instead?

Its the character. The JOKEr makes JOKES so they made a name around that.

Even longer before that. Killing Joke and Death In The Family were the ones that cemented Agent of chaos Joker. I actually applaud TAS for infusing some fun back into the character, while still letting him be intimidating.

Edgy

You're just a contrarian. Joker works as Batman's ultimate foil. The anarchy to Batman's order. The white to his black, the laughing and joy to his stern and sadness. Batman is all about control, while the Joker is no control.

And its these opposing aspects which lead to an eternal battle between them.

Fun fact: way back in 1936, three years before Batman first appeared his spiritual forebear *cough*shamelessplagiarismsource*cough* The Shadow encountered a vicious gangster in clown paint who called himself the Joker. (Like most of the Shadow's enemies, he didn't survive long)
It's really just a coincidence, though. The Joker was pretty clearly Jerry Robinson's own.

Actually, he's not particularly jokey in his first appearance. He was originally named "The Joker" in the sense that, like the playing card, he's "wild", unpredictable, a rogue element. He left a signature playing card, he used playing card metaphors.

Also, he was based on Conrad Veidt's performance in The Man Who Laughs

Yeah, he should be called the Insane Clown Person

Fuckin' miracle!

Joker has been Batman's No.1 enemy for as long as he debuted and this is not even remotely disputable.
In the Golden Age, he was far and away the most common villain, having 47 stories. Compare this to Penguin, who had 24, Catwoman, who had 12, and Two-Face who had 5 (if we are counting Harvey Kent)
In the Silver Age, he was still at top even if the Adam West show made Penguin and Riddler more prominent, and in the 70s, when both of those characters were sacrificed and turned into has-been jobbers to appease the anti-camp crowd, and Catwoman became more of an anti-hero, he was the only one left.
And I don't even need to describe how him being involved in The Dark Knight Returns and The Killing Joke and the Tim Burton movie only cemented him further and further into the role.

Back then Joker was just Hugo Strange in clown paint. His first appearence has entire sections lifted from Hugo comics.
He wasn't really much of a joker until the Silver Age happened (which is also the time period everyone complains about him being too harmless).

Since we are bringing up The Shadow I'd also like to mention that, in addition to The Grim Joker, there was also another Shadow pulp called Death's Harlequin where he fought against a deranged clown criminal with a shrill laugh and "thin lips drawn away from skull-like teeth". And a few months before The Joker debuted, there was an episode of the radio show called The Laughing Corpse where people were killed via a gas that made them laugh themselves to death.
But we could spend all day talking about things that The Shadow did first or inspired and that's not really relevant to the discussion.

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How fucking popular does he need to be!?

Popular enough that every child on Earth would aspire to be the Joker when they grow up.

Are you going to finish that

G U A S O N

He wasn't in the last movie, so clearly he's not popular enough yet. Hopefully they fix this error in the sequel.