“Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg…the Batmobile lost a wheel, and the Joker got away!”
“Jingle Bells (Batman Smells)” is an early “fan work,” a parody song circulated among schoolchildren since the 1960s. I first heard it on school buses. When Batman: The Animated Series used it to introduce its version of the Joker, it set a playful tone from the start.
The animated Joker would change his look more than once, but consistent writing and vocals gave him a coherent identity. That’s all the more remarkable since his creators could use comics from any era for inspiration, making their Joker a true wild card. He could show Dark-Age viciousness or (more often) Bronze-Age menace. But he could also be panicked, embarrassed, furious, shocked, sad, jealous…or even ineffective against Batman if that was what comedy called for.
Still, Mark Hamill’s performances always included some merry menace. Hamill often read the Joker’s lines as if opening Christmas presents, finding each one a delightful surprise and playing with it to see how it worked.
The other major innovation was this Joker’s relationship—of sorts—with his henchwoman Harley Quinn. Cesar Romero's Joker had flirted with several henchwomen for a couple episodes each, but Harley had far more staying power.
She was devoted to the Joker and kept convincing herself he felt the same. In response, the Joker exploited her shamelessly, when he wasn’t ignoring her, blaming her for his own failings, pushing her away in irritation, or reeling her back in with superficial words of affection.
The Joker-Harley bond aimed for laughs and got them, but it also warned young viewers what a relationship with a chaotic narcissist was like. Though Harley never quite left the Joker in her first incarnation, more recent treatments (in film, comics, and streaming TV) have seen her move on.
All this expanded on the Joker’s 1960s TV presence and met with greater success. Romero had also been fun to watch, but his show’s fixed tone couldn’t compete with the cartoon’s comedic range.
Hamill’s work with the character continued in the Batman: Arkham video game series, while another Joker appeared in Injustice. Both game series are spinoffs of the default DC Universe, both are critically and commercially successful, and they launched within two years of each other—2009 and 2011.
But Arkham outsells Injustice roughly ten to one, with 31 million games sold to its 3 million. It also gets outpraised roughly ten to one, winning 26 awards to Injustice’s 2 (with 73 additional nominations to its 2).
The Injustice Joker is grislier than ever, orchestrating the deaths of Lois Lane and all of Metropolis. Perhaps this is done to “prove his point” about the fragility of sanity, this time targeting a soul even purer than Jim Gordon’s. If so, he’s partly successful, sending Superman down a dark path that begins with the Joker’s own death.
That death is the series' true inciting incident, which means the Joker doesn't get to enjoy himself much; he just drives the plot and then he's gone. Or mostly gone: he's a playable character in the games’ fights and a malicious memory in the sequel.
Arkham’s Joker gets a lot more to do—even after he dies in the third game (here too, he lives on in another character’s head). Many factors influence a game's success, but once again, the series that allows the Joker to be funnier has gone further.
By now, we seem to be heading to a simple conclusion. But there are a few major Jokers we haven’t addressed yet, and they complicate the picture.
Next: What about the films?