10 Badass Characters Inspired By Ridiculous Things

10. Harley Quinn Was Inspired By A Soap Opera

In the early 1990s, Paul Dini was hard at work creating Batman: The Animated Series. One afternoon he was lying sick in bed when inspiration struck.

He popped in a VHS tape that an old college buddy had given him. The friend’s name was Arleen Sorkin. She would go on to voice the character of Harley Quinn for decades in TV, animated movies, and video games.

But, in the 1980s Sorkin played the character Calliope Jones on the daytime soap opera, Days of Our Lives. In an episode set in medieval times, Sorkin’s character dressed as a court jester and wore roller skates.

Later Sorkin handed a tape of the performance to her friend Dini. After watching he thought up a great idea: What if the Joker had a harlequin themed sidekick that Sorkin could voice? And so, Harly Quinn was born.