10 Darkest Batman: The Animated Series Episodes

The Joker in the animated series is a curious one to describe - extraordinarily funny, a little passive at times, but mountains of crazy. And while Batman, Robin, Gordon and the cops of Gotham have gone toe-to-toe with him many times in the past, we never think of what would happen if a civilian crossed paths with him.

The episode follows Charlie, a Gothamite who is already having a bad day - and in an example of one of the worst renditions of road rage, accidentally encounters the clown prince of crime. What follows is a very haunting, if not comical impression of Joker's mania.

Acting as something akin to a horror movie, Charlie flees Gotham in fear of the Joker, but finds himself looking over his shoulder at every turn. Throughout this article, I have held up previous episodes as examples of real-life situations a person can find themselves in, and the fear factor that comes with crossing the Joker could not be more evident in this episode.

We don't know who Charlie is, and by all accounts, he's probably a decent human being. We feel genuine fear for Charlie, as Joker manipulates and taunts the poor Gothamite into doing his bidding.