10 Problems With The Joker Nobody Wants To Admit
8. The Clown Thing Is Kinda Clichéd
Scary clowns sell movie tickets. They sell books. They sell games. That's why you see them in everything from Stephen King's It to Twisted Metal Black to Northampton. It's a classic nightmarish image, a supposedly innocent and delightful image from childhood trips to the circus twisted into something evil.
A corruption of something juvenile into something all to adult and terrifying. That's why it's been used so often, to the point that it's a cliché. Which is why a creepy, murderous clown showed up in the most recent series of American Horror Story, a show which trades entirely on horror tropes.
Now, when The Joker first appeared that wasn't quite so much a cliché. In fact, the whole Clown Prince Of Crime thing was a pretty smart gimmick for a villain as dark and moody as Batman was ever since the start, with The Joker offering a more colourful, less complicated and seemingly happier counterpoint. Since then, though, he's become just another small part in a large tapestry of murderous creepy clowns throughout pop culture, which makes him a heck of a lot less special.
So what was once a unique and brilliant little shtick has since become...not.