10 Sickest "Jokes" The Joker Ever Pulled
They call him the Harlequin of Hate for a reason...
The Riddler has riddles, Bane his venom. The Penguin has the whole umbrella thing, and Catwoman is all about the cats, woman. Every good supervillain has a gimmick, and none are gimmick-ier than those who choose to reside in Gotham City. The Joker? Even if you've been living under a rock for the past eighty-or-so years, you can probably guess his thing.
The Clown Prince of Crime to Batman's stoic Dark Knight routine, the Joker is always about fun and games. Even when he's at his most horrifying or demented, the man is always grinning widely and cracking wise. It's part of what makes him such an effective foe; he is the true antithesis of everything that Batman represents.
These two have been dancing their merry dance for a while now and, in order to keep Batman on his toes, the Joker has had to update his routines. After all, what good is a joke if everyone knows the punchline?
It's time to take a look at ten of the Joker's most horrifying jokes, jackanapes, gags and giggles, from the bloody to the brutal. Whether it be physical comedy, gross-out humour or puns that kill, the Joker has done it all. The man is nothing if not versatile...
10. Zombified Alfred - Joker War
Perhaps his most ambitious plot so far, this - in James Tynion IV's Joker War (recently wrapped up in Batman #100) - the Joker not only steals all of Bruce Wayne's billions but then uses it to reanimate the dead. Using his latest chemical concoction to control corpses from afar - like ghastly stinking meat puppets - Joker sends an army of the dead after a beaten, fatigued Batman.
With trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth now among Gotham's dead (thanks Bane), Joker takes much glee in using Alfred's reanimated corpse off to torment his enemy. Naturally, Batman rises to the occasion and beats the ever-laughing paste out of the Clown Prince of Crime, leaving him to die (!) in an explosion and re-burying poor Pennyworth.
But the damage is done - neither Batman nor the book's readers are likely to forget Zombie Alfred in a hurry, taunting his one-time Master Bruce through a broken neck and mind control.