10 Terrible Mistakes That Nearly Ruined The Joker For Everyone

6. Making Him All About Boners

Every oddball Joker list mentions this 1951 story, but they're all correct. In those more innocent days, the Joker committed colorful and ultimately harmless crimes. When the newspapers laughed at him for making an embarrassing mistake, he promptly committed a set of crimes themed around embarrassing mistakes. In the 1950s, a common word for embarrassing mistake was "boner," and the story, "The Joker's Comedy of Errors," uses the word "boner" at least 28 times. However, by the 1950s, the word "boner" was also taking on its modern meaning of "erect penis," and it's hard (har har) to think writer Bill Finger was unaware of that. What Fixed It: Even though Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent would attack Batman and Robin for sexual innuendo in a couple of years, this story came out after Wertham's research was complete, so it got buried until the audience aged enough for it to no longer be an issue.