10 Things DC Comics Want You To Forget About The Joker‏

8. The Clown Prince Of Crime Used To Have Fun

Whilst he was definitely murderous and psychotic in his earliest appearances by Finger and Kane, following the tightening of the Comics Code and threats of being censored, The Joker actually spent the majority of the Silver Age engaging in pranks, japes and otherwise innocently winding up Batman and Robin rather than viciously slaughtering the innocents of Gotham City.

The later incarnation of the character is the one that's stuck, especially after Heath Ledger's incredible performance in The Dark Knight movie, but there was once a time when The Joker was actually funny. We're not just talking about boners, either.

The purple-suited villain spent the better part of twenty years engaging in crimes that barely warranted the intervention of a couple of highly-trained superheroes, and was more likely to spring a wind-up boxing glove on one of his cronies than shoot him in cold blood. He even had his own Joker Mobile, a clown car in his matching colour scheme.

That depiction informed and was further influenced by Cesar Romero's goofy turn in the sixties Adam West Batman TV show. What fun!