10 Best Joker Episodes Of Batman: The Animated Series
6. The Man Who Killed Batman
There are three episodes in Batman: TAS where the Joker is paired opposite a timid, measly, deadbeat character. What works so well about the Joker interacting with these dweebs is that we see just how menacing he is. Batman doesn’t fear the Joker, but normal people really do.
The first in this Trilogy of Losers is Sid The Squid.
Sid is the runt of a litter of mobsters, who by sheer dumb luck seemingly kills Batman in a fiery explosion. When the Joker finds out he enlists Sid as part of his gang, but soon sours on the Squid.
This episode has the Joker pull back the curtain on his own motivations. Crime is simply a game for him, and Batman is his favourite playmate. When the realisation dawns that Batman may be dead the Joker suffers an existential crisis, for without the Dark Knight “crime has no punchline.”
Joker’s eulogy for Batman is one of the series’ absolute highlights, a heartfelt and hilarious account of how Batman has made him “the happy man he is today”, and how he would often dream of the perfect method of off-ing the Dark Knight. That the Joker would try to kill Sid for killing Batman is profoundly telling.
Without Batman, there is no Joker.