10 Dumbest Villain Plans In TV Shows

6. Copyrighting Fish - The Joker (Batman: The Animated Series)

Sherlock Moriarty Shoots Himself
Warner Bros. Television

The Joker is one of the greatest villains in all of fiction.

The Clown Prince of Crime is responsible for some of the most hideous acts of brutality ever committed in the Batman universe; murder, torture, psychological manipulation, mass destruction. The man with the smile has done it all.

All of this quite jarring when you discover that he once tried to convince the world he owned the rights to fish.

In the Batman: The Animated Series episode The Laughing Fish, Gotham's seafood supply is severely disrupted when several of the water-dwelling creatures turn up sporting Mister J's iconic faint paint.

It turns out The Joker has poisoned the fish and caused them to become disfigured. It's all part of his master plan to... patent the design of the fish... and collect royalties every time they get used?

Wait, that can't be right.

First of all, you can't copyright a fish. You don't need to be a high-flying lawyer to know that. Second of all, what royalties did Joker expect to get? Who'd want to buy a fish with the same face as a serial killer?

Sometimes the Joker displays impeccable method, but this was pure madness.

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Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.