20 Awesome DC TV Easter Eggs You Probably Missed

9. The Joker Teases (Gotham)

Fox

You can't have Batman without the Joker, and apparently you can't have a pre-Batman without a pre-Joker. The Gotham producers opted not to introduce the clown straightaway, instead promising that each episode would feature potential Jokers, and there'd be references scattered throughout. That started in the very first episode, with a stand-up comedian in Fish Mooney's club - one of the origin stories offered for the Joker is that he was an aspiring stand-up. Then there was the cackling Jerome, introduced in The Blind Fortune Teller, who travels with a circus, and kills his mother, showing clear psychotic tendencies.

He's been the most likely contender since then, until, well, he was killed off. But even then there were hints he is the Joker: he used knockout gas in the same episode, which is very much a Joker weapon, and the episode was called The Last Laugh, a reference to a Joker comic story. One of the best is the one in the image above, with the word smile written on the side of a building, and there's also the appearance of Harlequin dancers in Mooney's club, a clear nod to his partner-in-crime.

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Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.