As The Joker is so fond of telling his nemeses almost every time they tango, he and The Batman can't exist without each other. They're two sides of the same coin, yin and yang. So it makes sense that even in Gotham, when Bruce Wayne's still a good decade or so off of pulling on the cowl, the Clown Prince Of Crime should make an appearance. In fact, showrunner Bruno Heller teased before the series began that there would be a Joker reference in almost every episode, with numerous red herrings planted amongst the numerous potential candidates who could become the killer clown (including a stand-up comedian in the first episode and cackling Jerome in The Blind Fortune Teller). Those are the more obvious nods to the Dark Knight's arch nemesis, but you might have missed the graffiti occasionally spotted around Gotham which reads SMILE in a crazed, red-painted scrawl, or the dancers at Fish Mooney's club in red-and-black-lingerie; why, that's the colour scheme of The Joker's girlfriend Harley Quinn! In fact there's not one, but two long shadows cast over Gotham: the city's future protector, the young Bruce Wayne, and its future tormentor. He just wants to put a smile on your face...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
