100 Fun Facts About Joker

Which future Batman foe debuted beside the Joker in Batman #1?

Catwoman began in that issue as 'the Cat', a thief written as a romantic interest for Batman, a 'friendly foe' rather than a killer like the Joker.

Which three men share the disputed credit for creating the Joker?

Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson share the credit uneasily: Robinson said his sketch of a joker playing card came first, while Kane insisted Robinson 'had absolutely nothing to do with it'.

The Joker's rictus grin was inspired by Conrad Veidt's character Gwynplaine in which 1928 silent film?

The Man Who Laughs adapts a Victor Hugo novel about a man whose face was carved into a permanent grin; a picture of Veidt in the role was handed to the artist as the model for the Joker.

Who saved the Joker from being killed off for good in his second story in 1940?

A DC editor, Whitney Ellsworth, thought the villain too good to lose, so a last-minute panel was added in which an ambulance doctor marvels that the stabbed Joker is going to live.

In the Joker's earliest stories, his victims died with what on their faces?

A grotesque smile was the signature of his poison, Joker venom; the Joker of 1940 was a cold-blooded serial killer and jewel thief, not yet the prankster of later decades.

A 1951 origin story revealed that the Joker had once been which masked villain?

The Red Hood plunged into a vat of chemical waste to escape Batman and surfaced with bleached skin, green hair and a fixed grin, an origin that later writers kept returning to.

What kept the once-murderous Joker a goofy prankster for much of the 1950s and 1960s?

The Comics Code Authority, set up by publishers in 1954 amid a panic over comics and delinquency, banned excessive violence, so the killer clown stayed a thieving trickster until writers restored his murders in 1973.

In The Dark Knight, the Joker's 'magic trick' for Gotham's mob bosses makes what disappear?

A pencil vanishes into a henchman's head; it was filmed for real, the stuntman snatching the pencil away a split second before his face hit the table, some 22 takes in all.

In the 1988 story 'A Death in the Family', the Joker killed which Robin?

Jason Todd died by popular vote: DC opened phone lines so readers could decide his fate, and death won by just 72 calls out of more than 10,000.

In Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, the Joker shoots and paralyses whom?

Barbara Gordon, who had been Batgirl, returned to comics the next year as Oracle, a hacker in a wheelchair who feeds intelligence to DC's heroes.

Which artist drew The Killing Joke, a story he proposed after watching the 1928 film behind the Joker's grin?

Brian Bolland was told he could do any project he liked at DC and asked for a Joker story written by Alan Moore; unhappy with the rushed colouring, he recoloured the whole book himself in 2008.

The Joker's best-known nickname in the comics is the Clown Prince of what?

Crime completes the title, and he manages it with no superpowers at all: for all his reputation, the Joker relies on custom weapons and sheer unpredictability.

The Joker's lapel flower and joy buzzer were introduced in 1952 as what?

Harmless joke items suited the prankster Joker of the 1950s; once he turned killer again, the flower squirted acid and the buzzer carried a lethal charge.

In the 2000 crossover 'Emperor Joker', the Joker steals reality-warping power from which character?

Mister Mxyzptlk, an imp from the fifth dimension, is tricked out of almost all his power, and the Joker remakes the world so that he can kill Batman every day and bring him back.

In Flashpoint (2011), which character becomes the Joker in an alternate timeline?

Martha Wayne loses her mind in a world where young Bruce, not his parents, is shot in the alley; her husband Thomas becomes its Batman instead.

Which 2017 DC comics event introduced a villain who is a fusion of Batman and the Joker?

Dark Nights: Metal brought in a Batman from a doomed parallel world who finally killed the Joker, only to be infected by a toxin released at his death and remade in his image.

Who played the Joker in the 1966 Batman TV series and film?

Cesar Romero had spent decades playing suave Latin lovers on film; as the Joker he laughed more than he spoke, cackling through the series in a bright purple suit.

What did the 1966 TV Joker actor refuse to do for the role?

He would not shave his moustache, so the white greasepaint was simply smeared over it for the whole series and the 1966 film; look closely and the bristles show through.

In Tim Burton's 1989 Batman, the Joker's real name is what?

Jack Napier was invented for the film, as the comics had never revealed the Joker's real name; here he is a gangster whom Batman accidentally sends into a vat of chemicals.

In the 1989 film, the Joker poisons Gotham by lacing hygiene products with a chemical called what?

Smylex leaves its victims dead with a fixed grin; Batman works out how it spreads and hands his research to reporter Vicki Vale so that Gotham can avoid it.

How does Nicholson's Joker line 'Have you ever danced with the devil...' end?

The line ends '...in the pale moonlight?', the question the mugger put to young Bruce after shooting his parents, so hearing the Joker say it tells Batman who the killer was.

Jack Nicholson agreed to play the Joker in 1989 only on strict conditions that included what?

A share of the film's earnings, merchandise included, came with top billing and a shooting schedule of his choosing; estimates of what the deal paid him start at $60 million.

Who wrote the songs for the 1989 Batman film?

Prince's soundtrack album topped the US chart for six weeks and 'Batdance' went to number one; he later said it had been planned as a duet album with Michael Jackson. Danny Elfman wrote the score.

Which Star Wars actor first voiced the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series in 1992?

Mark Hamill voiced him for three decades of cartoons and games; after Kevin Conroy, his Batman, died in 2022, he said that without Kevin 'there doesn't seem to be a Batman for me'.

Harley Quinn was created for which medium before she appeared in comics?

A television cartoon gave her a walk-on part in a single 1992 episode; writer Paul Dini modelled her on his friend Arleen Sorkin, who had played a jester in a soap opera and went on to voice her.

Before becoming Harley Quinn, Harleen Quinzel had what job?

Psychiatrist at Arkham: the 1994 comic Mad Love shows Dr Harleen Quinzel falling for the Joker while treating him. A later retelling added his pushing her into the chemical vat that made him.

Who played the Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008)?

Heath Ledger never saw the finished film: he died in January 2008, six months before it opened, and his family collected the Oscar he won for the role.

The Dark Knight's Joker earned an Academy Award that was notable as the first what?

An acting win for a superhero film had never happened before. It was not the first posthumous acting Oscar, though: Peter Finch won for Network in 1977, two months after his death.

How did the Dark Knight's Joker actor prepare for the role?

He shut himself in a hotel for weeks, alone in London, trying out voices and filling a diary with clown faces, photos of hyenas and a list of things the Joker would find funny.

In The Dark Knight, the Joker threatens to blow up what unless a man about to unmask Batman is killed?

A hospital is the threat, and he blows up Gotham General anyway; the blast was real, shot in a single take at a disused Chicago candy factory that was already due for demolition.

Which actor's Joker in Suicide Squad (2016) was given tattoos by director David Ayer for a modern gangster look?

Jared Leto stayed in character for the whole shoot; co-star Will Smith said he never once met the actor himself, only the Joker.

Which actor makes a brief, shadowy appearance as the Joker in Matt Reeves' The Batman (2022)?

Barry Keoghan is credited only as 'Unseen Arkham Prisoner'; a longer scene of Batman consulting his Joker was cut from the film and released online as the prize in a riddle game.

In Todd Phillips' 2019 film Joker, what is the name of Joaquin Phoenix's character?

Arthur Fleck is a party clown and would-be stand-up in 1981 Gotham; the film stands apart from every other Batman movie, so its Joker meets Bruce Wayne only as a small boy.

Joker (2019) won the top prize at which film festival?

Venice gave it the Golden Lion after the premiere drew an eight-minute standing ovation, five weeks before the film reached American cinemas.

Joker (2019) set which box-office record?

The first R-rated film to pass $1 billion was made for a fraction of a superhero budget, and kept the R-rated record until Deadpool & Wolverine overtook it in 2024.

Joaquin Phoenix's 52-pound weight loss for Joker (2019) ruled out what once filming had ended?

Reshoots were impossible because he could not hold that weight, co-star Zazie Beetz said, so Todd Phillips rewrote scenes during the shoot and filmed them the same night.

Who plays talk-show host Murray Franklin in Joker (2019)?

Robert De Niro swaps sides from The King of Comedy, where he played the comedian obsessed with a talk-show host; here he is the host and Phoenix's character the obsessive.

The 'Joker Stairs' from the 2019 film's dance scene are in which New York borough?

The Bronx stairway drew so many visitors posing for photos after the film that residents complained; the producers had passed over another flight of steps as too freshly beautified.

Joker (2019) won two Oscars: one for Phoenix's acting and one for what?

Original Score went to composer Hildur Guðnadóttir; the film led that year's Oscars with eleven nominations yet won only these two.

In Joker (2019), what does the Joker learn about his mother from her Arkham file?

She had adopted him while working as the Waynes' housekeeper, the file says, and was diagnosed as delusional, which wrecks her claim that he is Thomas Wayne's son.

Who plays Harleen 'Lee' Quinzel opposite Phoenix in Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)?

Lady Gaga also released a companion album, Harlequin, a week before the film opened; the musical sequel then lost money, taking about $208 million against a budget near $200 million.

How does Phoenix's character die at the end of Joker: Folie à Deux?

A fellow inmate stabs him in an Arkham corridor after telling him a joke, then carves a grin into his own face as his victim bleeds to death.

In The Killing Joke, the Joker argues that it takes only one bad what to drive a sane man mad?

Day: he tortures an innocent man to prove it, but his victim refuses to crack, and Batman tells the Joker that the madness is his alone.

Which supervillain team has counted the Joker among its members in the comics?

The Injustice Gang signed him up to fight the Justice League, but his alliances rarely last: they tend to collapse because he prefers chaos to any plan.

Which actor voices the Joker in The Lego Batman Movie (2017)?

Zach Galifianakis plays him as a jilted partner: Batman refuses to admit the Joker matters to him, and the villain's hurt feelings drive the whole revenge plot.

Which actor did Warner Bros. push Todd Phillips to cast as the Joker in his 2019 film?

The studio hoped Scorsese's involvement would attract his frequent collaborator, but Phillips only considered Phoenix.

Before Joker, director Todd Phillips was best known for which hit comedy trilogy?

The Hangover made his name in comedy; he then pitched Joker to Warner Bros. as the first of a line of cheap, standalone DC films, the opposite of a shared universe.

What pet name does Harley Quinn most often call the Joker?

Puddin' and 'Mistah J' are her names for him, though later comics had her leave the Joker behind and recast her as an antihero in her own right.

In The Dark Knight, whom does the Joker blame in his first scar story?

His father, a violent drunk, is blamed first; later he says he cut himself to comfort his scarred wife, so the film never settles it, echoing the comic Joker who wants his past 'multiple choice'.

Joker (2019) was made for a fraction of a typical comic-book film's budget; roughly how much did it cost?

$60 million is the middle of the reported $55 to $70 million, about a third of Suicide Squad's cost, and Warner Bros. still had outside financiers put up much of it.

How did DC Comics decide whether the Joker would kill Robin in the story 'A Death in the Family'?

A reader phone poll settled it: fans rang a 900 number to vote, and death won by just 72 votes out of 10,614.

Which everyday object does the Joker make disappear in a grisly magic trick in The Dark Knight?

A pencil is the prop, and the Joker makes it disappear by slamming a mobster's head onto it, in what is now ranked among the film's most famous scenes.

In the video game Injustice: Gods Among Us, the Joker tricks the Man of Steel into killing whom?

Lois Lane dies along with the whole of Metropolis, because her death detonates a nuclear weapon, and the grieving hero turns tyrant.

What colour is the Joker's signature long-tailed suit, usually worn with a string tie and spats?

Purple is so central to the Joker that when a 2004 cartoon put him in a straitjacket instead, its makers soon gave him the familiar suit back.

In The Killing Joke's flashbacks, the future Joker quits a chemical plant job to try which career?

Stand-up comedian was the dream, but he failed miserably, and to support his pregnant wife he agreed to guide two crooks through his old workplace.

In The Dark Knight's climax, the Joker rigs which two vehicles to explode, one carrying prisoners?

Ferries, one carrying civilians and the other prisoners, are rigged to blow at midnight, but to the Joker's disbelief the passengers refuse to kill one another.

Which future flame of Batman debuted in Batman #1, the very issue that introduced the Joker?

Catwoman first appeared in that issue as a burglar and jewel thief called the Cat, so Batman met his arch-enemy and his great romance at the same time.

The Joker's pet hyenas, Bud and Lou, are named after which classic Hollywood double act?

Abbott and Costello, Bud and Lou to their fans, gave the hyenas their names, and the animals grew loyal to Harley Quinn because she was the one who fed them.

Which theme park chain opened a steel roller coaster named The Joker in Vallejo, California?

Six Flags opened it in 2016 as a rebuild of the wooden coaster Roar, laying a new steel track on top of the old supports.

Which Australian actress plays Harley Quinn, the Joker's girlfriend, in the 2016 film Suicide Squad?

Margot Robbie kept the part for two more films, Birds of Prey in 2020 and The Suicide Squad in 2021.

At the end of Batman Begins, what does a mystery criminal leave at crime scenes, teasing the Joker?

A playing card, the joker from the pack, is described to Batman in the closing scene, setting up the villain of The Dark Knight.

In The Dark Knight's opening bank heist, the Joker slips away with the mob's money in what vehicle?

A school bus hides him in a convoy of others, after the Joker has arranged for each robber to eliminate another until only he is left.

Which Maggie Gyllenhaal character dies in a blast set up by the Joker in The Dark Knight?

Rachel Dawes dies because the Joker gives the two hostage locations in reverse, so Batman races to the wrong building.

Which US city stood in for Gotham when The Dark Knight flipped the Joker's truck on LaSalle Street?

Chicago hosted the shoot from April 2007, and the truck flip was a practical stunt because Christopher Nolan avoided computer effects unless they were necessary.

The hospital the Joker blows up in The Dark Knight was really a disused factory that once made what?

Candy maker Brach's had left the plant on Cicero Avenue, and because it was due for demolition anyway the crew blew it up for real in August 2007.

What disguise gets the Joker to a patient's bedside in Gotham General Hospital in The Dark Knight?

A nurse's uniform gets him in during the mass evacuation, and at the bedside he persuades the wounded district attorney to take the law into his own hands.

Which composer built the Joker's theme in The Dark Knight around just two notes?

Hans Zimmer first tried to build the theme on a single note, settled on two, and left the district attorney's theme to his co-composer, James Newton Howard.

Which painter's screaming pope did Christopher Nolan suggest as a model for The Dark Knight's Joker?

Francis Bacon painted Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X in 1953, and the director put it forward as a reference for the character's appearance.

In Tim Burton's Batman, the Joker replaces which comics gunman as the killer of Batman's parents?

Joe Chill is the mugger responsible in the comics, and fans reacted negatively when the film gave his crime to the Joker.

What does Batman tether to the Joker's leg, dragging him off a cathedral roof in the 1989 film?

A stone gargoyle is hooked to his leg by grappling line, and when the crumbling statue breaks off the roof its weight drags the Joker to his death.

Which photojournalist, played by Kim Basinger, does the Joker take hostage in the 1989 film Batman?

Vicki Vale was meant to die in an earlier version of the climax, with the Joker killing her and sending Batman into a vengeful fury.

Which mob boss, played by Jack Palance, sets the future Joker up to die in Tim Burton's Batman?

Carl Grissom arranges the ambush at the chemical plant because his lieutenant is having an affair with his mistress, and the newly made Joker kills him and takes over his operations.

Which comic actor lobbied hard for the Joker role that Jack Nicholson won in Tim Burton's Batman?

Robin Williams wanted the part badly, and the others considered ranged from David Bowie and Brad Dourif to Ray Liotta and James Woods.

In Joker (2019), where does Joaquin Phoenix's character shoot three drunk men who attack him?

On a subway train home, still in his clown make-up, he shoots two in self-defence and murders the third as he flees, and protesters soon take up clown masks.

Which Martin Scorsese film about a fan fixated on a talk-show host helped inspire Joker (2019)?

The King of Comedy (1982) follows would-be comic Rupert Pupkin, and Scorsese himself was at first attached to Joker as a producer.

Whose glam-rock hit plays as Joaquin Phoenix dances down the steps in Joker, causing a royalty row?

Gary Glitter, a convicted sex offender, was at first reported to be in line for royalties from Rock and Roll Part 2, but he had long since sold the rights.

Who plays Sophie, the single mother next door, in the 2019 film Joker?

Zazie Beetz earned a Saturn Award nomination for the part and came back as the neighbour in Joker: Folie à Deux.

What kind of film is Joker: Folie à Deux, a sharp change from the gritty first Joker of 2019?

A jukebox musical, it grew from a dream Joaquin Phoenix had of his character performing on stage, telling jokes and singing.

The subtitle of the Joker sequel, Folie à Deux, is a French medical term for what?

A delusion shared by two is the idea: literally madness of two, the rare syndrome sees one person's delusional belief transmitted to another.

In 'A Death in the Family', which country makes the Joker its ambassador to the United Nations?

Iran gives him the post after Ayatollah Khomeini offers him a role in its government, so any clash with Batman could start a diplomatic incident.

In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, which former Robin turns out to carry the Joker's mind?

Tim Drake was kidnapped and tortured for three weeks while he was Robin, and the Joker encoded himself onto stolen DNA technology hidden behind his ear.

Whose comic The Dark Knight Returns has a catatonic Joker wake when Batman ends his retirement?

Frank Miller ends the feud with a twist: disappointed that Batman refuses to kill him, the Joker breaks his own neck and dies.

Which Gotham villain goes to war with the Joker in a Batman storyline set a year after Zero Year?

The Riddler is his enemy in The War of Jokes and Riddles, a flashback arc that ran through eight issues of Batman.

In the comic storyline 'Endgame', the Joker uses a toxin to turn which team of heroes on Batman?

The Justice League attack their friend because writer Scott Snyder wanted the Joker to turn Batman's closest allies against him.

In DC's New 52 comics, which villain cuts off the Joker's face at the Joker's own request?

The Dollmaker pins the severed face to a cell wall as a sign of rebirth, which is the whole reason the Joker let Batman capture him.

Which villain, student Alexis Kaye, plotted to become the Joker's new sidekick and girlfriend?

Punchline debuted shortly before the Joker War story arc, and in a 2022 series of her own she moves on from him to lead the Royal Flush Gang.

Which artist drew 'The Joker's Five-Way Revenge', the 1973 story that made the Joker a killer again?

Neal Adams and writer Dennis O'Neil revived the Joker after a four-year disappearance, returning him to his roots as a homicidal maniac.

Which Eisner-winning comic by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm tells how Harley Quinn fell for the Joker?

Mad Love won the Eisner Award for Best Single Issue in 1994 and was later adapted as an episode of The New Batman Adventures.

Which soap actress inspired, and was first to voice, the Joker's sidekick Harley Quinn?

Arleen Sorkin played a jester in a dream sequence on Days of Our Lives, and her college friend Paul Dini built the character around it.

Which Firefly actor voices the Joker in the adult animated series Harley Quinn?

Alan Tudyk also voices Clayface in the same show, along with a string of smaller villains such as Calendar Man and Doctor Trap.

Which Shameless actor played twin proto-Jokers Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska in the TV series Gotham?

Cameron Monaghan appeared across all five seasons as a recurring guest, playing identical twins who each serve as an origin for the Joker.

Which Rocky Horror star was cast as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series but then replaced?

Tim Curry has said he caught bronchitis during the first recording sessions, while the producers reportedly found his Joker too scary, and the part was recast.

Which fighting-game series added the Joker as a downloadable guest fighter in its 2019 instalment?

Mortal Kombat 11 brought the Joker in alongside the Terminator, his first time back since the crossover game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.

In Telltale's Batman video games, the future Joker first appears as a patient known by which name?

John Doe is all he is called at first, and in the sequel he re-emerges as the Joker, either a twisted vigilante or a villain depending on how the story has gone.

In a 2005 animated Batman film, the Joker is turned into a henchman of which legendary monster?

Dracula sets out to build an army of vampires, and Batman works on an antidote using the Joker's infected cells.

The second episode made for Batman: The Animated Series has the Joker hijack television on which holiday?

Christmas Eve finds the Joker escaping on a rocket hidden inside a tree, then broadcasting his attack on Gotham as a festive special.

In The Lego Batman Movie, the Joker recruits an army of villains inside which prison dimension?

The Phantom Zone is exactly where he wants Batman to banish him, and Harley Quinn then steals the projector back to let them all out.

Which writer's Batman: Three Jokers suggests the Joker has been three different men all along?

Geoff Johns told fans at DC FanDome in 2020 that he felt the three-issue story was in continuity.

Which animator made the Looney Tunes-style cartoon short that opens Joker: Folie à Deux?

Sylvain Chomet, the French director of The Triplets of Belleville, drew the short, Me and My Shadow, in which the Joker's shadow takes his place on a TV show.

What does the Joker beat Robin with before the warehouse bomb in 'A Death in the Family'?

A crowbar is the weapon, and a 2010 comic turned the tables by having a later Robin beat the Joker with one.