Everyone loves a good laugh, right? So does one of our favorite Batman villains, the infamous Joker! Since we’ve got some amazing DC love in the form of Gotham’s finest in the August MAYHEM Crates, we thought we’d serve up some Trivia! How much do you know about the Joker?
1. There was quite a bit of drama concerning the casting of Jack Nicholson as the Joker in the 1989 Batman flick. Originally, Nicholson was hesitating on confirming if he’d take the role, so Warner Brothers reached out to Robin Williams. Upon hearing this, Nicholson took the role and Williams was told he wasn’t needed. Williams was rather offended by the situation and turned them down when they came to him to see if he’d be the Riddler years later for Batman Forever. The studio issued him an apology in the long run though. Can you imagine that version of the Joker though?!
2. Speaking of Nicholson, he loved the fact that Joker had such an unusual comedy style. He said “The thing I like about The Joker is that his sense of humor is completely tasteless.”
3. In the Batman TV series from 1966, Cesar Romero was so adamant about keeping his facial hair (a legit mustache) that he made the make-up department merely put make-up over it rather than shaving it off for the scenes.
(Warner Brothers, DC Comics)
4. When doing the 1966 series, Romero said that he had done the Joker’s iconic laugh so many times that he didn’t quite know how to laugh naturally anymore. From then on, his laugh always had just a hint of Joker in it much to the confusion of his family and friends.
5. The non-stop lip licking that Heath Ledger does during his infamous and never-done-better role as the Joker in The Dark Knight was due to his lip prosthetic constantly threatening to come off. He used his tongue to keep it stuck there and it became so obvious that he made it one of Joker’s tics permanently.
6. During the intense chase scene with the Joker and Batman in The Dark Knight, Ledger playfully commented that one of the extremely rare IMAX cameras was going to be destroyed making it. He regretted that joke soon after because one of only four IMAX cameras in the world was destroyed later on in the evening while filming the scene.
(ABC, 20th Century Fox)
7. The make-up for Ledger’s Joker was done so efficiently that it was three pieces of latex that were applied and painted over taking little under an hour. Ledger was so impressed with this process that he asked to see the entire process himself and had the effects department walk him through it as they finalized the latex applications.
8. In the TV series Gotham, there is a version of Joker that is somewhat left unsaid. Cameron Monaghan plays Jerome Valeska who is played as a sort of ‘Prototype’ of the Joker. Why not just call him Joker? Well, to maintain the DCEU’s film continuity, they separated their stories from that of the show. This means that having Cameron’s Joker would complicate things. So, while he is definitely the Joker of the show, he’s not allowed to have the same color scheme, title or backstory. Crazy, right?
9. Gotham’s version of Joker is even crazier. While it was teased and lead on that Jerome was indeed the cracking crazy one, it turned out to be his brother that would take on the Joker mantle. Well, albeit not called that. You get the point. You need to see Cameron Monaghan’s portrayal though. It’s downright inspiring!
(FOX Network)
10. It is noted often that the inspiration, not only for the character but definitely for the comics and the animated series, is the main character of a film called “The Man Who Laughs” which was written by Victor Hugo. If you want a rather jarring look at something animators and artists have viewed for decades now as the beginning of the Joker — check that film out.
