That's Not Funny

The Joker. Sadistic, infamous, complex! Funny? That's up to interpretation. Is The Joker's last zinger of "The Killing Joke" really worth the page or could this flat act have a hidden meaning?

"Batman: the Killing Joke" is an amazing story. One of the most iconic Batman stories of all time, one of the most controversial stories of all time, and for some, the definitive origin story for The Joker. If you haven't read Alan Moore's 1988 graphic novel, "The Killing Joke" is about The Joker crippling Barbara Gordon, stripping her, and then taking photos of her to show her father Commissioner Gordon as he drags Gordon through an insane circus park. All the while Batman is chasing The Joker down, and we learn of The Joker's backstory.

He was once a normal man trying to pursue a career in stand-up comedy to support his pregnant wife and get them out of Gotham City. But he wasn't funny. He had to turn to a life of crime and rob the very same chemical plant he worked for. On the night of his heist, his wife died from electrocution and he had no other choice than go through with the robbery. It went array and he fell into a vat of acid that dyed his hair, reddened his lips, and bleached his skin. Whether it was the deforming acid or the loss of his family, this man began laughing and laughing with no end in sight. And thus, The Joker was born.

Pretty solid origin. Short, sweet, to the point. But one of the greatest things about "The Killing Joke" is all the things you can interpret from it. All the little nuances you miss until you re-read it a few times. Personally, I've gone through it maybe four times and I caught myself thinking about one moment in particular. A moment towards the end. And no, I don't mean the possibility of Batman killing The Joker. No, I chose to focus on the last lines of dialog The Joker has. He tells a joke, unsurprisingly, relating to Batman's offer to help rehabilitate him.

"No. I'm sorry, but... no. It's too late for that. Far too late. Hahaha. You know, it's funny. This situation. It reminds me of a joke... See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum. And one night, they decide they don't like living in the asylum anymore. They decide they're going to escape! So, like, they get up onto the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away into the moonlight. Stretching away to freedom. Now, the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daren't make the leap. Y'see... y'see, he's afraid of falling. So then the first guy has an idea... He says, 'Hey, I have a flashlight with me! I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk across the beam and join me!' But the second guy just shakes his head. He suh-says... he says 'Wh-what do you think I am? Crazy?  You'd turn it off when I was halfway across!"

 Here's the thing about this joke: it isn't funny. Maybe it's just my sense of humor or maybe I'm not "enlightened" or "sophisticated" enough to understand it, but I don't think it's funny. It has all the makings of a joke: the build-up, the climax, the set-up, and finally the punchline. But it doesn't make me laugh or chuckle or anything. It's like a joke gone flat. "Why did the chicken cross the road". That's a classic. It's a classic because it can set up to numerous types of humor. "To get to the other side" would be anti-humor. "To f%$& your girlfriend" would be shock humor. But The Joker's last joke doesn't have any humor. Is that the joke? That it's not even funny?

And look, I get the point of the joke. The metaphor is not lost on me. Batman is the crazy guy who makes the leap to freedom no problem, and The Joker is the crazy guy too afraid to jump and too paranoid to trust the help of a fellow insane person. But while the joke has meaning, it lacks humor. It lacks forethought. I'd go as far as to say Alan Moore didn't care if the joke was funny, as long as it carried his point. And then Batman laughs at the joke, for some reason. Despite it being dumb. But maybe that's the real point.

I mentioned before that The Joker used to be a failed comedian, unable to make a crowd laugh the way he wanted to. While every other version of The Joker will tell a joke or spark a laugh out of the reader/viewer, The Joker in "Killing Joke" doesn't make us laugh. Everything he does is either horrific or sad. The other thing I mentioned was that the acid effected his skin, but his trip into lunacy wasn't just the acid's fault, it was the loss of his wife and child. What I mean is, while the acid changed his appearance and his mental breakdown turned him into a monster, he is still the same guy. The same sad, glory-seeking man hiding behind a smile. And he is still a bad comedian. I think Alan Moore made the last joke a bad joke to show us that for as different as he's become The Joker is still the man we met before. While everything on the outside is different, he is still the same awful comic underneath.

And Batman laughing? Well, maybe he likes bad jokes. That's why you never see him laugh.

Thanks for reading.