The Last Laugh

By Jeffrey Worley
English 1020

4/26/2016

Table of Contents
I.
II.

Introduction
Descriptive Paragraph

III.

Magazine Article

IV.

Poster

V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.

Biography
Picture
Short Story
Survey
Works Cited

Introduction
This collaboration of entries is put together to present the debate of which portrayal of
The Joker is best between Jack Nicholsons or Heath Ledgers. After reading the presented
information I have hopes of setting up a personal opinion for each person, whether it be for one
portrayal or the other, and to possibly open up a change of their view on which actor pulled of a
better Joker. I hope to present some knowledge on the subject that you may not know or at least
present it entertainingly.

~1~

The Joker is a dark and brooding character. On his surface he wears an eternal smile that
accompanies what may seem as a jolly and psychotic demeanor. Beneath the outer layer The
Joker is a mastermind criminal that has a deep understanding on the mechanics that keep the city
of Gotham in play. This makes him one of the most iconic villains in comic book history and is
arguably Batmans greatest foe.

~2~

Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger brought a depth and deep undertone to the character of The Joker. He
pulled the underlying homicidal maniac through to the surface and to the screen, all while
conveying that there is a grand plan behind all of The Jokers decisions and actions. Ledgers
Joker really showed how dark The Joker can be and wasnt afraid to delve into that side of the
character. He suffered from health problems when he locked himself into a hotel room for a
month to try and use method acting to enter the mindset of The Joker. This gave him some
emotional and psychological trauma that he was prescribed medicine for and the mixing of
which lead to his early death. His efforts showed through in his portrayal of a sinister Joker that
didnt clown around. Many of the past versions were comical and whimsical as they fluttered
about the screen keeping the persona of The Joker actually being a clown.

Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson had a stark contrast in his version of what The Joker should be compared
with Ledgers. This may stem from the fact the Ledger decided to try and stay away from what
had already been done and didnt intend to compete to try and top another top actors
performance. Nicholsons performance as The Joker was arguably the best among many
audience members. From his face being seemingly made for the role to his naturally crazy
attitude he brought the nemesis of Batman to life straight from the comics. In Jack Nicholsons
old school portrayal The Joker had many convoluted schemes that were over-the-top and
sometimes had many unnecessary parts, sometimes just to make a joke. This is where it can be
seen that Nicholson tried to steer closer to The Jokers clown roots. Another thing that was

~3~

incorporated into the character were wacky inventions and devices like the Smylex gas that
forced people to bear an insane grin across their face or the flower on his lapel that sprayed acid.

Crime
When it came to crime each of The Jokers had their own flare and wanton for destruction,
however while there were similarities, they came with differences. Starting off with Ledgers
version and his past its very mysterious where his roots came from. He appeared taking the
citys crime ring by storm. This is different than Nicholsons who began his crime spree in the
mob, and in fact was the murderer of Bruce Waynes parents. Ledgers Joker also had a new
origin for the scar across his mouth every time he brought it up adding an uncertainty and level
of mystery making people unsure if hes just crazy or a borderline genius for his schemes. Now
to look at Nicholsons Jokers crimes. He began as a mobster, as earlier stated, but moved up the
ranks and landing him in the position that turned him into The Joker. So you could say his origin
is from the mob that he had been in. His later crimes after his transformation were much more
bizarre and seemed almost pointless other than he wanted to spread chaos. He wasnt shy about
trying to kill Batman like Ledgers Joker and was less concerned with ruining his image so he
employed more methods to actually kill him.

Death
While Ledgers Joker didnt die there was a nod to how Nicholsons died at the end of
the movie, but instead of following through with what the audience suspected he was saved. This
showed that Ledgers Joker shared a twisted form of respect with Batman.

~4~

A Look Into Lunacy

~5~

I chose this image as a poster since it has a full-bodied picture of both Heath Ledgers
Joker and Jack Nicholsons Joker. The Jokers main draw is his sparkling personality and sense
of humor, but there is also the matter of how he dresses that is part of the character as well. The
costume design for the two actors help portray the type of character that the actor was going for,
as well as show their personality. To begin with Nicholsons look has a cleaner and crisper look
in his style. You can see it in his overcoat, sleek shirt, and hat. His clothes arent the only thing
with a sharper look, his clown makeup isnt out of control. This may help convey that its
actually his skin and hair that has changed from falling into the acid. If you look towards the
bottom of the picture, you can see he also has a cane to complete a semi-classy look. Theres a
possibility that this was to show that he had come from a mobster background, since it isnt one
of the more traditional joker looks. The last thing for Nicholson would be to point out how bright
and out of control the colors of his outfit are. He wears a flashy orange undershirt with a sheen,
plaid purple, blue, and light blue pants, a blue vest and tie with dots, and a darker overcoat to
match his hat. This matches his showboating character and rounds out the personality for the
screen. Taking a look at Ledgers outfit leaves you with a much more drab taste in your mouth.
The overcoat that was used seems oversized, while the rest of his outfit seems fitted. There is a
worn look to his clothes that makes it seem like he either made them from cheap materials or
bought them from a garage sale, indicating that he doesnt care for showmanship, but rather just
leaving a dark image in his victims mind. His darker image matches his brooding personality
and hunched posture forcing him to use his eyebrow to hide his eyes and seem more
intimidating. These costume designs really help the characters inner-self shine through for the
big screen and shows the simple, yet vast difference in the two portrayals.

~6~

The Faces of the Joker

The Joker has had many faces over the years from his debut in comics, to a television
show, to cartoons, and to movies. This biography will cover two of the portrayals of The Joker,
which are from Batman and The Dark Knight movies. Starting with the first of the two Jokers,
Jack Nicholsons version, I will talk about what brought him to become The Joker and what was
distinctive to his version.
Jack Nicholsons Joker actually began far before many of the other variations of the
character. In the movie Batman its actually shown that he first appears in Bruce Waynes life
when he was a child. In fact its revealed that he was the one who murdered Bruces Mother and
Father in the alleyway. He even had a saying that he would ask all of his victims before he killed
them, which is what later indicated that he was the same villain that killed his parents. He
continues his crime spree with the mob of Gotham until his later years where he works as the
right hand man of the mob boss. At least he did until the boss grew tired of having him around
and set him up and a factory to meet his end in a conflict with the police. At the factory he has
his first run-in with Batman who attempts to help the police in their efforts to stop the mobs
activities. In the chaos the mobster fell into a vat of acid that transformed his skin white, his hair
green, and after a surgery, a large permanent smile across his face. His following decision was to
take up a clownish look to go with his smile and get revenge on everyone that he felt put him in
that position, as well as the city itself. His schemes usually had a mass target range, with a few
tricks up his sleeve that he kept just for Batman. He would attack public officials, air
commercials to terrorize the city, mixed Smylex into the citys water supply and made it react to
everyday products that people used, and also weaponized Smylex into a gas form on floats that

~7~

he planned to unleash into the city. This is all while he attempts to take down Batman, but he
doesnt just want to deface him, he wants to murder him.
Moving onto Heath Ledgers Joker in The Dark Knight his backstory of how he became
The Joker is never really touched upon. He begins by using some disposable specialist henchman
to help him rob a bank, wipe each other out, then ride off with all of the money by himself.
Unlike the previous Joker, he is much more nefarious in his schemes, in that he doesnt have a
group of henchman that do his bidding, but rather people that he indoctrinates just long enough
to use them and often costs their life. In the beginning of the movie he is repeatedly thwarted by
Batman, which leads to him wanting to dispose of him. As time progresses he finds an interest in
how Batman operates and his inability to kill someone. He wants to ruin Batmans symbol and
reputation, but he wants to keep him around for entertainment knowing he wouldnt have an
equal if Batman wasnt around. Ledgers Joker also dug into Batmans psyche finding everything
he held close to him and often pitted him against losing one or the other. While Ledgers Joker
didnt have the flare the Nicholsons did, with crazy parades and defacing art galleries, or even
his flashy clothes, he did share his fondness for terrorism. At one point he released torturous
videos of some well-known people in Gotham releasing the videos to the news and attempting to
get Batman to reveal his identity. He would also attack government officials showing that
nobody is off limits to his crimes and revealing his intellectual abilities. In essence Ledgers
Joker was much more focused on turning people against one another and being the face of
mayhem in Gotham. Nicholsons Joker was mostly in it for revenge against what was done to
him and try lash out at the city in what way he thought was best.

~8~

~9~

These are two very solid pictures to show the difference in both attitude and committing
the crimes they did. Heath Ledgers Joker was like an evil psychiatrist. He would always try to
get under peoples skin and make them doubt their choices or force them to make immoral
choices. He enjoyed nothing more than pitting friends against each other and evaluating if he
could break them. He is manipulative to a masterful degree and even ends up ruining the image
of Harvey Dent and turning Batman into a murderer in order to save that. So in the end he
succeeded in ruining Batmans symbol to a lot of Gotham who saw him as someone above
murder and believed him to be someone who wanted to save Gotham. Nicholsons Joker, on the
other hand, was definitely more on the side of crazy. His character wanted nothing more than to
take revenge on his makers and have a great time while doing it. He is fanciful and extravagant
in his actions and always had a grandiose scheme that always involved some form of
showmanship. His character is a little more relatable due to the fact that hes in pain from what
had happened to him and the whole thing seems to turn into a suicide mission knowing he cant
ever reverse his appearance or what hes done. Although his selfish actions of his past may have
warranted what had happened to him its not an absolute. That being said, Ledgers Joker may
have had a tragic backstory that turned him into the demented genius he became and it was never
brought into the spotlight or hadnt been included before Ledgers death. The fact that Ledgers
Joker could have taken off his makeup and just been a normal person with a scar works against
that idea in a way though. He chose to put on the makeup and continue his villainous behavior
and, for the most part, it showed through in his actions that he really did enjoy it. All that being
said, I think its easily agreed upon that theyre both plain crazy and criminals.

~ 10 ~

For this section of the project Im going to be doing a stream-of-consciousness about my

subject. I started off with organized crime and moved into the subject of The Joker at the
suggestion of my teacher, Elizabeth Kent. I decided that it would be a world easier and much
more entertaining than drudging through endless information of people getting together to
commit crimes in the past. This is probably thanks to creative freedom of character writing that
was put into The Joker versus people in real life who just want money. The idea of a lone
criminal who entices people and has a charismatic draw can be hard to come by. Even with all of
his evildoings hes very interesting and has many fans. This is interesting due to the nature of
what he does and how he goes about it. People seem to be drawn to over-the-top characters that
have a lot of personality and mystery behind them regardless of their background. Another
reason I believe the role of The Joker is very interesting is the fact that everyone who goes for
the role ends up with some physical or mental problem from trying to get into the characters
head. While method acting is nothing new Ive never heard of a fictional character messing with
every single actor that has stepped into their role. The Joker is a huge popular culture icon and
one of the most identifiable faces of villains in the history of fiction. In the beginning I felt that
Heath Ledger wouldnt make a good Joker. His hair seemed too long, he looked like he was
wearing a truckload of eye shadow, his mouth seemed nasty, he had a baggy unkempt look to
him, and he changed his voice in an almost comical way that didnt seem to fit. Not much can be
said about that though considering what Christian Bale did to Batmans voice in these remakes.
My first time watching The Dark Knight I was surprisingly pulled in by how the movie started
by rolling straight into an action sequence. A window is busted open in the side of a building and
a heist commences leaving me unsure of what was happening. Once I saw Ledgers character
standing on the corner of the street holding a clown mask in his hand I knew that was The Joker,

~ 11 ~

which I felt spoiled the later surprise. The scene played out with each person having a
specialized job to finish before the one accompanying them took them out. This sequence
repeated itself all the way up until one of them appeared to catch on to the plan, but still fell
victim to The Jokers scheme. This opening already made me change my mind of how I felt
about this version of The Joker. He was ruthless, clever, and barely lifted a finger while stealing
from a bank. I found this version to be much more enjoyable than Jack Nicholsons version who
came across as an awful cartoon that came to life. Many of the people that wrote articles about it
seemed to enjoy his version better, but I believe its mostly due to nostalgia and that they
probably havent gone back and watched it again. It isnt a movie that ages well and Batman also
kills off like twenty people, which is bizarre. Anyway Nicholson seemed to have the face for the
character, and very much has his own crazy attitude without acting, but the design of the
character seemed awkward. He came across as in his thirties when he shot Bruces parents, yet
somehow was still doing footwork for some mob boss so many years later. That isnt all, he also
brought down the Batwing, Batmans flying vehicle, with an elongated pistol. More and more of
the movie I watched I felt that the reason it was so good when I first saw it was because of how
young I was and nothing else. While both movies have scenes that are unbelievable and out of
place I just felt like Batman had so many more. His obsession with Batmans love interest didnt
help. He would show up at random times with a busload of henchmen ready to die for him for no
reason at places like an art gallery and walking down the street with giant floats ready to fill
blocks of the city with some insane fictional gas called Smylex. At many points of the movie I
just wanted to turn it off because of how unbearably aged and odd it was. After all this time
though it left me with fond memories and I believe that it was a good stepping stone for people
stepping into the roll in the future.

~ 12 ~

Survey
After polling the class for who played the part of The Joker better between Heath
Ledger in The Dark Knight or Jack Nicholson in Batman it has been decided that the majority, if
not all, preferred Heath Ledgers version. Its possible that it may be due to Ledgers Joker being
a more serious and dramatic version, while Nicholsons was a cartoonish mob criminal, but the
results speak for themselves. Most of the results have the same notes that Heath Ledger was just
a better actor than Nicholson. He added his own twist to The Joker that played out better and his
character had a subtle humor that still made him very funny without trying too hard. In
Nicholsons version he seemed to go with more of a slapstick comedy approach that didnt age
well along with the rest of the jokes and comedy for that time. Its possible that in the future
Ledgers version may not age well, but after so many years it seems that even more people prefer
him the longer the movie has been out. Another comment that was writing a few times is that
Ledger had the more believable Joker. This can be approached as he was more believable in the
sense that he was much more serious and seemingly more capable of the damage he did. He
came across as much more involved in his crimes rather than use henchmen and worked as The
Joker in the comics would pitting everyone against each other. This made the fact that he was
one man doing all of this more believable and it made it clear that he wanted to create chaos in
the city. Ledgers acting was like a good finish to polished wood. He added so much more
charisma to the character that Nicholson couldnt seem to. Its probable that its because Jack
Nicholson always plays the role of a crazy person in almost everything that hes done. Hes just
crazy and didnt add the depth to the character that was necessary that Ledger did with flying
colors.

~ 13 ~

Annotated Bibliography
Batman. Dir. Tim Burton. Perf. Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson. Warner Bros., 1989. DVD.
Blum, Justin. Jack Nicholson Was A Better Joker Than Heath Ledger. Entertainment,
Jan. 2011. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Gould, Jeff. Joker Who? The Inspiration Behind Each Actors Portrayal.
GeekandSundry. n.p., Jun. 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Marche, Stephen. Why The Joker Is A Career-Changing Role. Esquire. Hearst Communications,
Inc., Dec. 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
McCluskey, Megan. Jared Leto Hopes Heath Ledger Would Have Been Proud of His Joker.
Time. Time, Inc., Dec. 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Nicholson, Jack. Interview by Josh Horowitz. MTV. Viacom International Inc., 2007. Web.
25 Mar. 2016.
ONeil, Dennis. Batman Unauthorized. Dallas: Benbella, 2008. Print.
Phillips, Daniel. Why So Serious?: The Many Looks of Joker. IGN. Ziff Davis, LLC, Dec. 2008.
Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Rouner, Jef. That Awkward Moment When You Realize Heath Ledgers Joker Was the Hero.
HoustonPress. Houston Press, LP., May 2015. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
The Dark Knight. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perf. Christian Bale, Heath Ledger. Warner Bros., 2008
DVD.

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