"Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight is more disconcerting than a cold blood shower with your father. And like Vader and Lecter, the Joker caused a chain reaction of copycats, which has now looped around ouroboros-style to Jared Leto's upcoming portrayal of The Joker in Suicide Squad. The only problem here? Ledger's Joker has become the go-to blueprint for every goddamn villain out there."
— David Christopher Bell, Cracked, "6 Reasons Heath Ledger's Joker Ruined Comic Book Movies"
Just as Batman is one of the most popular superheroes of all time, his Arch-Enemy the Joker is one of the most popular supervillains. And much like how the Batman Parody is an Expy of Batman, the Practically Joker is modeled after the Clown Prince of Crime. A chaotic and unhinged villain with a tendency for slasher smiles and a usually bombastic attitude, the Practically Joker tends to have at least a few of the following traits:
- They're a Monster Clown, usually accompanied with a macabre sense of humor and a Faux Affably Evil act.
- Dress in loud colors, like purple and/or green.
- Are completely Ax-Crazy, to a point where other villains are disturbed by them. May or may not be pure evil.
- They commit evil acts just because they feel like it.
- Believe in a Straw Nihilist philosophy or act as agents of chaos.
- Have a disturbing Mysterious Past, usually a Multiple-Choice Past.
- Try to get under the hero's skin and break or corrupt them in some way.
It's worth noting that the Joker's design was largely inspired by Conrad Veidt's depiction of Gwynplaine, from the 1928 film adaptation of The Man Who Laughs. Unlike the Joker, however, Gwynplaine was a wholly good character who simply looked disturbing because of the Glasgow Grin he suffered from.
For his archnemesis see Batman Parody.
To see what Joker himself has to say on the matter, see here.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The Big O: Alan Gabriel is an enigmatic villain who has a white face, and is a sadistic, strange figure with a penchant for giggling, similar to the Joker.
- Kagetane Hiruko in Black Bullet is a Badass in a Nice Suit with an Evil Laugh sporting a grinning white mask who aspires to create chaos alongside his Cute and Psycho female minion(his daughter here). He's also a Troll who enjoys taunting the hero Rentaro with Not So Different Remarks. He even gets associated with the Joker card motif in one episode. Unlike the Joker he has some small redeeming qualities and does love his daughter.
- Bleach: While he's not Ax-Crazy, Sosuke Aizen is a nihilistic sociopath with a Mysterious Past who believes that morality and empathy are entirely without purpose. His signature color appears to be purple. He enjoys getting under the skin of his enemies with mind games and questioning their resolve. While he usually prefers to stick to the plan, Aizen will never pass up an opportunity to engage in pointless sadism if he feels he can get away with it. After he fuses with the Hogyoku, he becomes damn near unkillable and is one of the only villains to survive the whole series without making a Heel–Face Turn of any sort.
- The Brave Express Might Gaine: Joe Rival is a highly unusual example. Since most of Might Gaine's villains are based on Batman villains, Joe being the most dangerous villain naturally means he's based on the Joker. However, in terms of personality, Joe couldn't be much further from the Joker, being a brooding Noble Demon who eventually transitions into being an Anti-Hero. While their attitudes couldn't be further apart, Joe shares the Joker's playing card motif, taste for purple clothes, and signature mix of black and green hair. And, of course, half of his name.
- Cowboy Bebop: Mad Pierrot, a.k.a. Tongpu, arguably the most dangerous and definitely the most disturbing antagonist in the whole series. He's a deranged serial killer who was originally the subject of some kind of Super-Soldier experiment which ended when it turned out that the process was causing him to mentally regress to the point that, as of the series' present-day, he's basically a psychotic child in the nearly invincible body of a human weapon; he's defeated when his defenses are finally penetrated and he collapses into tears, crying for his mommy. With that in mind, he has a similarly unknown past to the Joker — it's never explained why he was made the way he is, and we only get glimpses at the process, and whoever he was before then is a total mystery — and he has a similar Monster Clown aesthetic, and his name (and the title of his episode, "Pierrot Le Fou") comes from a stock clown character. He spends a fair bit of his screentime, especially while dealing out death and carnage, laughing his head off and the climax even takes place in a theme park that Mr. J himself would be proud to have taken over for just such an occasion. To top it off, the main conflict of the episode is that central character Spike Spiegel just happens to cross paths with him as he's killing someone else and Pierrot decides to kill him, too, just for the hell of it. He was even deliberately modeled on three different Batman villains, most obviously the Joker but also the Penguin (for his appearance) and Bane (for his origins).
- Death Note surprisingly provides an example of this with its Villain Protagonist Light Yagami. While mostly lacking the visual similarities Light like the Joker is a nihilistic, megalomaniacal Serial Killer who has an extremely warped view of right and wrong, breaks out into fits of Evil Laughter and goes ballistic when things don’t go their way. It also helps that Light like the Clown Prince of Crime has his own Loony Fan and Dark Mistress in Misa whom is extremely similar to Harley Quinn right down to the Ignore the Fanservice All Take and No Give toxic relationship — with Light using Misa as means to an end like Joker does with Harley. To top it all off, Light has a powerful Worthy Opponent Foe Romance Subtext with a maladjusted Dark Is Not Evil Great Detective (L) who himself just so happens to have a butler.
- Played With in regards to Belmod Universe 11 God of Destruction from Dragon Ball Super. He looks part the part (being a clown), sounds the part and has a good amount of Joker’s petulance and willingness to kill on the spot. Not mention his Angel attendant Marcarita is reminiscent of Harley. However Belmod is really Creepy Good as while still unpleasant he’s genuinely noble and a strong believer in justice and despises evil.
- Hisoka Morrow from Hunter × Hunter, who shares the Joker's Monster Clown gimmick, obsession with the hero that borders on romantic, and ability to cheat death.
- Fist of the North Star had two of them. Jako was based on The Joker and there was also a green-haired Filler Villain called Joker.
- Joker from Fire Force. In addition to his name, he is an Ax-Crazy murderer with a playing card motif, is a Manipulative Bastard, has a Slasher Smile practically frozen on his face, has a poker motif and is absolutely The Unfettered in his pursuit of his goals. His twist to the usual formula is he's not actually a villain.
- The Major from Hellsing is an Ax-Crazy warmonger whose default expression appears to be a Slasher Smile, generally has a jovial attitude, derives a good deal of pleasure from his murderous actions, and is hinted to have a twisted sense of showmanship with his speeches declaring his undying love of war. He also delights in his Arch-Enemy relationship with Alucard, constantly expressing a desire to be the one to destroy him.
- Lycoris Recoil: Primary antagonist Majima is more subtle than most examples, but the green hair, pointy chin, wide grin and the psychotic attitude strongly point to Joker (specifically, the The Dark Knight version) as an inspiration. The Hawaiian shirt is also reminiscent of The Killing Joke. He's also fond of big, loud publicity stunts not unlike lethal practical jokes, and has a strange sorta-kinda Friendly Enemy relationship with the eccentric genius protagonist Chisato.
- Metroid (Manga): Ridley, The Dragon of the Space Pirates and Recurring Boss in the Metroid series, is given a personality akin to the Joker. He's a sadist who enjoys killing innocents For the Evulz and is the personal Arch-Enemy of Samus Aran, who lost her parents to Ridley at the age of three. Ridley also has a sick sense of humor, taunting Samus of how the cells of her mother are incorporated into his body and doing his best to destroy her psyche before he goes for the kill. And that's not going over the fact that in the overall franchise, Ridley has a lanky purple body with green glowing eyes and is notorious for his Joker Immunity.
- Monster: Johan Liebert, the series' titular character. While lacking the Monster Clown gimmick and being much more emotionally mature than the Clown Prince of Crime, Johan nails every other aspect by being a ruthless psychopath who engages in pointless chaos and destruction For the Evulz, as well as having a Mysterious Multiple-Choice Past, corrupting everyone around him into either commiting suicide or become serial killers like he is, trying to make Dr. Tenma kill him so that he becomes a person just like him, and being overall unapologetic about his murderous actions.
- My Hero Academia: All For One is a Card-Carrying Villain who loves breaking heroes' spirits and ultimately wants to become a Demon King. He especially loves rubbing killing All Might's mentor in his face to further enrage him. You can also say that Shigaraki can be this too, since his character design looks like the Heath Ledger's Joker.
- However, the best example of a Joker expy is Toya Todoroki, better known the notorious villain Dabi of the League of villains. Dabi shares alot in common with many incarnations of the Joker.
- Another example, abit more classic with Redestro Word of God even told that he was based on the clown, but also the Green Goblin from Marvel Comics who's also inspired by the Joker.
- One Piece:
- Buggy the Clown while not nearly as evil as the Joker still has his pantomime Laughably Evil Mad Bomber traits, use of knives and comically short fuse for when things don’t go his way or he’s particularly pissed off. His henchmen having a circus theme with his Number Two being an attractive woman who clubs people is also reminiscent to the Joker. If that wasn’t enough the Hungry Days features Buggy in Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker outfit and signature pose while the live action Netflix show makes Buggy (played by Jeff Ward) heavily akin to Heath Ledger’s Joker albeit more comical.
- Donquixote Doflamingo has a very outlandish appearance, a constant smirk in his face and laughs all the time. Taking it further, his codename in the black market is Joker, his end-goal seeming to be starting a world war and that he never misses a chance to indulge his sadistic impulses.
- Caesar Clown is a sadistic, cackling Mad Scientist who specializes in poisonous gases and Weapons of Mass Destruction, he has pale skin and purple lips like a clown, and he both visually resembles and is named after The Joker's first live-action performer Cesar Romero.
- Buggy the Clown while not nearly as evil as the Joker still has his pantomime Laughably Evil Mad Bomber traits, use of knives and comically short fuse for when things don’t go his way or he’s particularly pissed off. His henchmen having a circus theme with his Number Two being an attractive woman who clubs people is also reminiscent to the Joker. If that wasn’t enough the Hungry Days features
- Parallel Paradise: Galia is a rare female version of this: while not a straight-up clown, she's got a jester aesthetic. Personality-wise, she's genuinely goofy, childish and clumsy on top of being so sadistic and murderous that her cruelty is legendary among the entire cult of cannibalistic witches she belongs to: humiliating others and breaking their spirits is basically what gets her out of bed in the morning, to the degree that she'll forgo a meal for the chance to do so. Besides the fact she's been around for roughly three millennia, we know only the vaguest things about her past.
- Pokémon Horizons: The Series introduces Spinel, a member of a villainous group known as The Explorers who seek to obtain the mysterious pendant belonging to series lead Liko. Spinel himself has green hair, is a textbook case of The Sociopath who uses subterfuge and misdirection to accomplish his goals, condescendingly looks down on his fellow villains, has demonstrated he Would Hurt a Child by using his Beeheeyem to brainwash Liko into thinking she had amnesia, and takes sadistic glee in reveling in his villainous antics.
- The Psycho-Pass villain Shogo Makishima has a signature smile, unnaturally colored hair and skin, has a fascination with a brooding, black-clad hero, and loves spreading chaos because he prefers it over submitting to the Sybil System.
- Record of Ragnarok: Jack the Ripper is a malevolent trickster with a wicked bloodstained grin and a taste for art and murder, and while his own color palette is relatively muted, he still has vibrant colors as part of his characterization, since he can see the colors of people's emotions. He so develops a deep respect and emotional connection to the heroic figure called to fight him, Heracles, and mourns his death as much if not more than the audience watching the battle.
- Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti, or the Archbishop of Sloth, of Re:Zero is an Ax-Crazy Laughably Evil villain with a hammy, nihilistic personality. In addition to his pale skin and green hair, he's also been successful in driving the main hero, Subaru, insane. Put all these qualities together... and you have an Isekai Anime version of The Joker.
- Souta from Tokyo Ghoul. A member of a group of Monster Clown-themed ghouls, Souta looks at the world as a toybox for his own amusement due to his own prematurely shortened lifespan. He laughs and jokes his way from atrocity to atrocity, doing things like feeding Eto her own editor as a bento, showing up to a position he got via Klingon Promotion in novelty sunglasses, and refers to his plans to use Rize as a Baby Factory as being "like 101 Dalmatians."
- Yu-Gi-Oh!
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Yami Marik, the psychotic Split Personality of Marik Ishtar. He's an Ax-Crazy, sadistic, sociopathic Serial Killer who enjoys killing, inflicting pain, and spreading terror which by his own admission is motivated solely For the Evulz. He's Laughing Mad and is dangerously unhinged, but in spite of this still manages to be The Chessmaster and a formidable duelist. He also appears to be an Omnicidal Maniac who would be happy to bring about the end of the world had he been allowed to have his way.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: Vector is no slouch than Yami Marik to a more trollish degree. On top of being an efficient master manipulator and plays mind games with Yuma in the most over-the-top way possible, he is prone to intervals of Laughing Mad. Hell, he's the most dangerous among the Barian Emperors and has made an enemy of his fellow emperors, namely Nasch.
Asian Animation
- The Malaysian Batman Parody cartoon, Keluang Man ("keluang" being the local name for fruit bats) has his own version of Joker, "Badut" the clown, who is the titular hero's primary nemesis.
Comic Books
- The Joker himself has a number of in-universe copycats in The DCU. He likes to use the Joker Venom to turn people into copies of himself complete with maniacal laughter, bleached skin, and green hair.
- Dark Nights: Metal introduces the Dark Knights, evil alternate Bruce Waynes who also take traits with other characters, and represent dark paths Batman could've taken. Their ring-leader is The Batman Who Laughs, the Bruce Wayne of Earth-22 who was corrupted by Joker Venom after killing his version of the Joker. Representing Batman's fear of becoming as bad as the Joker, he has Batman's methodical mind mixed with the Joker's love of chaos. He considers himself Eviler than Thou to the Joker, which the Joker actually agrees with to the point where he was willing to team up with Batman to stop him.
- Teen Titans: Duela Dent, a.k.a. The Joker's Daughter, dresses up as a Distaff Counterpart of the Clown Prince of Crime, and even claims to be his daughter, though eventually it's determined she is the daughter of Two-Face (or rather, a female Two-Face and heroic version of the Joker from a Mirror Universe). Unlike most examples of this trope she's a heroic character... at least until the New 52, where she becomes a psychopathic young woman obsessed with the idea of serving the Joker, even wearing his cut-off face.
- Out of universe, Trickster I (James Jesse) from The Flash is seen as the Lighter and Softer version of the Joker, having a circus theme with all kind of toys and clown stuff used as weapons and being on the wrong side of the law. However, in-universe, they couldn't be more different; he's calm and focused, is a very moral anti-villain and Nominal Hero who abhors senseless killing, and the craziness of his persona is only seen in their robberies and acts against Flashes rather than with the Rogues. While he's sometimes depicted as having mental issues, they're portrayed sympathetically and what they are exactly is Depending on the Writer. The 'Joker stand-in' idea of him seems to mostly be inspired by The Flash (1990), which acted as a version of him, as he was played by future-Joker voice actor Mark Hamill. His successor (Axel Walker, known as Trickster II), however, is more Ax-Crazy and became more of a Circus Brat, being closer than his predecessor to the Joker.
- As much as Trickster is often used as one, fellow rogue Abra Kadabra is even more this, especially after Mark Waid turned him into Wally West's nemesis. He's a narcissist obsessed with the spotlight, a showman who treats all his crimes as a performance that demands people pay attention, a Psychopathic Manchild who can't stand things not going his way, and a sadist who revels in high body counts. He's obsessed with ruining Wally West's life, but rather than simply kill him, he wants to make him suffer and leave his mark as the greatest enemy of the Flash. He's essentially what would happen if Emperor Joker never got depowered, but merely had a much more limited scope of his powers.
- The story "Panic at the Midnight Rodeo" from the Dog Days of Summer Special introduced Bat-Cow's archenemy, an untameable, green-tinted, and lipsticked rodeo steer named Laffa-Bull who tramples, gores, and otherwise maims people For the Evulz.
- In Batman/Superman (2013), the arc "Superman's Joker" revolves around one of Superman's rogues turning into an Ax-Crazy For the Evulz antagonist who functions as his equivalent to the Joker. It turns out to be Xa-Du.
- In New Super-Man, Alpaca, a.k.a. Wang Jiali, acts as the Joker analogue to the Chinese Bat-Man (Wang Baixi), causing mayhem and acting as his archenemy due to not being chosen to be his "Robin".
- Circe, one of Wonder Woman's most reoccurring and powerful foes, has been depicted this way since the 90s. She is an Evil Counterpart to the main heroine as both are superpowered women of divine origin but while Diana wants to help and protect humanity, Circe is a petty misanthrope who wants to corrupt and destroy it. Circe has even sometimes been depicted with purple hair and green clothing, a visual inversion of the Joker's iconic look and is often written as snarky and jovial with an obvious malicious streak. She has also shown a penchant for striking at Diana through her loved ones, as when she brainwashed Vanessa Kapatelis into becoming the new Silver Swan.
- Some of Batman's international allies have their own Joker counterparts. The Knight from Britain has Jarvis Poker, the British Joker, who is more of a prankster than a murderer, and Night Runner has The Man Who Laughs, a dadaist lunatic.
- Batman Incorporated 2022 introduces Joker Incorporated with international Joker counterparts from each country with a Batman Inc member. Aside from the original, the only pre-existing character is Alpaca, the others being Dai Laffyn for the Knight, Dusty Bronco the rodeo clown for Chief Man-of-Bats and Raven Red, Corvus Cawl for Dark Ranger, Charles de Ghoul for Night Runner, and Tap Dance Man for the Guacho. It's not revealed what happened to The Man Who Laughs; Jarvis Poker had already been permenantly rejected by the Joker in the pages of Knight and Squire.
- The one-shot Tales from Earth-6: A Celebration of Stan Lee features the Batman of the Just Imagine continuity confronting a Serial Killer with a preference for strangulation called the Choker, who happens to have green hair, pale skin and purple clothing like the Joker. At one point, he even brings up that his given name is Jack, a nod to the Joker's real name being Jack Napier in Batman (1989).
- Hack/Slash has April Fool in the "Interdimensional Women's Prison Breakout" arc, a female mass murderer from another universe who dresses like a sexy clown and tries to make all her crimes sadistically funny, and appears to hate having any one outfit on for more than a few hours due to being a Mood-Swinger. Cassie, not having Batman's inhibitions about killing people, hangs her immediately after finding her.
- Marvel Comics:
- The Clone Saga had the Jackal, whom the writers didn't even try to hide◊ was a blatant Joker expy.
- Black Panther: Reverend Achebe is a clear attempt to create a Joker for T'Challa's Batman. An Ax-Crazy villain who sold his soul to Mephisto, he engineers complex plots of civil unrest for his own amusement, and always sports a Slasher Smile. While broad strokes are known, like the Joker, his true origin is left unclear.
- Daredevil: Bullseye is often seen as Marvel's answer to the Joker. While not a Monster Clown, he shares the Clown Prince of Crime's Multiple-Choice Past, is a completely insane lunatic and Card-Carrying Villain who kills more for the thrill than anything, enrages the Daredevil unlike any other enemy of his, and is Crazy-Prepared. His MAX counterpart takes this even further, enhancing his Faux Affably Evil traits, utter insanity, and loving every minute of it.
- Daredevil's rogues gallery also has a more blatantly obvious copy of the Joker, the Jester. How effective is he? Well, Daredevil villains tend to be either The Dreaded or total losers; Bullseye is the former, the Jester is very much the latter.
- Carnage, introduced as an even more Evil Counterpart to Venom, was inspired by the Joker. While lacking the Monster Clown guise, he shares the Harlequin of Hate's absolute love of murder, being completely Ax-Crazy and unstable even compared to Spider-Man's other rogues, and acts as an agent of chaos who finds morality and the civilized world to be a lie. When he met the Joker in a crossover they initially got along, before having a falling out over style and artistry in murder.
- Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin is an interesting case, as his civilian identity — a psychopathic genius industrialist and Corrupt Corporate Executive with a grudge against a particular superhero — is more of an Alternate Company Equivalent to Superman's Lex Luthor. As the Green Goblin, however, he is an Ax-Crazy wisecracking Mad Bomber with a green and purple color scheme and Evil Laugh. Even out of costume, Norman is willing to kill his subordinates' loved ones and families in horrific, twisted ways, while also bearing a deep, burning obsession with Spider-Man — desiring to torment him and his own loved ones as much as possible just For the Evulz. He even routinely abuses his son Harry, who he even tried to get killed to boost his popularity ratings out of sympathy. In Heroes Reborn (2021), he specifically takes the role of Joker in the pseudo-DC version of the Marvel Universe. Unsurprisingly the majority of official Marvel/DC crossover art has the Joker and Goblin squaring (and grinning) off at each other, just see the Supervillain page picture.
- Whiteface in Supreme Power: Nighthawk. He's an extremely unemotional and quiet serial killer, who shows no signs of having a sense of humour, even a bad or warped one, but he does wear clown makeup, and he does develop a fixation with being the "opposite side" of a Captain Ersatz Batman. Nighthawk, however, has no interest in having an archenemy and lacks his counterpart's Thou Shall Not Kill principles, so he just shoots Whiteface with his grappling-hook gun and — for added cross-universe irony — dumps the body in toxic waste.
- The fifth Jack O'Lantern, arch enemy of Agent Venom. A criminal with a sadistic sense of humor who gets a kick out of trolling his archenemy, who has a disfigured face, and who survived a fall into a vat of toxic chemicals.
- Originally Spidey's, but later and mainly a Rogues' Gallery Transplant to the X-Men, Arcade. A No Name Given Evil Genius, a Laughably Evil Sharp-Dressed Man — usually all in white — whose Complexity Addiction and love of the Death Trap leads to the ultimate Amusement Park of Doom. Bonus points for his co-dependent relationship (for a time) with White Rabbit, an also-non-powered villainess who is even crazier than he is.
- One of the more ill-fitting examples that was retrofitted to an existing villain — for a brief period in the 1990s, when imitating The Dark Knight Returns was in vogue, authors John Byrne and Len Kaminski gave this treatment to the Living Laser in Iron Man. The Laser had had a memorable turn in the early 80's as a sort of Bond villain for hire, and a follow-up appearance where Iron Man's defeat of him there drove him to mad vengeance. When the Laser next turned up under Byrne, he was a cackling madman who insisted that he was the only one allowed to kill Iron Man, with his combination of madness and lethality emphasized. He was less the calculating and traitorous mastermind that he had been before, and more like the Joker with enough power to threaten Iron Man.
- The Clone Saga had the Jackal, whom the writers didn't even try to hide
- Nemesis has its titular character, who answers the question of "what if Batman was the Joker?" A rich playboy decked in white, who constantly outwits law enforcement and does various horrible things and mind-games For the Evulz. Like the Joker, his true identity is a mystery as he lies about his backstory, merely stating that he's "rich and bored".
- The premise of Oxymoron was deliberately done as "what if there was a Joker, but no Batman?". The original appearance of the character in The Red Ten presents Oxymoron as the archenemy of Batman expy Red, but she plays no part whatsoever in this Origins Issue. The titular Oxymoron is a psychopathic killer with a rictus grin, his costume a white ski-mask and a white suit and red tie. His goal is to kill all Hypocrites and contradictions everywhere, but with the various logical hurdles he goes to to accuse his victims of such, it is very likely this is just an excuse to murder indiscriminately. Like various incarnations of the Joker, he also winds up inspiring a legion of copy-cats.
- Promethea has the Painted Doll, a mass-murdering "omnipath" who is hero-worshipped by in-universe edgelords and dresses like a Pierrot. He has Joker Immunity, which is finally explained by the revelation that he is a series of robots created by a secretly-villainous Gadgeteer Genius hero, a new one being activated whenever one is destroyed. Close to the end of the comic, all the existing robots are simultaneously activated - they proceed to destroy one another until only one is left, who announced his intention to go straight.
- Clown, later known as the Violator, in Spawn, an Ax-Crazy demon whose human guise is an obese Monster Clown.
- Stormwatch PHD introduces Serial Killer Pagliacci as a clear Joker expy, a clownish thrill-killer with next to no information about him. Unlike the Joker, he's obsessed with drama and tragedy rather than dark comedy, befitting his namesake.
- Wanted: With his fitting Slasher Smile, psychopathic tendencies, and Black Comedy, series antagonist Mr Rictus is an obvious send-up of the Clown Prince of Crime.
- Watchmen:
- Played with Edward Blake, a.k.a. the Comedian from the original Watchmen mini-series. While mainly an Expy of Peacemaker and a twisted version of Captain America, he takes clear inspiration from the Joker due to his psychotic and amoral personality, associations with smiles, and dark sense of humor believing the world is a joke. His alias is similar to that of "Joker". His Straw Nihilist views would be popularized as a characterization of the Joker a few years later, by the same author. That said, his humorist/jokester aesthetic is very clearly less circus clown and more Groucho Marx, sporting a thick mustache and chomping a cigar.
- Doomsday Clock: Marcos Maez a.k.a. Mime, along with being an Expy of Punch, takes clear inspiration from the Joker. He's a theatrical, sadistic murderer, with a Psychotic Smirk and facepaint, though is an Enemy Mime rather than a Monster Clown. His relationship with Erika Manson/Marionette is reminiscent of the Joker and Harley Quinn, though without the Domestic Abuse since they truly care for one another. The two even get recruited by the man himself, although he initially doesn't appreciate them stealing his act with their makeup.
- Supreme gives us Jack-a-Dandy. His nemesis is Batman expy Professor Night, and he shares Joker's green and purple color scheme. While equally crazy, he's not interested in laughs, but rather style: he's foppish and effeminate, and makes sure his Death Traps are beautifully-decorated. He's nevertheless shown to have killed people on a whim.
- In Wrong Earth, both versions of Number One are clear expies of the Joker, with the Earth-Alpha version being based on Cesar Romero's portrayal and the Earth-Omega version being based on the more modern Joker.
- In Astro City, Mister Drama was one of these. A failed actor who turned to crime, he adopted a fancy suit and stylized mask and served as a persistent enemy to the original Jack-in-the-Box. He even had a facial deformity, though this came late in his career, after a mishap with poisonous chemicals gave him cancer.
- Interestingly, the very first comic book character to be an Expy of the Joker is an aversion of this trope. Poker-Face, from the Golden Age comic Black Jack, is based on the Golden Age Joker; he's themed around playing cards, leaves a calling card related to that theme (in Poker-Face's case a poker chip), both of them have unique facial deformities and their preferred method of killing causes their victims to adopt those same deformities in rigor mortis.
- Nimble Jack from Colder is a monstrous, cruel entity from the "Hungry World" that is understandably obsessed with insanity, given that he feeds off people's mental anguish; to improve the "flavor" of their madness, or just for his own amusement, he torments and mutilates his human victims with a big, broad grin always on his face, taking special pride in Declan Thomas, who he's been saving for a special occasion and wants to savor. Juan Ferrerya's art◊ of Jack looks intensely Joker-like at times, especially when compared with his own interpretation of the Joker that he would later paint◊.
- Minor Threats has the Stickman, a murderer with a perpetual Slasher Smile who kicks off the events of the series when he murders Kid Dusk, the local Robin expy. Much like the Joker, he is The Dreaded, to the point that even other supervillains don't want to work with him, and after his murdering Kid Dusk brings down the wrath of every superhero in the city, all the lower-level supervillains decide to team up to kill him.
- The Transformers (IDW):
- Pharma was per Word of God inspired by Mark Hamill's Joker. While he's a doctor, rather than a clown, his over-the-top cruelty and warped sense of humour in late season 1 are a perfect match for the Clown Prince of Crime, and his worrying obsession with Ratchet is so intense it actually manages to temporarily overpower the consciousness of one of Cybertron's gods.
- Overlord is the Joker by way of a particularly depraved Roman emperor. He loves not just killing, but killing sadistically, to the point where his "liberation" of a prison turned it into a hellscape of gladiatorial deathmatches where anyone who won enough matches had to either kill themselves or fight him (he's a Phase Sixer, the latter is just the former with more steps); furthering the comparisons to the Joker, he did this purely in the hope of getting the attention of someone he was obsessed with (in this case Megatron, rather than Batman). Then, when the Wreckers show up, he laughs at Rotorstorm's ill-advised "Wreckers...combine!" joke, then casually murders him. He's so obsessed with Megatron that when he believes Megatron is dead, he loses the will to fight and collapses, only to return to his rampages when Chromedome lets slip that Megatron is still alive after all.
- Big Bang Comics gave their Batman Parody the Knight Watchman two enemies based off of the Joker who each shared elements from another Batman villain, one being Mr. Mask (a fusion of Clayface and the Joker who is able to mold his body into any form to disguise himself and happens to have pale skin and green hair in his default form as well as an origin that involves being transformed into his current state by exposure to chemicals) and the other being the Knight Watchman's nemesis the Pink Flamingo (a mash-up of the Joker and the Penguin who has a manic grin and frequently carries around a flamingo-shaped cane).
- Rat-Man (1989): As befitting for the main character being a parody of Tim Burton's Batman, the main villain of the first issue, The Buffoon, is a parody of the Joker, being an Ax-Crazy Monster Clown with a Mysterious Past shared with Rat-Man, though they don't recognize each other in their first encounter, that commits evil just for kicks, to the point of kidnapping an orphan... But also being so stupid to demand a ransom from the parents.
- Lew Stringer's Batman parody Brickman has two villains calling themselves "The Poker", one of whom being the title character's father. Both of them making poking people their criminal MO's, but still retain some of the Joker's clown-like traits, including a large grin and a loud tuxedo.
- In Fleetway's Birdman and Chicken, one of their most prominent foes is The Giggler, who dresses like a clown and once used knock-out gas in a caper (though he has a top hat with a "G" card that makes him also resemble The Mad Hatter). The character became even more Joker-like in the 2020 Cor!!Buster Easter Special, where his real name is revealed to be "Jack Napkin" and he gains a female sidekick called Jess Terr.
Fan Works
- In Amy The Joker, Amy Rose goes crazy when Sonic, her great crush, marries Sally Acorn, becoming the King and Queen of Mobius. She becomes the Joker (Heath Ledger's interpretation), murders Mammoth Mogul, taking her place as Queen of Crime, and hatches a plan to murder Sonic and Sally.
- DNMC features Rabca Tiburon, an utterly deranged Serial Killer who believes that his reason for being is to act as a wholesale killer of humans and who apparently regards Nara as his sister. Combine that with his Glasgow Grin, and he clearly takes cues from Heath Ledger's interpretation of the Joker.
Films — Animation
- Bomb Voyage from the prologue sequence of The Incredibles has some shades of this: while his aesthetic leans more on "mime" than "clown", he does have the white makeup that some versions of the Joker use and likes blowing things up.
- Kung Fu Panda 2 has Lord Shen. His Ax-Crazy behavior, Mood-Swinger tendencies, Hammy tendencies, taste for violence, and the fact that he is a villain with a rather sober humor (despite being Laughably Evil) makes him a noticeable parallel to Heath Ledger's Joker (ironically enough, his voice actor has portrayed Commissioner Gordon, one of the Joker's antagonists).
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish has Big Jack Horner, a purple coat-wearing maniac who shows absolutely no regard for the lives of other people, including his own henchmen, and tends to laugh while doing it.
- Steven Universe: The Movie has Spinel, a court jester driven mad by a traumatic event that turned her into an exuberant maniac of a Monster Clown trying to get revenge by committing mass murder with a deadly poison.
Films — Live-Action
- Some DC Extended Universe villains were criticised (and sometimes praised) for acting more like the Joker than their comic counterparts;
- Jesse Eisenberg's eccentric portrayal of Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came off a lot like Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight. He has the stringy hair, disheveled appearance, Ax-Crazy demeanor, and he’s an expert strategist with a nihilistic worldview. As this Cracked article put it:
Here's a fucking question: What is up with Lex Luthor in Batman V Superman? Why is the iconic, cool-headed businessman transformed into a shaky-voiced lunatic peeing in jars while ranting about the paradoxical nature of man? In the end, his slap-shit babble plan is to make Superman and Batman fight while also releasing an uncontrollable ogre on the city for the fuck of it. That is objectively not the character of Lex Luthor; it's a level of nonsense quite conveniently close to The Joker.
- Ewan McGregor's portrayal of Black Mask in Birds of Prey (2020) made a lot of fans think he would make a good Joker. He’s portrayed here as a flamboyant, swaggering mobster whose jocular and disarming nature contrasts with his sheer ruthlessness and sadism, and he has a specific bone to pick with Harley Quinn.
- Both of them pale compared to Harley herself, however. She's a criminal prone to committing acts of extreme violence, constantly smiling as she very brutally mows down enemies with gleeful joy and doing it mainly for the sake of it, engaging in madcap antics, and as the cherry on top, is actually considered much more dangerous than even the Joker. Yeah. Harley Quinn definitely fits the bill as the DCEU's own version of the Clown Prince of Crime, ironically even more so than the real deal played by Jared Leto (even if the latter eventually got a scene facing Batman in Zack Snyder's Justice League that very much plays by the two characters/archenemies' usual dynamic).
- Jesse Eisenberg's eccentric portrayal of Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came off a lot like Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight. He has the stringy hair, disheveled appearance, Ax-Crazy demeanor, and he’s an expert strategist with a nihilistic worldview. As this Cracked article
- Batman Film Series
- In Batman Returns, Oswald Cobblepot, as part of his Composite Character status, takes on several traits that come more from the Joker than the Penguin of the comics. His gang has a Circus of Fear and Monster Clown motif. He has physical deformities including pale skin. He's a Laughably Evil Faux Affably Evil Ax-Crazy Large Ham with a hefty dose of Psychopathic Manchild. He concocts a plan, mostly For the Evulz, so monstrous that even some of his henchmen are disturbed by it. He has a Mysterious Past where it's unclear what exactly happened between his parents abandoning him and where he is today, with only a few hints given about it. Finally, he sees Batman and himself as two sides of the same coin, both "freaks", with the only difference being that Batman has to wear a mask, while Penguin's freakishness is authentic.
- Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face in Batman Forever was notably remarked on by several critics as bearing more resemblance to the Joker than his traditional comic counterpart. He's depicted as a hammy, Axe-Crazy villain prone to laughing and fits of rage that combined with the often purple and red color motifs associated with him and the disfigured portion of his face having a permanent grin, made the similarities impossible to ignore.
- After killing two Wall Street executives in self-defense and one For the Evulz, the titular character of Joker (2019) inspires a movement of imitators who mistake his actions as the start of an anti-establishment revolution.
- Skyfall: The Big Bad, Raoul Silva, was confirmed to be inspired by the Joker, with bleached hair, an unnerving grin that's entirely false, and a love of spreading chaos.
- Willem Dafoe as Green Goblin in Spider-Man all the way (fitting considering even Sam Hamm the screen writer of Batman (1989) thought Dafoe was a perfect choice to play the Joker back then). Much like the Clown Prince of Crime, the Raimi version of Norman Osborn is an absolute agent of chaos in his Goblin persona and torments the hero and attacks his loved ones, not out of any perceived vendetta or benefit like the comics, but simply For the Evulz. Played even straighter in Spider-Man: No Way Home where Goblin gets the purple and green colour scheme, manipulates other rogues into giving into chaos and murders Aunt May in front of Peter and just like Joker tries to goad the superhero into going over the edge by killing him. Like with Mister J, Dafoe’s Goblin stands out even compared to the other villains (who usually have at least some humanising traits) as there’s no hope of trying to reason with him and punching him only makes him cackle with laughter.
- Simon Phoenix from Demolition Man is similar to the Joker in many ways. He's a sociopathic madman who enjoys committing wanton act of violence and mayhem for nothing more than his own sick amusement while at the same of time putting on a jovial and charming demeanor as well as cracking jokes whilst carrying out horrific acts of violence. And to add more evidence to this, he also has quite the Evil Laugh as well.
- The Giganotosaurus from Jurassic World Dominion was based on Heath Ledger's Joker in personality; according to Word of God it "wants to watch the world burn".
- Slasher Movie antagonists who can speak often display characteristics relating to the Clown Prince of Crime:
- Freddy Krueger cracks jokes at the expense of his victims and has Joker Immunity on his side.
- Chucky is a Giggling Villain who takes delight in the mayhem he inflicts. He has a disturbing sense of humor and often pretends to be a benevolent doll to manipulate his targets. He also spouts nihilistic statements such as claiming that there was no god. He even has his own Harley Quinn in the form of Tiffany Valentine.
- In the Scream films, Ghostface has more than once turned out to be like this once they're unmasked.
- Scream (1996): While the lead killer Billy Loomis is motivated by hatred of Sidney and her family, his partner-in-crime Stu Macher is doing it For the Evulz, having jumped at the chance to become a real-life slasher killer. After The Reveal, he's practically Laughing Mad.
- Scream 2: The killers in the original script were an Outlaw Couple seeking Fame Through Infamy and a chance to spread their nihilistic philosophy to the world. In the final film, one of the killers, Mickey Altieri, retains elements of this, with a plan to become famous through a highly sensationalized murder trial.
- Scream 4: Jill Roberts is easily the most extreme instance of these amongst the Ghostface killers, being absolutely batshit insane, hammy to the extreme, and motivated in achieving Fame Through Infamy via a killing spree, not unlike the Joker's usual motivation for watching the world burn for his amusement.
- Scream (2022): Not only do both of the killers fit this, the fact that they are a male-and-female duo adds a Joker/Harley dynamic as well. Richie Kirsch maintains his jovial demeanor even after he's revealed to be Ghostface, treating serial killing like a fun children's game, but it's his accomplice Amber Freeman who turns absolutely unhinged, acting like a Distaff Counterpart to Stu from the first film.
- J.D. from Heathers is pretty much what the Dark Knight Joker would have been like as a teenager (even though he predates that specific version of the character). He's an Axe-Crazy Straw Nihilist who explicitly loves "chaos", blowing things up, and causing death and destruction.
- Stitches from Sky High (2005) shares the clown/jester theme, giggling, maniacal personality with Joker. However, since he's merely the henchman to Royal Pain rather than the main villain, he could be called Practically Harley Quinn instead.
Literature
- Being a satire of sexism in superhero comics in which all the characters are a very recognizable Cast of Expies, Catherynne M. Valente's The Refrigerator Monologues inevitably includes a Joker-equivalent, Mr. Punch, a serial killer who mutilated himself to look like a marionette, frequently gets sent to a mental hospital, has an obsession with dark vigilante "Grimdark", and has a hero-worshiping, equally-deranged girlfriend who he murders.
- Gary Gwynplaine from The Golden House, who was born with pale white skin and green hair, and wears a purple suit. He's called "Joker" through most of the novel, and is an extended Take That! against Donald Trump.
- Pagliacci is a villain in various books of The Dire Saga, a monstrous clown who seemed to exist entirely to cause pain to others with his excuse being that he wanted to share the joy of tragedy.
- It: The eponymous monster known as "It" disguises itself as a clown named Pennywise the Dancing Clown to lure children into its clutches. Aside from it originating in the Macroverse, It has the mysterious past and a sheer love of terrorizing its victims comparing it to salting the meat. When it encounters the Losers Club, It tries to drive them to insanity before killing them.
- Also from Stephen King, the titular killer in Mr. Mercedes: an extreme nihilist who likes to break his victims by talking, who constantly flits between murderous plans because he changes them on a whim, and who killed eight people (and injured dozens more) by driving a car into them while wearing a clown mask. The media apparently even called him "the Joker" (though he mentions he prefers "the Mercedes Killer").
- Jack Slash in Worm. His Psycho Knife Nut tendencies, extreme nihilism, conflict For the Evulz, and tendency toward Break Them by Talking as a Manipulative Bastard paint him as a take on The Dark Knight version of Joker. He's even established to have an in-universe form of Joker Immunity, specifically a secondary Master power which subtly prevents other parahumans from killing him.
Live-Action TV
- The Amazing Extraordinary Friends has the Comedian: a wise-cracking criminal who uses weapons based on practical jokes, and is completely ruthless (and murderous when he wants to be).
- The Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode "The Tale of the Ghastly Grinner" revolved around a comic book villain called the Ghastly Grinner coming to life and wreaking havoc in the real world. The Ghastly Grinner was most likely inspired by the Joker because he was a villainous jester with a manic grin and even had a habit of leaving his victims with frightening rictuses of their own.
- Arrowverse:
- Being different than his comic book counterpart, the Trickster from The Flash is closer to the Joker in the series, having a sense of chaos and even been as campy as any of Batman's Rogues Gallery from the old '60s series. He's portrayed by Mark Hamill, who voiced the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. He ends up reprising the role of the Trickster in the 2014 series, again portraying him closer to the Joker than his namesake. His Earth-3 counterpart, also portrayed by Hamill, has an even stronger resemblance to the Joker aside from the usual psychotic tendencies by having abnormally colored hair (albeit purple rather than green) and wearing makeup.
- Arrow:
- Cecil Adams/The Count was stated by his actor to have his performance based off the Joker. That is, he's a complete psycho who gets off from the suffering of others.
- Lonnie Machin/Anarky is a Bomb Throwing Anarchist who giggles with glee as he spreads chaos and terror across the city. He's also a Combat Sadomasochist who enjoyed being burned alive and thinks of it as being reborn.
- Prometheus takes a lot of cues from the Joker, being the psychotic Arch-Enemy and Evil Counterpart of The Hero who is a Batman analogue. He is deeply obsessed with ruining the hero's life, being completely devoid of humanity and dedicates his entire life to his cause, and the hero had a hand in creating them to begin with. This becomes even more apparent in Season Six where he returns as a Vertigo induced hallucination to haunt Oliver, very much like Joker did to Batman in Batman: Arkham Knight, establishing himself as the one enemy Oliver can never be truly rid of.
- In Batwoman, the Joker himself is believed to be long dead, but season 3 introduces a would-be successor, Marquis Jet, who became a sociopath after the Joker pressed his joy buzzer to Marquis' head during a hostage situation. While Marquis shares the original's penchant for murder and brightly-colored suits and hair, he is noticeably more calculating; rather than simply going on a murder spree, he uses his status as the heir to a major corporation to systematically destroy Batwoman's life and reputation.
- Frank Gorshin's portrayal of The Riddler in Batman (1966) is an inversion of this trope — various comic book writers have noted that when Batman was retooled circa 1970, the Joker was retooled based on Gorshin's Riddler. The constant swings from manic giggling to homicidal seriousness are all Gorshin's Riddler rather than Cesar Romero's more prankish and kooky Joker. Basically, the Joker as we know him is Practically Riddler.
- Dollhouse has Alpha, an Ax-Crazy Laughably Evil Serial Killer who makes it his business to get under Echo's skin and try to turn her into someone like him. Fittingly enough, the actor who portrayed him, Alan Tudyk, would later go on to voice the Joker himself in Harley Quinn (2019).
- The John Simm incarnation of the Master from Doctor Who. He's Ax-Crazy, Faux Affably Evil, is always cracking jokes, frequently breaks out his Evil Laugh, became evil after "one bad day" (when he stared into the Untempered Schism), always wears a suit, has a romantic partner who, while not as dangerous as him, fully supports his villainy (at first), is completely unfettered, and always does horrible things for amusement and the evulz. In one scene, he even kills a room full of people with gas!
- Game of Thrones: The show portrayal of Ramsay Bolton has been compared to The Joker: he has the Faux Affably Evil act at first, then reveals it's all a sick game on Theon's expense. After he reveals himself as Theon's torturer, he continues his psychopathic scheme to utterly break him. Sometimes he's Laughably Evil, other times he gets deadpan and serious, and above all loves to torture, kill and break people For the Evulz. His book version has more of a Multiple-Choice Past with his former servant Reek, where it's not clear who corrupted (and "created") whom.
- Gotham:
- Before the series introduced the real Joker, Jerome Valeska served as the proto-Joker. A very deliberate example in this case due to the show being done by a DC-sanctioned take on Batman, so the writers were constrained by Warner Brothers' insistence that the Joker be used specifically in their DCU films. So Jerome ends up being the Joker in all but name, having his characterization derived from several different versions of the Joker and being explicitly said to be a tribute to the Clown Prince of Crime. Though originally created as a one-off possible identity of the Jokernote . However, Monaghan's performance proved so popular that Jerome was promoted to this, becoming essentially the show's take on the Joker for the first four seasons and taking on many of the iconic Joker traits. Fittingly, he was responsible for giving rise to the real Joker of Gotham.
- Jerome's cultists, possibly modeled on the Jokerz from the comics, also qualify. After Jerome's first outing as a terrorist, a cult develops around him that he and later, his twin brother, use in their various schemes. They all wear clown-inspired clothing and makeup, and buy into Jerome's philosophy towards life, which seems to be that there's no such thing as loyalty and goodness, anyway, so you might as well betray, kill or blow up anyone you want, and have a good time doing it. Their attitude towards betrayal comes back to bite them hard when they decide to turn on the show's real Joker after one of his schemes doesn't work, and the Joker proceeds to burn them alive for their betrayal.
Joker/Jeremiah: I want you all to know, I find your fickleness quite hurtful. And more so, very predictable. [quickly backs out of the room, locks the door on them, and turns on the incinerator that he just happened to have built into the room they were standing in]
- Goosebumps had a Canon Foreigner villain in its multi-part episode "Chillogy" named Karl Knave: a monstrous, malicious prankster in a bad purple suit who kills children by playing lethal games with them to amuse himself, all the while putting up a Faux Affably Evil act. Even his name is an implicit reference to The Joker. Many times, The Joker has taken identities related to clowns, jesters and such, including such obscure references as Eric Border. A Knave is an old word for a Fool — or, alternatively... a clown.
- Kilgrave from Jessica Jones (2015) has shades of this. He's unbalanced, manipulative and childish; he has an obsession with a gloomy, psychologically damaged hero(ine) ; he's abusive to the women in his life; he wears a purple suit; and he has a habit of telling people to "smile".
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider Wizard: Sora wears mismatched clothes, acts eerily friendly to everyone, and smiles and giggles almost all of the time, but underneath all that is a deranged psychopath and Serial Killer of women.
- Kamen Rider Gaim: Redyue is a rare female case of this trope. In her own words, the only reason for her evil actions are to break and corrupt others. Under her false kindness, Redyue's green body host hides a seriously messed up mind.
- Kamen Rider Build: Blood Stalk is a flamboyant and disconcertingly jovial criminal mastermind who manipulates almost everyone towards his goals, acts friendly towards Sento and company even as he's tormenting them for fun, and ultimately seeks to kill almost everyone (and he's really pumped about it too). As a bonus, his Black Hole form turns him a ghastly white and gives him a helmet engraved with a permanent Slasher Smile.
- Kamen Rider Saber: Isaac/Master Logos is an Ax-Crazy master manipulator who has a creepy smile in almost all of his appearances, really enjoys laughing at and taunting his foes, and has the truly psychotic end goal of remaking the world into one where all human beings suffer for his amusement.
- Moriarty from Sherlock is an Ax-Crazy Faux Affably Evil Psychopathic Manchild hammy Mood-Swinger Giggling Villain who commits crimes to alleviate his boredom with life. His feelings towards Sherlock are a twisted combination of infatuation and a desire to break him, much like Mr. J's feelings towards Batman.
Music
- In rapper Da Baby's video for his song "Lonely", the rapper is shown dressed in a bright Joker-esque outfit, complete with makeup inspired directly by the 2019 film version of the character, being arrested after a shooting spree and then taking over the mental hospital he's sent to.
- Eminem's Concept Album Relapse contains a photoshoot in the booklet of Slim Shady - who on the album is a Serial Killer accompanied by evil-circus production - dressed like Heath Ledger's Joker. The album itself makes frequent allusions between Eminem and the real Heath Ledger, as "actors" who got supposedly Lost in Character as monstrous characters and overdosed on pills as a result.
Professional Wrestling
- During Sting's "Insane Icon" gimmick around 2011, he would dress and act like the Joker from The Dark Knight. He was even nicknamed "Joker Sting".
Tabletop Games
- Mutants & Masterminds:
- The Conqueror Worm in the Freedom City setting has his weird conviction that he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist punishing "sinners", but is basically an Ax-Crazy lunatic who kills people for no real reason except he can. His belief that he and the Raven aren't so different means that even after his death, he's still one of the few villains who gets under Duncan Summers's skin. He even had a Harley counterpart named Ligeia.
- Blood Wing in Halt Evil Doer!. The greatest enemy of the first Black Wing, he was a scarred psychotic who is believed to have killed thousands of people, and his obsession with Black Wing stems from a horrific example of Create Your Own Villain (he was the murderer of Black Wing's family, and Black Wing left him tied up in a burning house. He later appeared claiming to have done a deal with Satan for revenge). Like Conqueror Worm, he's officially dead (killed by the Psychotic Seven, possibly as a Thanatos Gambit), but he's a Legacy Character: between his online Manifesto of Blood and his possibly having survived as a walk-in spirit, there's always someone twisted enough to put on the Blood Wing costume. (In a way, this is the ultimate Multiple-Choice Past — any given Blood Wing might have a different past because he's a different person, but once someone's become Blood Wing, it doesn't really matter who they were before.)
- The fan-setting A World Less Magical/The World in the Aftermath has Jack, an villain who has his origin during Darkwing's equivalent of "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate", when a tall mob boss, his sadistic, facially-scarred lieutanant, and a gaunt genius chemist who was their inside man at the plant went through a portal to a hell dimension, and someone came back who was tall, gaunt and had facial scars. His Three Beings, One Body nature means that Jack has an extemely chaotic MO: sometimes he's a ruthless gangster, sometimes he's a gun-for-hire with a grudge against Darkwing, sometimes he's a chemically brilliant Mad Scientist. And sometimes he's a ritualistic serial killer, which doesn't fit any of the known personalities. Also, the three criminals who formed him are all named after creators who helped define the Joker: O'Neill, Azarello, and Moore.
Theater
- The Joker is notably absent from Holy Musical B@man! with Sweet Tooth from The New Adventures of Batman stepping into the role.
Video Games
- Ace Attorney
- Florent L'Belle in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies wears a purple suit, is covered with pale makeup, carries a squirt flower, goes through a line of hair dyes that ends with green, and is a flamboyant criminal willing to blackmail and murder people to seize a gold ingot, just for the sake of alleviating his own financial problems.
- Roger Retinz is a nihilistic, Faux Affably Evil TV producer who, in his "Mr. Reus" persona, wore a green-and-purple suit and took the "Joker" as his playing card symbol.
- Advance Wars: Days of Ruin: Caulder has light green hair and eerily pale skin, approaches every conversation with a disconcertingly affable tone of voice, and seeks to stoke conflicts in order to use them as experiments to test his weapons.
- Batman: Arkham Knight has an in-universe example with the Joker Infected, who are infected with the Joker's blood and show different aspects of the Joker's personality; Christina got his obsession with Batman (and Bad Boss tendencies), Johnny his sadistic theatrical flourishes, and Albert his brutality. As later revealed, Henry Adams gets his brilliant scheming. The last infected victim turns out to be Batman himself, who is poised to receive the full package.
- BlazBlue: Yuuki Terumi is a green-haired Psychopathic Manchild with a nihilistic outlook of the world, seeing it as nothing but lies, and believes that the only truth is despair. He's well aware of how much of a vile son of a bitch he is, and is also utterly insane, frequently breaking into fits of laughter, has a constant Slasher Smile on his face, is the Arch-Enemy of a brooding Anti-Hero who he loves to get under the skin of, commits atrocity after atrocity for no other reason than because he feels like it, has a sick and twisted sense of humor, and is also very hammy. However, he starts to move out of this trope by the fourth game, Central Fiction, in which it's revealed that he's actually Susanoo no Mikoto, Jerkass God par supreme and Master Unit: Amaterasu's brother. Due to being tied to his sister's will as a kind of necessary adversary in the past, he decided to dedicate his life to destroying absolutely everything she loved in the world out of nothing but petty spite at her infringing upon his free will, but since this was still in line with his assigned role, he decided to use the Azure to turn reality into a cesspool of misery, fear, hatred and despair, where everyone kills everyone they love for him and he rules over this hellhole world as its only god.
- Danganronpa:
- Junko Enoshima is a manipulative psychopath who firmly believes in despair being inescapable and goes out of her way to squash what little sliver of hope there was, and is severely mentally unstable. In addition, she also has a mysterious past where it is unknown what made her obsessed with despair. It's later revealed that her "Ultimate Analyst" talent made her able to see almost every possible outcome of every situation, therefore the normal, harmonic world is agonizingly boring to her, while despair creates unpredictable situations. So as a result, the only way she can feel almost any sort of positive emotion is through despair and chaos. To hammer it in even more, she even has her own Harley Quinn in the form of her twin sister Mukuro, who she shares a masochism tango with, and made another in the form of Mikan Tsumiki as shown during Danganronpa 3, down to being a medical professional. She also corrupted Kyosuke Munakata using a brainwashed Chisa and turning him into something not very different from Junko herself who then proceeds to provoke a civil war between the Future Foundation, something that is seemingly straight out from Joker corrupting Superman in Injustice or Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight.
- Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony provides perhaps an even more obvious example in Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader who even has something of a clown motif. He has an outrageous sense of humor and goofy attitude, displays an almost frighteningly casual attitude towards the events of the killing game and instead joyfully embraces it, actively acknowledges his evil status and enjoying the suffering of others, he constantly stirs chaos throughout the academy with his actions and often nudges others into helping him, is an intelligent talker and incredibly good at getting under people's skin, and his near impenetrable veil of lies means not a shred of his past is known for sure, except the eventual detail that he leads a clown-themed gang, only adding further to the similarity. The one big difference is that, despite all of the above, he's not actually the diabolical supervillain he brags about being. His gang of clowns is literally just that: a bunch of clowns who amuse themselves by pulling harmless pranks on random people and committing petty, nonviolent crimes.
- Deltarune:
- Jevil was a former court jester to the Card Kingdom who snapped after learning that his life takes place in a video game thanks to a mysterious stranger. He then started treating the world as an open sandbox game as an agent of chaos with all the associated nastiness. While his reign of terror was put to an end by his imprisonment, he did drive his former colleague and captor Seam towards despair and apathy at the state of the world. Fitting the Playing Card Motifs theme of the chapter, Jevil is based on the Joker card much like Batman's nemesis.
- Spamton takes design cues from Billy the puppet, being a clown-like dummy/animatronic, but otherwise aligns with Mr. J. He's a crazed spambot who's simultaneously funny and scary, associated with smiles and laughter, and has a mostly unexplained backstory which partially includes a serious fall from grace that led to his murderous and existential insanity (with hints of having taken a literal fall into battery acid, not unlike one of the more iconic origins for Joker's white skin). Spamton also gets to Kris mentally through directly prodding at their own similarities of being a puppet, leaving enough of an impact to be the first villain to visibly haunt Kris even after battling him, and he actively enables the murderous rampage a sadistic player can make Noelle perform and directly takes advantage of the chaos. And despite the obvious similarities to Billy, his pale white face, slicked back hair and wide grin all still strongly evoke many of the Clown Prince's animated appearances, something perhaps most visible in his NEO form with a purple body.
- Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening: Jester, a form of Arkham is based off the Joker and was almost named as such. He's a Monster Clown who despite how evil he is can be pretty funny.
- DragonFable:
- Xan the insane pyromancer is an Ax-Crazy Laughing Mad lunatic who enjoys terrorizing towns by burning them to the ground. He also has an unhealthy fixation with one particular hero, in his case Warlic. In addition, he also displays a degree of Joker Immunity, being constantly able to return from apparent death.
- Among Batoro's Rogues Gallery is The Dread, a skeleton comedian dressed in Joker's purple suit.
- Dragon Quest VIII: Dhoulmagus is a magical jester and similar to the Joker in many ways. Like the Joker, he's a Monster Clown that tends to make things serious, a dark-humored figure who enjoys his kills, and cracks jokes at his enemies, such as calling Trode King Toad. The 3DS remake even shows an Arthur Fleck-like depression of wanting to learn magic from Rylus,note though he didn't feel Dhoulmagus was ready. After a nasty scolding over reading a grimoire detailing the sealed Godbird Sceptre, he displays brilliant cunning like the Clown Prince of Crime by posing as a jester to impress King Trode so he could steal the sceptre, becoming one of Rhapthorne's nefarious servants via possession and going on a killing spree of the Seven Sages' descendants...starting with Rylus.
- Far Cry:
- Far Cry 3:
- Vaas Montenegro, from his Straw Nihilist For the Evulz mentality to his Mood-Swinger Ax-Crazy nature and his personal desire to break down Jason Brody, is a Joker take on Ruthless Modern Pirates.
- Hoyt Volker. His Ax-Crazy behavior For the Evulz, unbridled sadism, intelligence, manipulation, Hammy tendencies, propensity for random violence, and the fact that he's The Don of a criminal organization make him a noticeable parallel to Heath Ledger's Joker.
- Far Cry 4: Pagan Min. Slasher Smile, Badass in a Nice Suit, carries out atrocities For the Evulz, Laughably Evil, Affably Evil(or Faux, depending on who he's talking to), Ax-Crazy, seeks to corrupt Ajay Ghale into a tyrant like himself. He's even voiced by the same guy who voiced the actual Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins.
- Far Cry 3:
- Clown from Fighters Dynamite series is the Sub-Boss of the series, and a Monster Clown with various circus-themed weapons and tarot cards. Different from many of the expies, he's an ugly man who hides under an harlequin mask. He finds himself as a narcissist and likes pretty boys, and it's implied he's homosexual.
- Final Fantasy VI: Kefka Palazzo is similar to the Joker, though put in a fantasy setting. A mad jester with white clownish make-up, he's dedicated to causing chaos and suffering For the Evulz, with a large part of his broken psychology being he finds life and love worthless. And like what happens to any group who thinks they can control the Joker, Kefka turns on his superiors. In Dissidia Final Fantasy, his English voice is a dead-ringer for Mark Hamill's famous Joker voice. He even has his own unique, iconic laugh in the original game, not unlike how various iterations of the Joker have one.
- Five Nights at Freddy's: William Afton is depicted as someone who enjoys committing murders as evidenced by his constant sadistic grins in the mini-games. While he is the CEO of Afton Robotics, his entire backstory and motivation behind his actions is shrouded in mystery, and if the man presented in Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator is Afton, he resembles Jack Nicholson's Jack Napier identity from 1989's Batman. And just like the Joker, he keeps cheating death.
- Fu'un Series has a villain properly called as "Joker". The leader of the Looly Po Po, a criminal organization, Joker is a demented psycho who loves chaos and disorder, who's also dressed as a clown with rollerblades and Hidden Weapons. He enjoys making people suffer and thinks it all to be just a joke. He only enters both tournament organized by King Lion just for fun and to get his attention because he seems more funny than him.
- Grand Theft Auto V: Having an unapologetically chaotic nature, combined with a twisted sense of humor, Trevor Philips is an absolutely frightening Mood-Swinger and a Card-Carrying Villain who enjoys causing chaos, misery and destruction 24/7 For the Evulz, lives off it, and embraces it unceremoniously. Comparisons with Vaas Montenegro (a clear Joker parallel) and The Joker are almost inevitable. An IGN author did indeed compare him to Heath Ledger's Joker, stating that "Trevor absolutely knows that he's a monster but just doesn't care. He enjoys causing misery and harm, lives for it and embraces it and – much like Heath Ledger's Joker – he exists purely for unadulterated anarchy."
- Guilty Gear: Xrd introduced a mysterious character named Happy Chaos, but it wasn't until the next game in the series, Guilty Gear Strive, that he became this. He's a gun-slinging, perpetually grinning Wild Card who only cares about drama for his own personal amusement, to the point where he'll leave deliberate holes in his schemes for his enemies to exploit, no strings attached, or even switch to the "good" side of a conflict at the drop of a hat if he thinks the outcome would be more amusing.
- League of Legends:
- Shaco, the Demon Jester, is basically the Joker as an enchanted marionette in a Villainous Harlequin outfit: deceptive, chaotic, tricky, murderous, laden with sadistic toys (he can even hide a demonic jack-in-the-box), and completely devoid of any goals but causing mayhem. He even has a very similar appearance to many versions of the Joker, with a chalk-white face and an exaggeratedly large Slasher Smile.
- Jinx, a heavily-armed, completely insane, criminally inclined young woman with blue hair and very pale skin, who thinks violence is hilarious, was, according to Word of God, conceived as a gender-flipped version of the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series, although many players are reminded more of Harley Quinn. Arcane suggests she might also be psychotic, especially after blowing herself up and being revived with a massive dose of Shimmer. Jinx in Arcane bears heavy resemblance to the Arthur Fleck incarnation of the Clown Prince from Joker (2019), as both are realistic depictions of characters who previously had a fantastical and quirky version of insanity. They start off as mentally disturbed but still good-hearted people who had the misfortune of being born in a Wretched Hive run by brutal criminals and kept in poverty by an extremely corrupt upper class. This horrific environment and a series of tragic events worsen their already existent mental health issues to turning them into the chaotic villains we know today.
- The Legend of Zelda
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask has the titular, vibrantly colored mask contain an incredibly violent and petty spirit. Majora's Mask has a sketchy backstory at best (it was said to be used by an unnamed tribe for rituals), and its crimes range from trying to drop a moon on Termina to poisoning the water supply of a civilization to knocking over old ladies, all out of amusement and/or boredom. When Link confronts Majora's Mask inside the moon, it tries to provoke Link through five "figments" that look like masked children.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword gives Ghirahim a primarily white color scheme with hints or red, yellow, and black, making him look somewhat like a jester or a Renaissance clown. Behind his easygoing exterior, he's particularly vicious by the standards of Demise's army, often issuing colorful death and torture threats over being delayed in his quest to revive his master. Other than being a sword of Demise that can take on a sentient form, he has no backstory whatsoever.
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds has Yuga, an incredibly vain Mad Artist with mostly purple clothing and clown-like makeup. He has no detailed backstory, although he is eventually revealed to be Princess Hilda's right-hand man and advisor. Although he supposedly acts to save Lorule from destruction, his actual end goal is to annihilate both it and Hyrule so he can make new worlds in his own image, just because thinks of both as "hideous".
- Mega Man X has a Robotic Psychopath example in Vile, a former Maverick Hunter turned Maverick, because of an irreparable circuit in his brain, who laughs like crazy, causes destruction for the hell of it, is usually colored purple and greennote , has a tendency to come back from death, tries to torture X, the last creation of Dr. Light, with the violence of fighting, saying they're one and the same, and that they exist because of them, is a Psycho for Hire, but will turn against his handlers when it's convenient and works with a Bald of Evil villain in their schemes, though will also turn against them when it suits them, as seen with Joker and Lex Luthor in World's Finest, though Sigma is Vile's boss, compared to the on and off team ups Joker and Lex do. In addition, both even form a Villainous Friendship with someone as psychotic as him, in this case, Zagi, as seen in Project X Zone 2.
- Metal Gear Solid V has Skull Face, who has quite a few parallels with the Clown Prince of Crime, particularly his incarnation from The Dark Knight and the eponymous Joker graphic novel. That the audio tapes, particularly the one with Skull Face detailing his backstory can be likened to one of Joker's infamous "scar stories" and the fact that he's a Wild Card playing against both Snake and Cipher doesn't help one bit.
- A non-human example would be Ridley from Metroid; a lean, purple colored villain who relishes in death and destruction, and has nearly as much Joker Immunity as the Clown Prince himself. His killing of Samus' mother and (indirectly) father can bring to mind Jack Napier's murder of Bruce Wayne's parents in Batman (1989).
- One of the channels the player comes across in Nightmare Zapping features Rat-Man, a cross between Batman and Mickey Mouse, facing off against The Poker, who looks like Pete with the tattoos of Jared Leto's Joker. Both characters, or at least the actors playing them, are killed by the game's main antagonist.
- Octopath Traveler: Simeon, the Puppet Master is the main antagonist of Primrose's story, and possesses several Joker-like characteristics. A complete psychopath who thinks the world is filled with "constant, inescapable darkness", his greatest joy is to ruin the hopes and dreams of others, taking pleasure in their suffering. He is also cunning and intelligent, accurately deducing that Primrose's quest for revenge against him and his associates for murdering her father, is really desperation to find peace from the loneliness of losing him. This revelation nearly breaks Primrose.
- Persona 4: Tohru Adachi, a nihilistic detective who only became a cop so he could legally hold a gun; and was the murderer behind the two culprits. He is bored with his life in Inaba so he resorts to murder.
- Pokémon:
- Gengar comes closest out of all the Pokemon to resemble The Joker. It is purple and sports a malicious smile. Numerous Pokédex entries state that Gengar gets its jollies from tormenting people.
- For the human antagonists, Volo from Pokémon Legends: Arceus is the villain that best resembles The Joker. Volo is a sociopath who hides his nature under a Faux Affably Evil mask, wears bright colors, has a Mysterious Past, sports a Slasher Smile, is very hammy, and is nihilistic to the point that he wants to destroy his own reality.
- While he's much smaller-time than the Trope Namer, Lucas Baker from Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is a scrawny and pale Large Ham Serial Killer whose M.O. is rigging elaborate deathtraps and torture devices which he subjects his victims to in Deadly Games. He also blatantly does it because he genuinely thinks it's fun, grinning and giggling up a storm once he thinks he's played someone into his hands; and late-game plus the Not a Hero DLC reveal that he's also officially a researcher for a crime syndicate wherein even the scientists who work under him are disturbed by what a loose cannon he is. For bonus points, he's mildly associated with clown and circus imagery, even using a stylized image of a Monster Clown as a personal logo.
- Super Paper Mario: Dimentio initially appears to be a Villainous Harlequin, but is gradually revealed to be this instead. He is an evil jester who has a sense of humor but is Ax-Crazy, killing Mario and friends with a smile on his face, and he believes that Love Is a Weakness to be exploited in his plot to destroy all dimensions and replace them with perfect new ones. He also has a Mysterious Past- where he came from is never explained, and while Carson has theories, nothing is ever confirmed. Finally, he tries to get the heroes to join him in overthrowing Count Bleck, sapping their free will if they comply.
- Tales of Vesperia: Zagi, the assassin from the Leviathan's Claw guild sent to murder Flynn Scifio only to run into Yuri Lowell and Estelle, fits the part of the Clown Prince of Crime well due to his tendency to survive near deaths, has a psychotic obsession with Yuri, which really starts to show after their second fight, loves to kill because of his blade aching and blastia demanding nourishment, laughs like crazy whenever he appears and/or unleashes various skills like Shining Blastia Field during his boss fights, and by the time of their last fight at the Tower of Tarqaron, has literally become batshit insane with a disheveled appearance while mocking the party about the world’s near end. Ironically, the person who voiced him, Roger Craig Smith, would go on to voice Batman in Arkham Origins, while Troy Baker would voice the Joker. In addition, he also bonds with Vile during the events of Project X Zone 2.
- Umineko: Golden Fantasia: Black Battler, the evil doppelganger of Battler Ushiromyia who is featured as a fighter, wears a purple suit, is Ax-Crazy and homicidal, prone to Evil Laughter, Psychotic Smirk and Slasher Smile, and has a very twisted sense of humor.
- Wasteland 3 has Victory "Vic" Buchanan, a purple-haired, flamboyantly dressed giggling psychopath who rigged up Aspen full of elaborate deathtraps while murdering and torturing his way through the families he grew up with purely for fun. He controls his mooks, the Breathers, through "happy gas", paints ironic slogans in blood on the walls and floors a la The Dark Knight's Joker, and generally thinks of the wasteland as his private playground where nothing he does matters.
- Goro Majima from the Yakuza series definitely fit the picture in the first game. He's always got a wide grin on his face, eager to fight Kiryu on a regular basis and won't hesitate to beat up one of his minions if he finds out they're not laughing with him. Also, in the original PS2 release, he was voiced by none other than Mark Hamill. He becomes a more heroic variant of this trope in later games, with his Ax-Crazy qualities downplayed in favor of more lighthearted eccentricities. He's still a total Blood Knight who wants to fight Kiryu at every opportunity, however.
Web Animation
- Alastor from Hazbin Hotel has more than a bit of The Joker about him: aesthetically, he's a tall, thin, ashen-pallored man who smiles all the time and wears sharp, brightly colored suits. In terms of personality, he's an outwardly jovial and superficially charismatic yet utterly remorseless and sadistic mass murderer who showed up out of nowhere and quickly established himself as the biggest villain around by slaughtering competing crime bosses with minimal effort. He's also an avid showman with a wicked sense of humor and an unfailingly cynical worldview, and his chief rival in villainy is an old-fashioned aristocrat in a black suit and top-hat.
- The Society of Virtue episode "Society of Disvirtue" introduces Pierrot, a clown supervillain that was let out of jail when he answered a Rorschach test correctly.
- RWBY: Tyrian Callows is a Serial Killer who is infamous for a string of murders across Mistral, who speaks in exaggerated, theatrical prose, and who has a purple Colour Motif that is represented in both his name and the purple poison that his scorpion tail produces. He loves killing and serves Salem as her assassin, kidnapper, and as an agent of chaos to distract enemies from Salem's real plans and goals. Unlike the other villains, he serves Salem because he worships the chaos and evil she represents and revels in spreading it to the world. The only time he disappoints her, he's so distraught that he lashes out at a Grimm, hacking while his tears turn to manic laughter as a horrified Cinder watches. Orders to hunt and kill make him grin with pleasure; enacting them makes him laugh with glee. He delights in making macabre jokes, such as telling Cinder to get 'an eye for an eye' against Ruby for her maimed eye. He tells Emerald and Mercury they're in the wrong job if they don't love Salem's violent, murderous work; he then begs them to flee Salem just to give him an excuse to hunt and kill them. When he commits a massacre on Atlas's election day, he thrills at the carnage and chaos he causes. When Watts's needs even greater chaos in Mantle than a Grimm invasion, it's Tyrian he turns to for help.
Webcomics
- Florida Man from Ennui GO! takes a lot of cues from The Joker (minus being a Monster Clown); he commits random acts of chaos simply because he "feels like it", is hedonistic to an almost disturbing degree, corrupts the main characters in various ways like introducing a then-preteen Izzy and Addy to drugs, alcohol and various debaucherous activities and possibly turning their mother into a violent drug addict, and finally having a Multiple-Choice Past.
- In the doujin, "I'm working at a mahou shoujo recruitment company, but I think I may be at my limit" by Momiji Mao (NSFW warning for ads, since the doujin in question is on Danbooru), Kyubey is a worker at a magical girl recruitment company and down on his luck, such that his boss is threatening to terminate him if he keeps dragging down the company. The only people who believe in him are his wife Kyuko, who is three months along with Kyubey's baby, and his work buddy Kyuzo, the only one in the workplace who knows he is trying his best. Bolstered by this, Kyubey works extra hard, even pulling all-nighters, and manages to get ten new magical girls into the fold. But then it's revealed that not only did Kyuzo screw Kyubey over by taking all the credit for his accomplishments, but when Kyubey calls Kyuzo up and demands an explanation for this shit, that's when he (and we) learn that this isn't even the half of how Kyuzo's betrayed him — Kyuzo is in bed with Kyuko when he gets the call, and it turns out that he's been banging her on the side for at least three months, because that kid that's three months along? It's not Kyubey's. With everything good in his life taken away from him in one fell swoop, Kyubey snaps and goes postal on everyone before burning his workplace down. He makes a resolution that the next time he meets someone, he should give them the same cruel lesson that he believes Kyuzo and everyone else were trying to teach him. This pararells the Joker's Start of Darkness. Aside from that, after he goes insane, Kyubey also starts Laughing Mad, multiple times and his motivation bassically boils down to a Straw Nihilist variant of For the Evulz. Multiple comparisons to the Joker were made.
- The Heckler, from League of Super Redundant Heroes, dresses a lot like Joker, and uses Jolly Venom in his fight against Flying Fox Man.
- A one-page joke in Ralph Hayes, Jr.'s The Fellowship of Heroes is about a pumpkin-faced Joker wannabe entering a bank and boasting that he will start his villainous career massacring everybody inside and that they should be happy. Unfortunately for him, Everyone Is Armed inside of said bank and his villainous career ends with him being unceremoniously blown away.
- An early chapter of The Wotch had supervilains coming out of comic books, which naturally included "The Jester".
Web Original
- There are several creepypasta villains who are blatantly inspired by the Joker.
- The Jester in The Fear Mythos, who is completely and utterly Ax-Crazy, dressed up as a Monster Clown.
- Jeff the Killer is literally one green hair away from being a perfect carbon copy of the Clown Prince of Crime himself. He has a chemically bleached face set into a permanent hideous smile, a name starting with the letter "J", a tendency to kill people, an uncontrollable habit of bursting into insane laughter and a backstory that saw him go mad after having "one bad day ".
- Laughing Jack is about a single mother whose son James befriends a Monster Clown with a Slasher Smile who constantly laughs maniacally and ends up mutilating the woman's son as well as tricking the mother into stabbing her son in the heart.
- Cracked ran an article in 2016, "Six Reasons Heath Ledger's Joker Ruined Comic-Book Movies", arguing that the success of the character had led to the overuse of several tropes associated with him. In the firing line were villains who commit terrorist atrocities for no real reason, villains obsessed with "breaking the hero's spirit and moral code", villains who get captured halfway through the film as part of their master plan, and "psychotic, unpredictable" villains who love killing and chaos for the sake of it. It should be noted, however, that all of these cliches long predate Ledger's Joker, being a staple of comic book villains for decades and even being prevalent in older superhero movies that the author claims didn't use them.
- Natella Strelnikova from Within Lapenko. Big Bad? Check. Mob boss? Check. Dressed in purple? Check. Bad sense of humour? Check. Played by an actor with a moustache who conceals the said moustache while playing her? Also check.
Web Videos
- The first episode of Save the Supers features the Jokester as villain, who's pretty much the Joker with orange hair. Unfortunately for him, the local Batman expy, Night Knight, is a bit trigger-happy and the Jokester gets killed on his first appearance.
- OneyPlays: In "Oney Plays itch.io Games PART 1", Zach, Chris, and Lyle imagine a new Batman villain. One of the three pretends to be "Mr. Hansel", a villain themed after Hansel and Gretel who leaves breadcrumbs to give Batman clues about his crimes. Although this motif is similar to another Batman villain, The Riddler, the voice that they give Mr. Hansel is similar to The Dark Knight's version of the Joker. In this animated version by Fax Jam, Mr. Hansel is drawn to resemble the Joker in the comics, albeit with light green skin, a green suit, and pink hair.
Batman: You sound like the Joker.
Mr. Hansel: No, I'm a different guy.
Batman: YOU SOUND LIKE THE JOKER!
Mr. Hansel: I do something DIFFERENT! Shut up!
Western Animation
- DC Animated Universe:
- The Creeper in The New Batman Adventures was originally Jack Ryder, a news anchorman who tries doing a biographical expose on the Joker, only for the Joker himself to show up and kill him for doing so without his permission. He gets a face-full of joker-gas before falling into the same chemical solution that made the Joker into what he is. The unique chemical compound turns his skin orange and his hair green, as well as giving him enhanced strength, speed and reflexes. The process turns him into a crazed loon, but not the same, sociopathic extent as the Joker, with sightings of him causing others to confuse him for a copycat. While he starts off wanting revenge on the Joker, he soon drops this when he sees Harley and becomes a relentless Abhorrent Admirer. By the end of the episode, the Creeper's antics become so bad that the Joker himself crawls up to Batman on his hands and knees looking for help.
Joker: He's a lunatic!
- Being based in the series, the Trickster from Justice League is entirely based on the aforementioned The Flash series, also being voiced by Mark Hamill just as he did in The Flash (1990), being more as a ported version than an adaptation from the comic book counterpart.
- An in-universe example happens in Batman Beyond with the Jokerz, a street gang of hoodlums who dress up and model themselves after the Joker. Neither the elderly Bruce nor the actual Joker are impressed by them. It's eventually revealed he tried to create a Joker copy by torturing Tim Drake into a "Joker Jr.", which backfired when the traumatized Tim shot him. Who he later possesses to come back from the dead, thanks to a chip on his neck.
- The Creeper in The New Batman Adventures was originally Jack Ryder, a news anchorman who tries doing a biographical expose on the Joker, only for the Joker himself to show up and kill him for doing so without his permission. He gets a face-full of joker-gas before falling into the same chemical solution that made the Joker into what he is. The unique chemical compound turns his skin orange and his hair green, as well as giving him enhanced strength, speed and reflexes. The process turns him into a crazed loon, but not the same, sociopathic extent as the Joker, with sightings of him causing others to confuse him for a copycat. While he starts off wanting revenge on the Joker, he soon drops this when he sees Harley and becomes a relentless Abhorrent Admirer. By the end of the episode, the Creeper's antics become so bad that the Joker himself crawls up to Batman on his hands and knees looking for help.
- In Beware the Batman, Anarky is reimagined as a cackling, nihilistic, openly insane agent of chaos whose voice is a dead-ringer for that of Heath Ledger, and he's given an all-white costume and mask to match the Clown Prince's signature pallor. The Joker never had a chance to appear in the cartoon because of the creators' initial decision to focus more on the obscure enemies of Batman and the series being cancelled after one season, so Anarky was intended to be a stand-in for the Joker.
- Disney Channel:
- Darkwing Duck: Quackerjack is an Expy of both the Joker and the Toyman. A deranged toymaker who turned to crime after the video game industry put him out of business, he's a mentally unstable Villainous Harlequin who's goofy and highly eccentric yet dangerous, and knows he's crazy but doesn't care. While he doesn't have a Multiple-Choice Past, it is mysterious compared to the rest of the Fearsome Five as aside from going insane when his toy company went under, we know next to nothing about his backstory. The Latin American dub actually took it a step further and named him "QuackGuasón" (lit. QuackJoker).
- The Proud Family: Papi Boulavardez is a downplayed example, resembling The Joker in aesthetics only. While he's not a criminal or a Monster Clown in the slightest, he's got The Joker's green hair, purple suit and maniacal laugh down pat. He's even got the moustache of Cesar Romero.
- Gravity Falls: Bill Cipher is a nigh-invincible Eldritch Abomination who planned to make the universe itself the ultimate rave party, not caring that his reckless actions could result in the destruction of reality. Bill advocates chaos over order, has a disturbing sense of humor, and loves messing with the minds of his pawns. He also has a Mysterious Past and occasionally espouses Straw Nihilist views.
- Wander over Yonder has "The Boy Wander" which introduces Dr. Screwball Jones, a floating banana head who serves as Wander's Shadow Archetype as he's driven to force the universe to be happy rather than giving them the option. Fitting the episode's Whole-Plot Reference, Wander takes on a more serious, Batman-esque persona when dealing with his sworn nemesis.
Sylvia: This Joker is who you think is the most dangerous villain in the galaxy?!
Lord Hater (offscreen): He what?! - The Owl House: The Collector is a jester-like entity trapped underneath the bones of the Titan. Much like any Joker-inspired antagonist, the Collector acts playful and speaks in riddles even when they regard killing every living thing on the Boiling Isles in the event of the Day of Unity.
- Samurai Jack:
- Aku. He's a horrific sadist, a manipulative sociopath, and a homicidal maniac who enjoys killing and torturing people For the Evulz; and he especially enjoys tormenting his Arch-Enemy (The Hero, who is his absolute antithesis). While Aku is funny, bombastic and Faux Affably Evil, his Arch-Enemy is a serious, devastated, honorable man with serious anger problems. Aku is practically The Joker in the form of an Eldritch Abomination.
- Aku's top henchman, Scaramouche the Merciless, is another clear Joker parallel. Named after a stock jester character from Commedia Dellarte, Scaramouche is a grinning, jovial, and jocular showman who is nevertheless a deadly assassin who's unashamed of the blood on his hands, shows a proclivity for bladed weapons, and wears a colorful outfit complete with a purple coat.
- The Venture Bros.:
- Boggles the Clue Clown was originally a member of the Council of Thirteen, an oligarchy of super-villains that helped run the Guild of Calamitous Intent under the Sovereign. He was an Expy of both the Joker and The Riddler (having a clown-based gimmick with a penchant for leaving riddles with a rather twisted punchline) before he died of heart disease, his last riddle involving his own dead body and coffin being used as a jack-in-the-box. The Joker analogue is pushed further since his arch-enemy was Captain Sunshine, who is voiced by Kevin Conroy (most famous for playing Batman in the DC Animated Universe).
- Presto Change-O is a villainous jester who likes to make jokes. Strengthening the comparison is that he's voiced by Mark Hamill, who voiced the Joker in the DCAU and other media. His design and colour scheme is also similar to the Green Goblin who is often likened to the Joker.
- The Wild Fop, while mostly based on Oscar Wilde, has the white makeup and facial features of The Joker. His voice also brings to mind Jeff Bennett's interpretation in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
- Mal from Total Drama: All-Stars, the evil Split Personality of Mike and the overall Arc Villain of the season. He's an Ax-Crazy sociopath who is unpredictably chaotic and enjoys terrorizing others For the Evulz as well as being Laughing Mad. It's also put up to debate whether he or Mike is the original personality. Interestingly, in an interview a year prior to Mal's debut, Mike's voice actor Cory Doran name-dropped The Joker while expressing a desire to voice a villain like him.
- The Mask: The Mask has a smile that matches up with The Joker's, is feared by the supervillains and has a sense of humour but however unlike The Joker he is a superhero who genuinely cares about his friends, the people who live in Edge City with him and his unmasked self Stanley Ipkiss. The Mask unlike The Joker is a Reality Warper but he only uses his reality warping powers and abilities to troll people who annoy him or the supervillains he fights showing that he has morals as well unlike The Joker.
- Played straight with Dr. Pretorious, who is even voiced by Tim Curry, the actor who was even on-tap to voice The Joker before Mark Hamill got the part. Pretorius' sense of humor is more dry and unintentional, however, with an occasional edge of Foe Romance Subtext to it.
- Zombozo from Ben 10 is a Monster Clown supervillain and a frequent nemesis of Ben Tennyson, who had huge issues with him due to a phobia of clowns. Bonus points in that both of Zombozo's voice actors (John Kassir in the original series, John DiMaggio in the subsequent ones) have played The Joker at some point.
- The Justice Friends segment of Dexter's Laboratory featured a villain called the Disgruntled Postman, who resembled the Joker dressed like a postal worker and was just as crazy as the Clown Prince of Crime himself.
- Static Shock: Shiv is Ax-Crazy, is associated with the color purple and even states to be a huge fan of the Clown Prince of Crime during an episode where Static teamed up with Batman.
- C.O.P.S. (1988) had Hyena, a member of Big Boss' gang. His Action Figure File Card notes that he's "a criminal mastermind, capable of concocting and planning [the] most elaborate heists between fits of uncontrolled hilarity". Adding to the Joker similarities, Hyena's weapons include an Electric Joy Buzzer and Explosive Cigars, one of his aliases is "Joe Kerr", and he's also a failed stand-up comic.
- Nexo Knights: The Book of Monsters, aka Monstrox, while more of an evil sorceror than an Evil Clown, is defined by his dry sense of humor, frequent comedic moments, harlequin sidekick Jestro whom he manipulates into fulfilling his plans by pretending to care for him or outright brainwashing him with dark magic, sadism mixed with having no real reason to be as evil as he is besides the implications that he is a victim of the dark magic himself. It's also fitting that at different points in time his primary colors were purple and green (the latter in the toyline only, though).
- ReBoot: Hexadecimal is something of a cross between The Joker and Harley Quinn: she wears a jester's mask (which actually a removable face), as well as a "crown" which looks more like a Jester's cap. While she doesn't tell lame jokes all the time, she is completely insane, calls herself things like the "Queen Of Chaos", and her whole motivation for terrorizing Mainframe is basically "she doesn't have anything better to do".
- South Park: Eric Cartman is essentially Joker if the latter was an obese child. First off, Cartman is Laughably Evil who commits appalling crimes either for petty reasons or his own amusement. Secondly, Cartman is a notorious sociopath whose actions disturb even other villains. Thirdly, Cartman had a girlfriend who ended up becoming his Distaff Counterpart. Finally, Cartman is Archenemies with one of the heroes (Kyle) and goes out of his way to torment that hero.
- SuperMansion has two Joker parodies:
- Dr. Devizo looks and talks like The Joker, though he's more like Lex Luthor due to being a Mad Scientist who has an Alliterative Name (his first name is eventually revealed to be Donald) and whose main nemesis is the resident Superman Substitute.
- The Groaner is a more pathetic version of Joker who also has a Skull for a Head, serving as the nemesis of the resident Batman Parody.
- Mark Hamill briefly voiced Skeletor in his Joker voice in Masters of the Universe: Revelation as a nod to himself voicing The Joker in various Batman cartoons and video games.
- The Robot Chicken sketch "The Wurst Script in the World" revolves around a spoof of Batman Begins where a German man named Heimlich starts a career as a caped superhero operating at night who uses the Heimlich maneuver to prevent people from choking to death. Near the end of the sketch, he confronts a villain called the Choker, a cackling madman who tries to kill people by forcing large pieces of food down their throats before Heimlich kills him by hurling a sausage into the back of his head.
- SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron had a one-shot villain known as Madkat, the ghost of a court jester who went mad over being replaced and in the present day possesses the body of comedian Lenny Ringtail, who similarly became insane because David Litterbin was given his coveted position as a talk show host and had escaped from an asylum before finding the jack-in-the-box Madkat was imprisoned in. With the villainous jester's manic grin, fondness for causing mayhem and very twisted sense of humor, he ticks all the boxes on the list of attributes essential for being a stand-in for the Clown Prince of Crime. He was also voiced by Roddy McDowall, who is prominent in the Batman franchise, having played The Bookworm in the 1966 series, The Mad Hatter in Batman: The Animated Series and having narrated the audiobook for the 1989 film's novelisation.
- Tiny Toon Adventures parodied the Batman franchise in "Bat's All Folks", which featured a Joker expy called Jackster. Not only is his voice an impression of Jack Nicholson (that and him being a literal jackass is what makes his moniker a Meaningful Name) but he has the Joker's trademark acid-squirting flower.
- Chipmunks Go To The Movies had an episode called "Batmunk". It is a parody of the 1989 film with Alvin playing The Jokester, a toymaker upset his wares don't sell as much as those of Brice Wayne (Batmunk's secret identity, played by Simon). Despite the episode mostly spoofing the 1989 movie, The Jokester has elements of the comic-book Joker, including henchmen dressed as clowns and an abandoned theme park as a lair.
- Katz in Courage the Cowardly Dog is a sadistic murderer with red and purple in his colour scheme who frequently wears smart suits, plays games with his victims before killing them and often seeminly commits horrid acts For the Evulz. At one point, like the Joker, he even faced Mystery Inc during a team-up with his franchise's second-most prominent villain, a bird-like thief wearing a bow tie.
