When it comes to crazy, at least in comic books and movies, none is crazier than the Joker, the main nemesis to Gotham’s Dark Knight, aka Batman. The Joker spends his days trying to get under Batman’s skin and into his mind, creating chaos everywhere he goes all because he likes to see the world go “boom.” The Joker is the very definition of chaos, and depending on how he is written or portrayed, he really doesn’t have a reason for being the way he is.
This is what makes the character so compelling. He’s not evil per se, just insane. But he’s also incredibly smart, and some of his schemes are more brilliant than anything a sane rocket scientist could come up with. He is everything that Batman is not: disorderly, anarchic, and destructive, and yet without Joker, many believe that Batman might not exist. They are two sides of the same coin, more often than not, which is probably why the Joker has maintained such a long history through Batman’s story.
This is why the Joker has millions of memes circulating across the Internet. It’s his very nature to become a meme, describing the chaos of the real world in hilarious detail.
Here are 25 Crazy Joker Memes.
The real reason Joker burned the money
Health Ledger’s version of the Joker is pretty much the one that most moviegoers remember. Oddly enough, there was a lot of doubt about him pulling off the character before The Dark Knight ever hit screens, but after the movie released, everyone was onboard for his take on the Clown Prince of Gotham. It’s only a shame that Ledger passed away before appearing as the Joker in another movie, but his legacy as the character will forever live on as part of cinema history.
His legacy also lives on through memes: his Joker became one of the most memeable Batman villains of all time. Perhaps it’s because of all the great lines he got in the movie, or how he embraced utter chaos throughout the film. In fact, creating chaos was more important to him than anything material: he just wanted to watch the world burn.
This meme taps into a scene where the Joker just sets money on fire, proving that it was never about that anyway. It offers another suggestion as to why he set it on fire, too: there was a spider on it. And when there’s a spider involved, just set the whole place on fire because that sucker needs to go.
The Joker isn’t “It”
Although Stephen King’s novel It was written way back in 1986, it remains popular, thanks in part to a television mini-series that aired in 1990, but largely due to the revival of the story as two movies, the first of which released in 2017. Now the horrifying clown from It looks even more scary, thanks to some modern makeup and CGI effects. But hey, clowns are pretty scary, to begin with.
Perhaps that’s why the Joker looks like a clown: Batman artists decided to use that innate fear of clowns to create the greatest villain that Batman has ever known. In fact, it’s likely that Batman himself has a fear of clowns: if he didn’t have it before the Joker, then the Joker created that fear because the Joker spends his days and nights thinking of ways to terrorize Batman and the Caped Crusader’s beloved Gotham City.
Clowns are scary and the Joker knows this. Although his origin story changes, he always ends up in white face with red lips and outlandish clothes in a variety of colors. The Joker is a clown.
But he isn’t the same clown as It, although this meme pokes fun at the new clown in town.
Yer a wizard, Joker!
It’s always fun mixing two fandoms together, and memes are famous for doing that. This particular meme taps back into The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker. One of the things about that character is that he has a story for how he got the scars on his face that give him a permanent smile. It becomes a sort of gag because he tells the story more than once, but it’s never the same story.
The Joker says, “Want to know how I got these scars?” and then he tells a story that is probably not even close to the truth because that’s just the kind of chaotic character he is. The first time, it seems like a tragic story, but once the stories start to change, everyone realizes just how completely bonkers the Joker really is.
In this meme, though, there’s another character with a scar involved: Harry Potter.
Everyone knows that Harry got his scar as a baby when Voldemort tried to attack him.
It’s funny thinking about Harry using lines the Joker would to ask people if they want to know how he got that scar, especially as an innocent youngster meeting his first friend.
Toddler Joker
Who doesn’t love kids in cosplay? Now that comic cons are pretty much everywhere and geeks rule the universe, almost every parent dresses their kids up as some of their favorite characters. But who dresses up a kid as a villain?
We’ll tell you who: really awesome parents. Sure, this kid might grow up to want to blow up the world at some point, but right now, a little toddler Joker is literally the cutest thing anyone has ever seen. Look at this little guy! He’s freaking adorable.
What’s even cuter is that he’s sucking on a lollipop and looking like he’s thinking up the most cruel and evil plan that the Joker could ever come up with.
This meme is perfect. It’s common knowledge that the Joker’s number one plan usually involves getting rid of Batman (as in forever). This meme takes into account the child’s age and changes that up to make a funny little joke. This kid is going to do what kids do - but this kid is the Joker. So what would kid Joker do? Kid Joker would tell on the Batman. Any child will tell you that this is the absolute worst punishment ever.
Hamill and Conroy Forever
Sure, Mark Hamill is mostly known as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars universe, but to Batman fans, he’s much more important than that. In the Batman animated universe (and in the video games), Hamill is the voice of the Joker. His performance as the Joker is so good that he has become iconic for the role. Also, for those who have not seen video of him voicing the role, it’s incredible how he changes his face and body to become the Clown Prince of Gotham. It’s eerie and awesome.
The other guy in the photo is Kevin Conroy. Again, those familiar with the animated Batman universe (as well as the video games) knows that Conroy is the voice of Batman. And again, he’s made it so iconic that when it comes to hearing Batman, it’s Conroy’s voice fans want to hear.
So here we have a photo of Hamill and Conroy hugging, and it just looks like two actors who appreciate each other. However, fans of the Batman animated movies, TV shows and video games don’t see that at all: we see the Joker and Batman getting cozy (as they do, occasionally). It’s a bromance that Batman fans can get behind.
We all have these scars
As previously mentioned, in The Dark Knight, the Joker continues to tell different stories about how he got the scars that permanently disfigured his face. That line is the butt of many jokes because it comes up so much in that movie. It’s a tried and true pop culture reference now, which means it will never go away, which is good because no one will ever forget Heath Ledger’s take on the character.
Here’s another meme that taps into the whole “Want to know how I got these scars?” joke, but this meme makes the answer pretty relatable. Every single one of us was a kid once, and there was something we enjoyed in the summer even more than being out of school. There was nothing like those frozen popsicles that tasted like pure sugar on a hot summer day. After consuming one of those things, kids’ tongues would turn blue or red or whatever color the popsicle was.
But there’s something else about those popsicles, something evil…
When trying to suck them out of their plastic tubing, the edges of the plastic was often sharp and every one of us who ever ate one of those got a lip cut on that thing.
Maybe that’s really how the Joker got his scars!
Joker Cat and Grumpy Batman
Way back when the whole concept of memes was relatively new (at least right when they became more popular), there was Grumpy Cat. Grumpy Cat quickly became one of the most recognizable faces on the Internet, thanks to memes where the cat would just say one single word, “No.” This made everyone love Grumpy Cat, because isn’t Grumpy Cat everyone at one point in their lives? Or maybe we just wish we were more like her.
Then came The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker. Then people were photoshopping versions of that Joker’s face onto their cats. This cat, though, is probably one of the best: maybe because it’s white and the makeup just looks good photoshopped on it. It’s also a really good photo editing job. Someone put that cat in the Joker makeup and then drew on a tie and had it ask that question all over again, “Do you wanna’ know how I got these scars?”
What makes this meme perfect is that it dresses up Grumpy Cat as Batman.
And it just seems so utterly perfect that Grumpy Cat as Batman would answer the Joker’s question with his usual, “No.”
Why so McFlurrious?
One of McDonald’s signature frozen treats is the McFlurry, which is a concoction of soft serve ice cream mixed with candy and other flavors to create a wonderful dessert that every McDonald’s fan loves. Sure, no one is entirely sure of what’s in a McFlurry per se, but whatever it is, it’s delicious.
That means that a McFlurry can taste however you want, depending on the flavor - and those flavors change all the time depending on McDonald’s seasonal menu. But sometimes, those flavor sauces or bases that McDonald’s uses don’t get mixed in all that well. In this case, this substance that looks like a strawberry sauce somehow managed to look like a familiar place.
Stare at this McFlurry long enough and you’ll see it: the Joker must have made this dessert!
Sure, it’s just an accident and a trick of the eye, but someone thought to take a photo of this weird occurrence and turn it into a meme based on the Joker’s signature line in The Dark Knight, “Why so serious?” With this, though, that becomes, “Why so McFlurrious?”
Of course, if the Joker really had made this McFlurry that red substance would definitely not be strawberry syrup, but something much more sinister.
Shakespearean Joker
Artists on the Internet do one thing really well: they can take any character in pop culture and reimagine it, perhaps mixing it with another fandom or a time period or something else that they just ingeniously thought of. Then they put that art up on the Internet and that means that someone else will grab that art and turn it into a meme. That’s just how the Internet works.
Someone decided to imagine Batman characters as they might appear in a Shakespearean tragedy - or comedy, depending on your point of view.
In this case, an artist imagined the Joker as he might appear in one of Shakespeare’s plays - and let’s face it, Shakespeare would have loved that character as it would have fulfilled his “fool” roles so well. This art is, of course, based on Heath Ledger’s version of the character in The Dark Knight, where his signature line is “Why so serious?”
But that line does not sound Shakespearean enough, obviously. Someone decided to change it up so that the line fit the fan art imagining the Joker in that time period. So now it’s “Why Art Thou So Solemn?” And it is just perfect, isn’t it?
The effects of school
As much as many Batman fans would like to forget the travesty that was Suicide Squad, they would like to forget Jared Leto’s portrayal as the Joker in that movie even more. Leto became a controversial choice for the character, especially after the first photos of him as the Joker emerged: he looked nothing like the Jokers that came before. Fans still don’t know what to think about the Joker having a grill.
Leto’s behind-the-scenes antics also didn’t do much to entice fans to really appreciate his take on the character. He took method acting way too far and left rats for his co-stars as “gifts.” Apparently, he missed the memo by Laurence Olivier that he should “just act.” Regardless, Leto still appeared on film as the character, which means that people on the Internet grabbed photos of him so that they could make memes. That’s what the Internet does.
In this meme, there’s a standard shot of Leto just looking like himself, whic represents the first day of school, when everyone is hopeful and looking forward to life. Then there’s Leto as the Joker, which represents the last day of school, when everyone just wants to watch the world burn and call it a day.
We can all relate
Let’s get back to Heath Ledger’s Joker, which is by far the superior one, shall we? The wonderful thing about Ledger as the Joker is that he didn’t act just with his words. Even behind his crazy makeup, Ledger could also act with just his facial expressions. It’s amazing how many facial expressions he used with that paint on, but he managed. It’s part of the reason why he was just so good in the role.
Here we have a meme that highlights some of those expressive moments the Joker had in The Dark Knight, and it’s been made into a meme so that everyone can relate to it. The first frame is what most folks look like before work: there’s a sense of anxiety that comes with knowing that one has to go to work that day. It’s not a fun feeling. Then there’s the second frame, that represents the trip to work, which comes with another entire set of feelings, usually involving even more anxiety. Then there’s that feeling that happens while one is at work, which usually involves feeling trapped somewhere that is literally taking you nowhere - like jail. Finally, there’s the sense of relief that comes with the end of the work day.
Ronald McJoker
When it comes to characters like the Joker, mash-ups are bound to happen. Someone somewhere will decide to mix the Joker with another character from a different fandom and create an entirely new character that just works. Cosplayers do it all the time.
Someone decided to do something a bit more obvious - so obvious that no one else thought of doing it before. Someone took Ronald McDonald, the clown that acts as the mascot for McDonald’s, and chose to mash it up with Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker. And it’s so brilliant, that it’s frightening.
This also means that no one will look at Ronald McDonald the same way ever again, but perhaps that can be said of all clowns after everyone saw the Joker in The Dark Knight.
Someone mashed up these two clowns, creating something new and utterly terrifying. Then they added some dialogue that should seem innocuous, but seems terrifying when taken in this context. It’s customary for McDonald’s employees to ask customers if they want fries with their orde, but when that question gets asked in a sinister way by this mashed-up character, it’s pretty freaking scary. No, no one wants fries with that, thank you very much!
Makeup game
Before Mustachegate invaded the world of Justice League, there was another actor with a mustache in the DC universe, who insisted on keeping the ‘stache in spite of the role he played not requiring one. That actor was Cesar Romero, and although most don’t know it now, his mustache was part of his signature look and the reason he got a lot of roles in the 1960s. At the time, he played the quintessential Latin lover in a lot of movies, and the mustache was all part of the aesthetic.
When it came time for Romero to take on the role of the Joker in the 1960s Batman series, he insisted that the mustache stay, in spite of the Joker clearly not having a mustache. The Batman makeup team just did their best to cover that mustache up with as much white makeup as they could muster. That’s the story of why closeup shots of the Joker in that series reveals a hairy white upper lip on Romero: he refused to shave.
Just like Romero, women are perfectly right to refuse to shave any hair they may have on their upper lip - but if they make that call, trying to cover up said hair with make-up only makes it more obvious. Of course, this is still better than the CGI used to remove Henry Cavill’s mustache in Justice League.
Stop
There are some hardcore DC Comics fans that will only allow one iteration of The Joker to ever persist in their minds as a the acceptable version.
Certain fans get pretty angry when someone else tries to step into the role of the Joker.
These fans think that no one but their favorite Joker actor could do the character justice, and maybe, sometimes, they’re right. The Joker is constantly evolving and changing, though, and that’s the beauty of it.
Still, that attitude persists. When Heath Ledger got the role of the Joker in The Dark Knight, DC fans had a fit: he would never live up to the part as portrayed by Jack Nicholson in previous films. And yet, Ledger won those fans over, so now those fans won’t accept any other Joker actors that come after. Of course, they’re probably justified in hating Jared Leto’s take on the character, but for some reason, those fans also really hate the version currently on TV in Gotham.It’s a little odd given that Gotham swears up and down that neither Jerome or Jeremiah will ever actually get called the Joker on the series.
Fans still persist on making memes that basically call out Jerome and Jeremiah’s Joker as wrong. This meme goes there.
What the future looks like
Let’s face it: Batman is getting pretty old. He first appeared in 1939 in Detective Comics #37, the creation of Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Throughout all that time, he hasn’t really aged, as if he somehow discovered the Fountain of Youth. Or maybe he’s a vampire, which would totally explain his strange bat obsession. (That really happened once!)
The Joker is also really old: he first appeared in comics in 1940 in the first issue of Batman. Since then, he’s spent decades trying to end the bat, as well as trying to create chaos in Gotham City. He became the antithesis of Batman, and the Caped Crusader’s number one enemy - to the point that he is one of the most iconic comic book villains to ever exist.
Yes, Batman and the Joker are getting up there in years. These guys are really old, although they never age in the comic books. What if they did age? What if they were as old as they should be? This meme hilariously thinks about that and shows Batman and the Joker in their prime, but then it shows what it would look like now: two old crazy men in a nursing facility fighting each other with walkers and canes.
Because that’s my name
As we’ve discussed previously, memes often get mashed up to the point that fans need knowledge of multiple fandoms to get them. But that’s the beauty of memes: they take the ordinary and turn them into something pretty funny - something that perhaps other people have thought of, but never actually said.
To explain this meme for those who aren’t Potterheads, there’s a character in the Harry Potter books and movies called Sirius Black. Sirius is Harry’s godfather and was portrayed by Gary Oldman in the Harry Potter movies.
Oddly enough, Gary Oldman also portrayed Jim Gordon in the Batman movies, so that’s already combining the two fandoms, right?
In The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger’s Joker likes to ask a few questions a lot. One is the question about how he got his scars. The other is when he asks others “Why so serious?”
This is funny, because Sirius (and remember that it’s pronounced like “serious”) is actually telling the Joker in this meme that he’s serious because Sirius is his name. Don’t think about it too hard or your head might hurt. Just accept it, laugh, and move on. That’s what memes are for. Never think too hard about any of them.
Home Alone
One thing that most DC Comics fans agree on when it comes to actors who have portrayed the Joker is that Jared Leto’s take on the character just wasn’t that good. That criticism goes all the way back to when DC first released an image of Leto as the Joker in Suicide Squad.
Leto’s look alone in that movie was enough to get DC fans riled up. He looked like a weird version of the Joker meets a SoundCloud rapper, and most fans agreed that it just didn’t work. Sure, Leto did something different, but when the film premiered, he didn’t back it up with a very good performance as the iconic Batman villain.
Now, Leto will forever get teased about his take on the Joker - a take that no one really wanted or liked. Then again, he had to follow Heath Ledger as the Joker, and it’s unlikely that anyone will ever live up to that brilliance - and if they do, they’ll have to work hard to convince fans that they’re worthy.
So here’s a meme making fun of Leto’s Joker look in the Suicide Squad, because he really does look like a deranged Kevin McCallister from Home Alone.
It’s showtime
Even those who weren’t alive around the time of the release of Beetlejuice know the movie, either from watching it on TV or seeing it on DVD or Blu-Ray. Beetlejuice is an iconic Tim Burton character and one that many fans would like to see return to TV. Those who know the movie also know that there is one way to get rid of or summon Beetlejuice and that is by saying his name three times.
The Joker and Beetlejuice actually have a lot in common.
They both like to create chaos wherever they go. They both love to play tricks on silly mortals. They both love to watch the world burn just to get what they want - which is sometimes just to watch the world burn. They are creatures of anarchy and would bring down entire communities just for the fun of it.
Oddly enough, they also look a lot alike. They both wear distinctive suits more often than not. They both have white and pasty skin. They both look like something that crawled out of a nightmare. They both smile a lot.
This meme is funny because it points out the similarities between Beetlejuice and the Joker. Way to go, Batman.
Serious or not?
“Why so serious?” became a pop culture touchstone after the release of The Dark Knight. It’s sort of sums up the entire character of the Joke; a man who laughs at everything and wants to see the world go up in flames as he destroys it. Everything is a joke to the Joker and nothing is above being laughed at. In fact, the Joker would like everyone to laugh for all eternity, which is why he has his famous laughing gas.
Heath Ledger delivering those iconic words as the Joker remains firmly planted as part of our culture now. So naturally, there are a lot of meme about the “Why so serious?” line. This is a different take on that, though, because it uses a screenshot from The Dark Knight, where the Joker is looking at a man as if he’s not quite so sure how to react in this situation.
So someone took that screenshot and made it into a meme, because that’s what the Internet does. Everything is funny at some point. The Joker would approve.
In this meme, someone decided that the Joker was trying to decide if this man was serious or not. So what’s it going to be?
How I got these scars
In The Dark Knight, the Joker has a horribly disfigured face. It is as if someone took a knife and cut him on both sides of his mouth so that he would always look like he has a smile - commonly referred to as a “Glasgow Smile.: What’s most interesting is no one really knows why he looks that way, and when asked, the Joker isn’t telling - at least, not really.
Throughout The Dark Knight, the Joker asks several people to ask him about how he got his scars. It’s as if he is proud of whatever happened to him that makes him look like a psychopath.
There’s one problem with the Joker offering up the story of his scars: he’s the Joker, and he will never actually give people a straight story.
Every time he asks someone if they know how he got his scars, he tells a different stor - and that’s so very much like the Joker, because he would never tell the real story (or is one of those stories the real story?) to someone. The idea is to always keep them guessing. That’s something the Joker is better at than any other character in the world.
