While Batman is one of the world's most famous superheroes, his archenemy the Joker is one of the world's most famous villains. Known for his iconic appearance, the Joker resembles a terrifying clown with white skin, green hair, and red lips. His face is also scared into a freakish smile, and is often a trait he inflicts on his victims. The Batman comic book explains the Joker got his appearance after falling into chemical waste. Other versions of Batman, such as the movie, "The Dark Knight", depict the Joker having no recorded name, fingerprints, address, or any other known source of origin.Regardless of his background, the Joker is universally recognizable for his characterization as an extremely intelligent but wildly insane psychopath with a very sick sense of humor. The Joker thrives on violently twisted pranks and gimmicks and routinely involves his victims in sadistic games meant to physically and mentally agonize them. The Joker is considered a superior criminal to others as his crimes are driven by complex motivations. While most crooks are motivated by simplistic desires of money and power, the Joker is a different breed of criminal. As articulated by Batman's butler and sidekick, Alfred, in the movie "The Dark Knight", "some men aren't looking for anything logical like money, they can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with, some men just want to watch the world burn."A self-proclaimed agent of chaos, the Joker is the ultimate terrorist, as his crimes are not meant to achieve material gain but rather to insight fear and terror. 
For example, in the Dark Knight the Joker threatens to blow up a hospital if a named individual is not murdered within an hour. Gotham is immediately thrown into a frenzied panic. Regular citizens concerned for their loved ones in hospitals begin making assassination attempts on the innocent victims life as they are driven to desperation by fear. Such behavior is exactly what the Joker wishes to achieve as he thrives on individuals turning to madness and violence when faced with incredible adversity. The Joker's power comes from his ability to tap into the darkest corners of the human psyche. His crimes are meant to break the spirit and hope of individual's leading them to believe there is no control in the world, no hope, and no point to ones actions. There is no right and wrong simply chaos. There is nothing more terrifying to the human mind then a world without reason.In the absence of reason and order people succumb to fear and in a world driven by fear there is only anarchy. As a figure of insanity it is ironic that people are drawn to the Joker because of the truth and logic, which underlines his actions. In the face of the constant adversity and tragedy that is human life, everyone experiences a point where they wonder why they try, why they don't just give up or give into madness and corruption. As a villain the Joker thrives on this loss of faith. Individuals will always be faced with the choice between right and wrong when encountering life's obstacles, there will always be those who choose to be heroes and those who give into villainy.Below is a clip from “The Dark Knight” in which the Joker threatens to blow up a hospital causing chaos to ensue.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRG1tWQN6e8&feature=related
3 thoughts on “The Joker: The Super Villain”
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Great post! The Joker, mostly the Dark Knight version, is definitely one of the most fascinating villains that ever has come out of fiction. His real villainy comes from his ability to make people question the basic principles of human decency that they have accepted already as members of society. For a psychology student, he really is a great villain to study.
I’ve always been a huge fan of the joker. He is a proponent of population control and at one point in the movie he burns a huge pile of money, thus aiding the United States in deflation of the US dollar. Clinton was the last president who took an active role in the deflation of the dollar that is necessary to keep inflation in check. The government often prints too much money in the hopes of repaying foreign debts, but when this inflation is not kept in check, you can have the sort of hyper-inflation that afflicted countries such as Germany (post WWI) and more recently, Zimbabwe. The Joker also is responsible for the de-institutionalization of a number of mentally unstable patients. He gave these patients a purpose and the chance to play an active role in society, which is something that he never receives due credit for.
Like Geoff, I have also always loved the Joker. In my opinion, he is one of the greatest villains of all time, especially in the Dark Night. Not only is he downright cruel and malicious, he is also extremely intelligent and manipulative. He has the ability to make people question their moral beliefs and to question whether or not they are just as evil as he is! In fact, in many situations throughout the movie, the Joker is able to escape capture because of his ability to trick people and play mind games. Overall, the Joker is undeniably one of the most deranged, psychotic killers of all comic book characters and quite easily one of the best villains.