Killing Joke Radio Play Better Than Movie

This radio play adaptation of The Killing Joke is a more faithful adaptation of the material than the film

A controversial classic,The Killing Joke got an animated adaptation this year. But much like most of DC’s recent big screen efforts, most fans and critics were pretty disappointed in the film. They tried to expand Batgirl’s backstory to give her more purpose. But it just felt like an unconnected mediocre episode of the old animated series. With a pointless sex scene thrown in that nobody was wanting (except Paul Dini, that’s always been his thing).

So if like me, you were fairly disappointed in the animated adaptation, we may have a better alternative. Back in 2014, Caped Swoosh Productions produced a radio play of The Killing Joke. It’s not really an official thing backed by DC or Warner Bros. It was a fan project for a New Jersey Radio station.

It’s also not a traditional radio play adaptation. It’s more of a straight read of the material with some added sound effects for intensity. Most radio plays would add exposition and narration to explain better what is going on for the audience. If you have read the graphic novel, you’ll probably be able to follow along, but otherwise you might be a little lost. Give a listen to this pretty good and faithful radio play below:

Next: Review Of The Killing Joke

It’s not perfect, but this fan-made radio play is miles better than the movie adaptation. Even missing the likes of Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill & Tara Strong. Granted, Killing Joke was always going to be a hard story to adapt to film. It’s a story made for comics, without enough material for a feature-length movie on its own. It makes me worry what they might do if they ever get to a live-action version in DCEU. Though maybe they’ll just act like it already happened since Batman has been around for 20+ years anyways.

h/t CBR