The Joker: Ranking the live incarnations of the Clown Prince of Crime

2. Jack Nicholson

Before Loki, Magneto or anyone else, Jack Nicholson’s Joker was the ideal to strive towards. His casting in 1988 was a huge deal, that gave credence to the notion of this Batman film. He plays it big, grand and at times pretty hilariously. Jack Nicholson is probably the funniest Joker and also the most comic book accurate on as well some may argue.

Jack Nicholson truly underlines the clown part of his title. We see this in both his fashion, and his acts. The scene where it was ‘time to pay the check’ is quite clownish. You have his over the top behavior like the way he pushes his shopping cart in his own ad or over-the-top dialogue such as ‘this town needs an enema!’ We see him dancing around and uttering various things, all for his own humor. This is what makes him stand out for the rest. Anything Joker does is because he finds it funny, not other real motivation than that. Nicholson was able to channel a little bit of fear, especially with his birth with the mirror and his big reveal.

The humor is a bit hampering now. In comparison to more recent films and incarnations, Jack Nicholson might as well be today’s Cesar Romero. Then there is the problem of his over-exposure in Batman. The film barely centers on its title character. Instead, Tim Burton was more interested in The Joker. A villain should be something of a monster, terrifying. Yet, the more we see of the monster, the less scary they are. Plus, why is Jack Nicholson’s Joker so intrigued with Vicki Vale? This hardly seems in character. Tim Burton more or less made a traditional story of yesterday of the hero saving the princess from the villain. No doubt, Jack Nicholson’s Joker is forever great, but there are a few hang-ups.