Who Is The Best Joker?

Portraying The Joker is a thankless job. You're gonna piss someone off no matter what you do. There have been a few actors that have played him and each has brought their own spin to it. For me the best was Mark Hamill's from the Batman The Animated Series. Maybe it has to do with the fact he did it so many times and it stuck with me but still, he is just incredible. Its hard to read a Batman comic book without using that voice in my head. I have come up with a list of four guys that have played him in film and television. I discovered that Booger from Revenge Of The Nerds played him in a commercial once!

Andrew Koenig As The Joker

There are still people running around not knowing that Batman: Dead End exists. Its a short film where Batman faces The Joker, Alien, and The Predator. Its amazing. Well, Koenig, who you may remember as Boner from Growing Pains plays The Joker and holy shit does he look like him! This guy pulls off what, to me, is the best interpretation visually of him based on the comic books. I wanted him to play him in the Christopher Nolan films but he killed himself a few years ago after years of battling depression.

Why It Worked

In less than two minutes screen time Koenig managed to capture everything that is evil and scary about The Joker. The laugh, the yellow and red eyes, the long nose, the chin, the hair. Everything but the voice was on point but this was made about ten years ago and I was still being "Hamill'd." When he blames Batman for him being who he is I believe him. I would have loved to see this character fleshed out in a live action movie based off of The Killing Joke. I think he could have pulled it off.

Cesar Romero As The Joker

This was my first exposure to The Joker. As a child I didn't think that he was scary. When I saw him without the makeup I was surprised that a guy that looked so damned suave could pull off this role. For years this guy was the template by which I based all Joker's.

Why It Worked

By now we all know how insane and scary The Joker is. But this version of him was more troublesome than deadly. Yes, he would set up insane ass traps for Batman but he seemed more like a prankster jerk than a threat to someone's life. I'm not trying to knock the character but he was very one dimensional back when this was around. When it comes to flat out whacky ass Joker this guy has everyone beat.

Heath Ledger As The Joker

The thing with this guy is that he hadn't been in a film where I thought much of him. No, I have not seen Brokeback Mountain but I did see A Knight's Tale...for three minutes before running back to the video store to exchange it. So when I found out he was playing The Joker I was not all that excited. I thought he was too pretty and more of a co-star than anything else.

Why It Worked

Ledger took The Joker on his worst day and kept him there. Not only did he have an original, more realistic look for the character, but the voice combined with the scars and the almost homeless look made for by far the creepiest Joker on film. While previous Joker's did things to amuse himself and others this one did things just because he could. He called himself an agent of chaos and was almost suicidal in his actions. Daring Batman to run him down, placing a gun being held by Harvey Dent to his head a day after murdering his fiancee, walking into a room full of dangerous men wearing a grenade filled jacket, and stealing millions of dollars just to burn it up. With no real back story this version of The Joker was fucking terrifying.

Jack Nicholson As The Joker

Even without the makeup Nicholson is scary. While I did not like this Batman film I did appreciate the fact that they were brave enough to go with someone so different. Joker is typically thin and agile and Nicholson has not been either of those things since the 1960's.

Why It Worked

They went with another direction with the origin of this Joker. He was already a criminal that tries to shoot at Batman and ends up getting hit in the face and falling into a vat. He gets some ghetto ass surgery and ends up with a permanent grin. He loses his shit and then runs around Gotham being a dick. I didn't find this version of The Joker satisfying. He didn't make me laugh and he didn't scare me which is something he has to do. To me he just seemed like a crazy guy that looked messed up. If a Joker was too “likable”, it was this one.

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