Thoughts on the Philosophy Behind The Killing Joke – Was the Joker Right?

 

 

            I recently reread the classic Batman comic The Killing Joke. To summarize, the comic gives us a possible backstory for the Joker in flashback sequences in which he was a down-and-out comedian with a pregnant wife who agrees to do one job for a crime gang, only for her to die in a supposed “freak accident” and for him to end up disfigured at a chemical plant; while in the present he concocts a horrible scheme that involves shooting and paralyzing Commissioner Gordon’s daughter Barbara (also Batgirl), taking lewd pictures of her, and kidnapping Commissioner Gordon to torment him with said pictures in an over-the-top carnival ride in an attempt to drive him insane. The comic has been deeply criticized for its treatment of Barbara Gordon, most vocally by feminists. I don’t blame them for having a problem with it, and its really one aspect the comic could have done without. She did come back from it under the alias Oracle, giving crippled comic fans a superhero to look up to, but that doesn’t excuse it. There was an animated adaptation which made matters even worse by adding a plotline about an affair between Batgirl and Batman as well, which I found to be mostly disappointing, also for its pacing issues when it got to covering the actual comic. But, in any case, while acknowledging its problematic elements, I read it chiefly for the compelling philosophical thesis behind it. In doing these heinous acts, the Joker hopes to convey to the world that anyone could become as insane as he is if given enough of a push. “All it takes is one bad day.” He also believes, in classic nihilism, that the world is a joke, and the things that people value and strive for don’t really matter; it’s all part of a monstrous gag. He conveys this through a monologue he gives over a speaker system at the carnival he’s hijacked, while Batman makes his way to find him. You can read the monologue on TV Tropes here.

           

            The Joker makes the argument that anyone can lose their sanity, and that everything’s meaningless and a joke when you look at the bigger picture. He brings up the example of the real cause of World War II being over how many telegraph poles Germany owed its war debt collectors; this is just one of an infinite such examples he could have used, really. His solution to this is to let go of your cares and worries and laugh; to go insane. And furthermore any other response to the revelation of the world’s true nature is itself insane. He tries to make Batman see his point by deducing that Batman himself is as insane as Joker is, only he’s in denial about it. I suppose when instead of redistributing some of his billionaire wealth to fund social programs and eliminate poverty he elects to dress as a bat and beat people up with hi-tech gadgets in order to reduce crime in Gotham, Joker may have a point there (and as an aside, I find the most unrealistic aspect of the Batman franchise not to be the psychopathic killer clown, nor the mutant crocodile man, nor the mutant penguin man, nor the man made out of clay, but a billionaire who actually seems to care about the world and anyone besides themselves; but then again, his reluctance to use his wealth to actually make Gotham a better place is pretty in-line with billionaire logic). And what counterargument does the comic present? Commissioner Gordon retains his sanity, and Batman says to Joker’s argument “I’ve heard it all before, and it wasn’t funny the first time.” Oh okay, so a clever one-liner followed by a punch means he’s debunked nihilism, I guess. “Strong man in bat costume punch clown, now clown is wrong and life have meaning.” Maybe Joker just didn’t strike the right nerve to push Gordon over the edge, or maybe Gordon just has a stubborn apathy about him that anchors him to sanity. In short, the comic acts like it has disproven the Joker because he ends up defeated, when really it hasn’t.

 

            I do not approve of the Joker’s methods, of causing unnecessary suffering to prove his point. But I wonder if he was right. I mean you could try to prove that 2-1=1 by finding two people and killing one of them. You’ll have done something awful but it doesn’t mean the equation is wrong. Humans cling to such abstractions as if they hold any real meaning on a grand cosmic scale; money, nations, flags, borders, race, the list goes on. People go to war, kill and die over borders and nations; lines on a map, nothing more. People starve and die because they don’t have enough of this “money”, which is nothing but abstract numbers. What really makes a physical US dollar worth more than a paper dollar from a Monopoly board game? Nations commit genocide against people because their skin color is different, or they have different religions. But it’s all made-up. It’s a fantasy. It’s all things that the powerful use to control the rest of us. I’ve seen and heard about enough injustice now, both throughout all of human history and in the present day, that justice itself seems like a naïve fairy tale. Just as fake as any of humanity’s other abstract creations that it takes so very seriously. If karma even exists, I think it only happens to people who feel enough guilt over what they’ve done. So you see, Batman punching Joker and sending him back to the insane asylum doesn’t suddenly make him wrong.

           

            As for everyone being one bad day away from insanity, I think that it is certainly possible for anyone to have a permanent mental breakdown that they never recover from because of a single terrible incident. Everyone has different limits though. Not everyone’s insanity looks like a psychotic cackling clown either. People can look and act normal on the outside but be broken on the inside. In fact, perhaps that is what happened to Commissioner Gordon. He keeps his inner turmoil locked up. As for myself, well, I have dysthymia; long-term depression. I’ll admit I’ve been pushed to the brink several times over the course of my life. I’ve had plenty of “bad days”. Some I might even say I never fully lived down or got over. But I’ve always ended up pulling myself together and carrying on, eventually. I hope I never have a day so bad that I never recover (knock on wood). But could it happen to me? Perhaps. I’m not going to say it couldn’t. The comic makes you think about what it is that keeps you holding it together. What is that fragile thing that, if removed, will cause you to crumble? It’s not a pleasant thing to think about, but it’s an important thing to think about.