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.
