Poll: Best Joker?

notyouraveragejoe

Dehakchakala!
Nov 8, 2008
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sinclose said:
Mark Hamill for me is simply the best. Yes, even better than Heath Ledger.

Just watch him in Batman Beyond:Return Of The Joker Uncensored cut...
Yes. This to the max. That was an awesome animated film and Mark Hamill was just excellent as the Joker. He's one of the reasons I loved Batman: Arkham Asylum.
 
Aug 25, 2009
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None of them.

If I'm going by the comic book Joker (which I am) then only a combination of all of them could be the best interpretation, and even that wouldn't be exactly what I wanted.

Mark Hamill's Joker's voice and manic nature
Caeser Romero's over the top campiness (remember, the Joker swishes around in a purple suit, and in one comic book wears a Haiwaiin shirt and straw boater hat!)
Heath Ledger's insane anarchic policies
Jack Nicholson's Jokers joking in the middle of doing the most appalling things, and a lot of his jokes are truly terrible (another hallmark of the Joker)

And I don't know the other two but I know that they won't have achieved the mania of the original Joker.

So yeah, that's the Joker I want, is the actual Joker from the comic books brought to life properly with nothing left out or made more 'gritty'.

But from that list I pick Mark Hamill, especially in Arkham Asylum, he's always been the voice and mania of the Joker for me, so seeing him representing with the Ledger Joker's insanity and the Nicholson Joker's jokes was so damn close, he just didn't have the camp nature of the Romero Joker.
 

SavingPrincess

Bringin' Text-y Back
Feb 17, 2010
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Caurus said:
I never got on with any TV versions of batman. Just don't think the quality is up to scratch. Comics or films...and even the films are a bit lacking sometimes.
I think that Batman: The Animated Series from the 90's was probably one of the best shows to ever grace television. The scripts, acting, direction, music and true-to-source depiction of the characters still stand in today's ADD-based world. Nostalgia glasses off, the show is still incredibly enjoyable to watch and hold legitimacy to this day. That makes me curious as to why you think the "quality" wasn't there.

[sub]I voted for Mark Hamill by the way[/sub]
 

Spitfire

New member
Dec 27, 2008
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Jack Nicholson, Mark Hamill, and Heath Ledger are all great Jokers in their own respective way, I can't pick one of them as being the absolute best.
 

RJ Dalton

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Aug 13, 2009
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When it comes to Hamill and Ledger, I don't like to make a definitive statement. Both are top notch for entirely different reasons and are going for to entirely different visions.
Hamill's Joker is arguably better scripted. His lines are more solid and contain a lot less on-the-nose dialogue. And, as the original author of the post said, he balances charming and sadistic really well. Hamill's Joker is a real bipolar sociopath. I mean, DSM-V textbook case. It's a really well put together psychology.
But Hamill, as good as he was, doesn't hold a candle to the unbelievable depth complexity of Ledger's performance. All the quirks, like the twitches, the licking of the lips, the sudden shifts in tone and the absolute smugness hidden beneath the layers of performance; Hamill put up a good show, but Ledger's performance is not to be topped. On the other hand, Joker's script in The Dark Knight at times doesn't feel as natural. All dialogue in fiction is obviously contrived, but there are a couple of times where things the Dark Knight's Joker says feels contrived. But, jumping back onto the first hand, Ledger's performance is so incredible that unless you're closely analyzing it, you won't notice it.

So yeah, I'm giving a tie between Hamill and Ledger. None of the other Jokers even come close.
 

Generic_Dave

Prelate Invigilator
Jul 15, 2009
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Mark Hamill. I always though that Jack, and now more recently Heath's portrayals were a bit too thoughtful. Too much planning, too much forethought. The Joker is always at his scariest when his assaults are random. Planning was always more the Riddler's department.
 

Sovvolf

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Mar 23, 2009
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Well for live action I'm going with Heath though if we are going for anything else... Mark Hamill, Mark is the voice of Joker. When I read a Batman Comic the voice I hear in my head when reading The Jokers dialogue is Mark Hamill and when it's Batman it's Kevin Conroy.
 

Caurus

New member
Mar 24, 2010
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SavingPrincess said:
Caurus said:
I never got on with any TV versions of batman. Just don't think the quality is up to scratch. Comics or films...and even the films are a bit lacking sometimes.
I think that Batman: The Animated Series from the 90's was probably one of the best shows to ever grace television. The scripts, acting, direction, music and true-to-source depiction of the characters still stand in today's ADD-based world. Nostalgia glasses off, the show is still incredibly enjoyable to watch and hold legitimacy to this day. That makes me curious as to why you think the "quality" wasn't there.

[sub]I voted for Mark Hamill by the way[/sub]
That is all down to opinion. I don't think the scripting was anything notable and I disagree with half of what you said; so I stand by my vote of Heath (which by the way is not that absurd).
By quality I guess I meant more originality, a lot of "animated series" follow very set structures of plot etc that I find boring and predictable. Those aren't words I would describe the series with, they just aren't for me as a whole.
To your credit I think the films are lacking in areas the animated series wasn't such as
"true to source depiction of the characters". Which is very good, I like that, but I don't think changing something automatically makes it worse.

I prefer Heath by far.
Anyways that's me done
 

theamazingbean

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Dec 29, 2009
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While Ledger was good, he was only superficially playing the Joker. He could have dropped the purple suit for a gimp suit and pink feather boa, started calling himself the French Tickler, and the character would have been just as good.
 

linwolf

New member
Jan 9, 2010
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Mark Hamill have a perfect voice for the joker.
But Jack Nicholson is the joker for me.
 

Woodsey

New member
Aug 9, 2009
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Ledger easily.

Hamill's is good in AA, but there's something that doesn't quite work for me. I think it's because he plays a not-quite-as-violent-compared-to-Ledger Joker though.
 

reg42

New member
Mar 18, 2009
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I liked Heath Ledger, because he just felt like someone who would do all the shit that the joker did. Jack Nicholson was great, but I thought he went a bit over the top.
 

Proteus214

Game Developer
Jul 31, 2009
2,270
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As much as I love Jack Nicholson's version of the Joker, Heath Ledger's was just plain amazing. He walked this fine line between being really silly and being scary as hell. Particularly the scene where he's filming the Batman wannabe that he captured; he went from clowning around to "HOLY FUCK" instantly, and it worked.