Few might dispute the notion that the Joker is one of the best, if not the best supervillain modern pop culture has ever seen. Those who have spent time reading about his endeavours and ventures in the comics especially would agree beyond a shadow of a doubt, and even more so if they're fans of comic book characters. And while most of us simply observe the Joker as a crazy maniac with serious issues that needs to be stopped or put down, few of us ever really stop and consider what might actually be wrong with the Clown Prince of Crime.
So I stumbled upon a video on Youtube once, a while back, which I recently found again, having lost it shortly before, the first time around. Made by a game/film theorist who goes by the name, 'The Imaginary Axis', the video attempted to provide what I believe is the most spectacular and mind boggling explanation of why the Joker is the way he is.
It starts by refuting the idea that he is 'insane' or 'psychotic', by establishing that insanity (at least as the law understands it), is typically the case of a person who either does not, or did not, at the moment of the crime have control of his actions, or is/was incapable of differentiating between right and wrong, which never seem to be the case with the Joker, as he has demonstrated on multiple occasions that he is more than a little aware of how his actions may be perceived, and what they might result in, as well as having precise control of said actions as well, with the only reasonable (known) ailment he can be diagnosed with being psychopathy, characterized by lack of emotional connection to people or morals, disregard for norms, rights and values, and tendency for violence, as psychosis' symptoms usually involve visual and auditory hallucinations, making people see things that aren't really there, and which results in their erratic behaviour.
And while psychopathy might seem to cover more or less adequately the nature of his actions and thoughts, there have also been moments when he has been subjected to conditions that have altered him temporarily in ways that a normal psychopath of any kind could never be, and such moments are referred to in the video, including when characters or events gave him temporary sanity, through which he expressed immense regret at all he had done, and an emotional need to make amends, shortly before resuming his normal psychopathic tendencies, a change also reflected during a phase in a comic book wherein he believed he had actually successfully killed the Batman, preceded by him desperately trying to prove to himself that the Bat wasn't actually dead.
At the end of the video, the conclusion 'Axis' reaches is a whopper to anyone who does not already know this, or had some inclination as to where this was going, and is substantiated by multiple nods made to it by the comics and cartoons. I'm not a big fan of long videos, but I can honestly say without a doubt that this was one of the best fifteen minute theory videos I'd ever seen.
Let me know what you thought in the comments, and enjoy!
