Which is the best Joker performance? This is a discussion that will never end. The character first appeared in Batman #1 in 1940, but this article is going to explore the non-comic version of Joker and try to explain what is the main problem with modern takes on the character. There are the purists who will always praise Cesar Romero for being the first Joker in the ’60s Batman TV show. You’ll have those who’ll claim that Heath Ledger’s turn as The Clown Prince of Crime from The Dark Knight is the definitive take on the character. Maybe you preferred the gritter Joker from Joker, with Joaquin Phoenix? But, what if I told you that all of them are wrong and none of them were the best?

Of course, who you think played Joker the best is purely subjective, and we each have our personal preferences. But, I have a perfectly valid point to make… none of the modern takes on Joker have been the Joker. Nowadays, the focus on the character is mental health and such. Yeah, that is an element of the character, that is why he’s often locked up in Arkham Asylum. But, Joker’s state of mind is only a part of his personality and not all of it, this is something that modern versions of the character completely miss.

Just going back to Heath Ledger’s Joker, massively praised and he even (posthumously) won an Oscar for the role too. However, I’d argue that he never played Joker well at all. The quality of the acting aside, the character he played always felt more like an overzealous henchman to me, and not The Clown Prince of Crime. He was scary, he was intimidating, he had a wonderful laugh and yeah, it was a fantastic performance… he just wasn’t Joker. Why? Well, he wasn’t ‘jokey’. ‘Why so serious?’ Yeah, that’s actually a great question to ask. Why was this Joker so serious? I’m now going to include an image that I know will piss off a great many Batman/Joker fans…

Yeah, this was not exactly a well-liked take on the character, was it? Jared Leto was absolutely panned for his version of Joker, even though it wasn’t his fault at all. He just wore the costume, had the make-up put on him and read his scripted lines while being directed. However… that ‘Damaged’ tattoo on his head. This is a great example of the main problem with modern takes on the character. This is the focus, the ‘damage’. There is this constant push on the audience to tell us that Joker is unstable… but there’s no ‘fun’ with the character any more.

I adore Joker as a film. I remember seeing the early photos of Joaquin Phoenix in the ‘McDonald’s’ make-up before the film’s release, and I joined in when people made fun of it. Honestly, it looked terrible, and I was more than willing to rip the film apart. Only there was a bit of an issue, the film was amazing. I sat there after watching it, and I was speechless. Joker is a wonderful film that explores mental health and psychology in a truly fantastic way. Phoenix is phenomenal in the role too (another Oscar win for the character), a stunning transformation that was one of the best acting performances I had seen at the time. If I were to pick an issue that I have with the film though, that would be that it is not a Joker film. It’s a film about a man with mental health issues who wears clown make-up. As with Heath Ledger and as with Jared Leto, there’s no fun. Even though Joaquin Phoenix played Arthur Fleck, a guy with aspirations to become a comedian… he’s not funny. He had some very slight instances of fun. The dance on the stairs is one small highlight, but mostly, this Joker was (much like Heath Ledger) too serious.

All of these modern versions of Joker are about him being scary, damaged, mentally ill… but not fun. Just going back to Cesar Romero in the ’60s Batman show for a while, he was fun… massive fun. Yeah, this version of the character didn’t have the darker aspects from the comics. I suppose that it couldn’t really, what with the Batman show being aimed at families and a younger audience. Plus, I’m pretty sure that certain filming codes and rules wouldn’t allow a TV show to take the Joker to a darker place in the ’60s. Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho came out in 1960 and that received backlash for featuring a flushing toilet that Hitchcock had to fight to keep in the film. Anyway, Romero’s Joker was awesome because he was fun. He joked, he laughed and more. He was a bit too ‘pantomime’ at times, but he really worked because he was allowed to have fun with the character. That is what is missing from all the other Jokers. They may get the evil side of the character, but the lighter side is gone completely and Joker is a yin and yang type character. If only there was a version of the character that was both dark, twisted, and murderous, but one that still knows how to have fun along the way.

Yeah, just like Jack Nicholson. This is the best version of Joker we have ever had. In fact, this is the only real on-screen version of Joker we have ever had. When people offer their opinion of who was the best Joker. Heath Ledger, Joaquin Phoenix, etc, they’re all wrong because they weren’t playing Joker. They just played characters called Joker that wore a bit of make-up. Nicholson’s Joker was the real thing. This version got it all right, he had an evil and darker side. This was a Joker who killed his ‘number one guy’ (Bob) out of frustration because Batman stole his balloons. This Joker purposely disfigured his girlfriend, Alicia (for ‘art’) and then threw her off a balcony to kill her… and laughed about it. This Joker fried a man to death using a hand-buzzer gag. Yup, he killed using a practical joke. This is Joker, he kills, he’s twisted… but he has fun with it. He’ll sacrifice an entire city and try to kill them with poisonous gas… and he’ll also be on TV doing an ad and dancing around a supermarket or sitting on a beach, where he makes fun of the fact that he has unleashed that poison into the city via cosmetics (‘Love that Joker’).

Jack Nicholson’s Joker is the perfect mix of the macabre and the comical, the dark and light. This is the only Joker to get it right so far. As great as Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix were (and Jared Leto wasn’t) with their performances… they weren’t playing the Joker. Nicholson had everything, and not just some of the character’s darker personality. This Joker would be in a fight with Batman, put a pair of glasses on and try the old ‘You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses’ bit. He’d still be cracking wise even when getting beaten up. He’d dance around an art studio to Prince’s music after (probably) killing everyone inside. This Joker would smash a TV with a comedy boxing glove on an extendable arm because he just watched something that he didn’t like. This Joker would even have the last laugh after death. This is The Joker. Not just some scary, twisted, damaged and mentally ill killer… he’s a joker, hence the name. Sadly, and looking at the glimpses we have seen of the new Joker from the new The Batman universe… we’re (most probably) going to be getting more of the same Heath Ledger, Joaquin Phoenix and Jared Leto stuff and none of the fun Jack Nicholson stuff.

So then, this should settle the ‘who is the best Joker’ argument once and for all (though it won’t) because we have only ever had one true Joker. There is no ‘best’, there is only Jack Nicholson. Well, of course, I am only talking about the live-action versions of the character. We all know that Mark Hamill is the definitive Joker… but that is a whole other article.