How do you feel the Joker should die?

[Tvtyrant]

I think the appropriate one would be for the Joker to intentionally retire. He makes an offshore bank account that hires people to dress up like him and walk by security cameras every so often, then goes to Arkham and just hangs out. Every few weeks the city panics thinking he escaped due to Joker sightings, but he is always in his cell or playing bingo.

The time between sightings increases slowly over the years, until it becomes trendy to dress up like the Joker. Then he begins sueing people for copyright infringement on a copyright he managed to keep hidden all this time. Joker eventually becomes a media mogul from Arkham, and restores his celebrity by being the first certifiable media mogul in Gotham history.

[ArlEammon]

A Mortal Kombat DC crossover. . .

Johnny Cage punches The Joker in the balls so hard he dies from shock.

[Ramza00]

The time between sightings increases slowly over the years, until it becomes trendy to dress up like the Joker. Then he begins sueing people for copyright infringement on a copyright he managed to keep hidden all this time. Joker eventually becomes a media mogul from Arkham, and restores his celebrity by being the first certifiable media mogul in Gotham history.

How does G. Gordon Godfrey fit in this story about media moguls?

[Sapphire Guard]

He gets played by someone like Ra's or Bane and is disposed of afterwards with the realisation that he was never as dangerous or important as he thought he was.

Batman indulged the 'greatest enemy' stuff because it kept the Joker focused on him instead of civilians, the relationship is not and never was mutual.

[zimmerwald1915]

The time between sightings increases slowly over the years, until it becomes trendy to dress up like the Joker. Then he begins sueing people for copyright infringement on a copyright he managed to keep hidden all this time.

You can't ordinarily copyright an outfit - at best you can copy an element that, if it were removed from the outfit, could conceivably be copyrighted, like a distinctive design used as a decal or print on a shirt.

You can, however, trademark an outfit.

[Jeivar]

He gets played by someone like Ra's or Bane and is disposed of afterwards with the realisation that he was never as dangerous or important as he thought he was.

Batman indulged the 'greatest enemy' stuff because it kept the Joker focused on him instead of civilians, the relationship is not and never was mutual.

... I like this.

[Ramza00]

He gets played by someone like Ra's or Bane and is disposed of afterwards with the realisation that he was never as dangerous or important as he thought he was.

Batman indulged the 'greatest enemy' stuff because it kept the Joker focused on him instead of civilians, the relationship is not and never was mutual.

Vandal Savage would be a good choice with this logic?

For you have the mastermind angle and also have a person who invokes humanity and the greater sea of humanity? What is subjectivity and what is objectivity in the great sea that is time, a man who is both immortal but also has seen thousands of years in the great sea that is time. You agree or disagree with this logic Sapphire Guard?

[Scarlet Knight]

Probably would have to be Harley.

Harley Quinn hadn't visited Arkham in years, since she finished her last sentence. She felt tired and old and sick of the prison. Yet there she was, prodded by Poison Ivy, on the geriatric floor. The Joker sat before her, Alzheimers leaving him just a shell of his old self. He kept telling an old joke about a scheme to "make President Roosevelt dance for him" over and over again. Only toward the end did he seem to recognize her. "Dr. Quinn? Here to adjust my medication? Too late! It's already maladjusted! Hahahahaha! "

A kid orderly walked by, and smirked. Harley caught his look and turned on him. "You don't get it, do ya? Do you know who dat is?" She turned back toward Mr. J and muttered: "He had the most imaginative mind in the woirld".

It was later that night that she actually broke into Arkham, and placed a pillow over the Joker's face. She knew he wouldn't want to live like this. "Good night, sweet Clown Prince" she sobbed.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Can't think of a better way than how Terry managed to best and finally destroy the Joker. The Joker finally gets Batman to laugh, its just not in anyway like he wants.

[Ravens_cry]

Can't think of a better way than how Terry managed to best and finally destroy the Joker. The Joker finally gets Batman to laugh, its just not in anyway like he wants.

At the end of The Killing Joke,

Spoiler

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Batman laughs at a rather hilarious joke by the Joker. There's a theory that Batman also kills The Joker at the end.

[Ramza00]

At the end of The Killing Joke,

Spoiler

Show

Batman laughs at a rather hilarious joke by the Joker. There's a theory that Batman also kills The Joker at the end.

Don't get me started on the recoloring of The Killing Joke that occurs when you buy the Anniversary Graphic Novel copy.

Spoiler: For Picts

Show

I own the updated version of The Killing Joke but I wish I could get the original coloring.







-----

And I will simply not talk about the Killing Joke Animated Movie for it is 10x worse.

[Sapphire Guard]

Vandal Savage would be a good choice with this logic?

For you have the mastermind angle and also have a person who invokes humanity and the greater sea of humanity? What is subjectivity and what is objectivity in the great sea that is time, a man who is both immortal but also has seen thousands of years in the great sea that is time. You agree or disagree with this logic Sapphire Guard?

The logic is good, but ideally it would be a Bat Rogue, someone Joker knows and might underestimate.

Ra's or Bane would be good, but someone like the Riddler could be even better.

I'm not usually fond of the Bat-Joker great relationship type of stories. I want to see this happen in a comic sometime.

NPC: Why don't you kill the Joker?

Batman: Why should I? He's not more dangerous than any of the others. The difference is what he did to Jason and Barbara, but that means he hurt me and people close to me. Killing him wouldn't be justice or serve a greater good, it would just be revenge.

[Lord Vukodlak]

An aged Bruce pulls a gun on the joker and the shock that he might actually shoot causes The Joker to die from a fatal heart attack.

[Tvtyrant]

An aged Bruce pulls a gun on the joker and the shock that he might actually shoot causes The Joker to die from a fatal heart attack.

This brings up the possibility of Alfred killing him. The Joker discovers Bruce's identity and Alfred shoots him in the back to protect his secret.

[Lord Vukodlak]

This brings up the possibility of Alfred killing him. The Joker discovers Bruce's identity and Alfred shoots him in the back to protect his secret.

I was mentioning a way he actually died in the comics...

[Raimun]

During the afternoon when Superman stops all the crime in Gotham:

[Anteros]

I've always liked the stories where when Batman disappears the Joker simply retires and becomes a normal person. It's simply not fun for him anymore without the Batman.

[The Jack]

Op's suggestion is pretty solid.
I've always though the joker has too often put himself in vulnerable situation and made bad moves. Especially When he deals with other crime bosses and is so rude and capricious, they aught to kill him.

[Leewei]

It all starts with a heist gone bad.

While running from the bank, a rope snaps, releasing an anvil that plummets down toward the Joker's head. Noticing it at the last instant, he throws himself to one side, only to be nearly crushed under a falling safe. Sprawling on the sidewalk, both of his legs are then broken by a baby grand piano.

The ambulance taking him to the hospital is then sideswiped by the Joker's getaway vehicle, a stolen ice cream truck which had been left parked on top of a hill with the emergency brake disengaged. (The paramedics miraculously walk away without a scratch.)

The accident shatters both of his arms and his jawbone, leaving him convalescing for months while unable to talk or scratch an itch on the tip of his nose. With only a week left before his release back into Arkham, the Joker's vital signs suddenly plummet, leaving him comatose with multiple organ failure. The underlying cause? A septic funny bone.

[Ramza00]

Op's suggestion is pretty solid.
I've always though the joker has too often put himself in vulnerable situation and made bad moves. Especially When he deals with other crime bosses and is so rude and capricious, they aught to kill him.

That goes back to a man known as Fyodor Dostoyevsky*. Dostoyevsky in his first novel A Notes from The Underground via an unreliable narrator points out that sometimes people rebel against a practical utopia in order to affirm their own existence. They will choose spite some of the time where it may not be the most opportune outcome from a mathematical / rational perspective and that our emotions are just as legitimate part of our humanity as the cold calculating parts of our cognition.

For if we were entirely cold calculating machines we would be autonomous and thus all of history is a mistake, there will be no point of living, no point of subjectivity, etc. Humans on autopilot are no longer humans.

-----

Joker is a mixed kind of being, who is a mixture of order and chaos. Yes he takes "irrational" moves all the time, moves that risk his literal physical core to disaster, moves that do not look rational, but that is how he attacks systematic thought processes. He takes joy in being his own agent with his own will, even if that will is cruel, sadistic, absurd, yadda, yadda, yadda. For the joker feels alive and he feels free by being the mad clown.

Yet simultaneously the Joker does many things relating to order, he is not entirely random, he does things that makes his heart flutter and fills himself with joy, even if those acts are related to order. The Joker is a lunatic, literally a person who went crazy looked at the moon, and how the moon reflects all the light in the universe both good and bad. The joker is literally moonstruck as in the old Latin word where we get the word Lunatic from. But the concept of moonstruck goes back even further to the Greeks. Note I put * Dostoyevsky next to his name earlier. The greeks believed epilepsy, bipolar, and several other conditions had some connection to the moon, and the moon can produce unpredictable emotions. We know Dostoyevsky had a specific form of temporal lobe epilepsy where most of the time he was fine but he had episodes and different emotions during those episodes that come and go. Part of Dostoyevsky's writting is emphasizing that all humans need to recognize all those emotions are part of being human and seeing specific emotions as evil or good, wicked or charitable, can skew our soul if we do not accept our emotions but instead try to shame the emotions and create stigma.

-----

Sidenote the last few replies in this thread are making me think of How it Should Have Ended with The Dark Knight, one of my favorite HISHE.

[Scarlet Knight]

It all starts with a heist gone bad... releasing an anvil that plummets down... only to be nearly crushed under a falling safe.... a baby grand piano.... left parked on top of a hill with the emergency brake disengaged.... unable to talk or scratch an itch on the tip of his nose... The underlying cause? A septic funny bone.

Bra- VO, sir!

[Callos_DeTerran]

At the end of The Killing Joke,

Spoiler

Show

Batman laughs at a rather hilarious joke by the Joker. There's a theory that Batman also kills The Joker at the end.

Aye, I've heard of that but there's a key difference there. In The Killing Joke theory, the Joker actually gets what he wants during the scene so even if the theory is true the Joker still 'wins' which isn't what you want from a villain's death. In Return of the Joker, the Joker gets exactly what he wants but in a way that makes it entirely unpalatable to the Joker. Not just unpalatable but actually enrages him for perfectly logical reasons! The fact it comes with a great passing of the torch moment and can count as a victory for Terry AND for Bruce just makes it perfect across the board for me.

[Ramza00]

Aye, I've heard of that but there's a key difference there. In The Killing Joke theory, the Joker actually gets what he wants during the scene so even if the theory is true the Joker still 'wins' which isn't what you want from a villain's death. In Return of the Joker, the Joker gets exactly what he wants but in a way that makes it entirely unpalatable to the Joker. Not just unpalatable but actually enrages him for perfectly logical reasons! The fact it comes with a great passing of the torch moment and can count as a victory for Terry AND for Bruce just makes it perfect across the board for me.

(Return of the Joker)

Kind of a Pyrrhic Victory concerning what happened to Tim Drake and Company. If this is victory then why does it not satisfy?

Well because some things in life can't be describe as victory or defeat, and that is the contradiction in life, simultaneously its great beauty and also its great despair. A contradiction that cause us to fall to the floor full of anguish, weeping at the pain, but also to take delight where we can laugh and the laughter frees us from the pain temporary.

[Callos_DeTerran]

(Return of the Joker)

Kind of a Pyrrhic Victory concerning what happened to Tim Drake and Company. If this is victory then why does it not satisfy?

Well because some things in life can't be describe as victory or defeat, and that is the contradiction in life, simultaneously its great beauty and also its great despair. A contradiction that cause us to fall to the floor full of anguish, weeping at the pain, but also to take delight where we can laugh and the laughter frees us from the pain temporary.

Just because a victory comes at a cost doesn't mean its a pyrrhic victory or not satisfying. Regardless of how the movie ends, the Joker has still already done those awful things to Drake and company.

It wasn't like Drake's situation was the cost of victory, Terry's victory actually comes without cost aside from a lot of city damage thanks to the Joker's scheme being thwarted, but on the personal level its without cost and helps to heal of relationships as well.

[Sapphire Guard]

Thousands of slaughtered commuters isn't 'no cost'.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Thousands of slaughtered commuters isn't 'no cost'.

Is that something mentioned or is it another 'Endor Holocaust' type situation? Either way, if I had the means, I'd definitely watch the movie again to double check but the Space Laser running through a parking lot is the only time I remember it interacting with cars.

[martianmister]

He accidentally teleports himself into Marvel universe, and he and Punisher kill each other in an unremarkable fashion.

[Lemmy]

I like his Death in "The Dark Knight Returns", where Batman makes hin tetraplegic, so the Joker just outright twists the rest of his own neck, killing himself just to make it look like Batman commited murder, which then turns him into a wanted man.

[Willie the Duck]

I vote for both anticlimactic and years of irrelevance: In some future-era setting (for example, Batman Beyond), we find out that Batman (or an ally) finally has the joke sent to an asylum outside of Gotham, one where the security is better (and the Joker has fewer allies with access or are able to help him break out, etc.). Thus, he's actually been stuck in the asylum for decades, probably not being cured, but merely existing. Eventually, he is transferred to a laxer institution (because they think he's old and useless), so he breaks out and... he's old and useless. None of his old buddies care that he's out ('you had to struggle every day to stay relevant in a world of Doomsday and Luther and even Penguin and Riddler back when you had an active hand in the game! Why would we care that you're back now?'), his skills have atrophied. He's not important anymore. Maybe he tries to do some harm--gets a gun, attempts a crime, hurts someone... and then a nameless, faceless cop takes him down (alive, no less).

[The Jack]

Joker sets up a bomb or gas trap

Doesn't do it right.

Dies.