Joker and Philosophy

The Joker is something deeper and more menacing, more primal than a mere villain. He’s an “agent of chaos,” as he calls himself in the 2008 movie The Dark Knight. He’s anarchic and volatile even from a creative standpoint. As Tom King, author of one of the longest and most celebrated runs of the twenty‐first century states on social media: “Writing

None rise to the level of Batman and Joker, two enemies who seem determined not to kill each other because each gains too much from what the other brings to their destructive dyad. Yet, the Joker is more than simply a foil for Batman; he has his own goals that would exist regardless of whether the Caped Crusader was in the picture.

Paraphrasing the Joker: heroes like Batman had a bad day, only they won’t admit it, and keep pretending that life makes sense.26 Bruce Wayne faces the abyss of absurdity but refuses it: by creating Batman’s identity he forces the world to make sense.27

What the Joker’s wildness points to is the deep difference between sincerity and authenticity. Confucian ethics prizes sincerity, but Zhuangzi shows that sincerity comes at a cost (constant moral surveillance of self and others, outward‐facing demand to fulfill roles over an inward‐facing nourishment of oneself). The Joker is obviously insincere, b

“Nothing does us as much good as the fool’s cap: we need it against ourselves,”1 writes the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900). The “fool” destroys by laughing at values and truths, showing the chaotic and senseless world behind them. The fool is a manifestation of the Dionysian, an essential chaotic and destructive drive, but one t

Batman is what you might call a character of meaning. His oath makes sense of what would seem utter madness—plunging nightly into the most dangerous city in the world, without superpowers, denying himself the monstrous privilege of killing.

Batman and Joker react differently to Dionysus, to “the bad day,” which changes their lives forever. The Joker embraces the absurd, while Batman “keep[s] pretending that life makes sense.”2 Can the Joker truly create new meaning, or is he just “a fool” who can merely destroy? By examining some of the most emblematic Joker stories, this chapter cons

His origins, which would somehow define his new self, are uncertain and labile, as the Joker admits: “If I’m going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!”28 Thus, only something chaotic and indefinable remains. The Joker becomes an embodiment of chaos and starts spreading it, laughing at society’s illusions.

The wild‐card Joker instead suggests a way of moving through the world without gritting your teeth and clinging to categories, without trying to win. That is not a doctrinal statement of what’s right or wrong—it’s a therapeutic approach to life. Daoism tells us that we humans have forgotten that we are part of the natural world, something deeper an

Both Batman and (according to The Killing Joke) the Joker were born out of the pain of the absurd. As a result, it is what keeps both of them busy: the Joker by trying to cause unjust deaths, and Batman by trying to stop them.