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

“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

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

Thinking deeply about TV, movies, and music doesn’t make you a “complete idiot.” In fact, it might make you a philosopher, someone who believes the unexamined life is not worth living and the unexamined cartoon is not worth watching.

Nietzsche describes three spiritual metamorphoses of the human being. First, the human spirit is a camel burdened with false metaphysical truths, dutifully adhering to societal rules and morality. Men and women can free themselves from this burden by becoming the Lion, who answers “I will” to the “Thou‐shalt” that weighs on the Camel's shoulders.49

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

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.

We could say that the Joker’s nature isn’t psychological, it’s metaphysical. He isn’t merely a broken psyche or a monster. Those two aspects are certainly present, but that's not all there is to him. Most importantly, the Joker embodies unreason, chaos, disorder, and meaninglessness. He arouses the icy suspicion that everything we build will collap

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