- How are you doing you wonderful nerds?
Scott here.
You know what I love the most about the Joker,
it's that his backstory is so mysterious.
In most comics, cartoons, and movies,
questions about his origin are left unresolved.
No one knows, for sure, how the Joker came to be.
He just
exists.
And that's certainly an idea that DC comics
wants to perpetuate
with their reveal last year that there
are actually three Jokers.
Yes, not one, not two, but three different individuals
who have been committing crimes as the clown prince
this entire time.
Making his, or their, history even more unclear.
And honestly, I'm sure that is precisely the way
the Joker would want it.
From the changing explanations of his scars
in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight.
- Sticks the blade in my mouth.
Let's put a smile on that face.
I stick a razor in my mouth and do this.
- [Scott] To Alan Moore's seminal comic, The Killing Joke,
a Batman story so iconic that I've done
a billion videos on it.
In that instance, we see what we're meant to believe
is the true detailed origin of the Joker,
but it's all swept under the rug by one line.
- [Joker] Sometimes I remember it one way,
sometimes another.
If I'm going to have a past,
I prefer it to be multiple choice.
- So, perhaps we'll never truly know the origin
of the Joker in the comics,
but what about his real origin,
how the character was created.
Well, here's what's interesting,
that same ambiguity exists in real life.
No one knows, for sure, how the Joker came to be.
He just exists.
(dramatic music)
The Joker debuted in Batman No. 1 from 1940,
and like most villains the Dark Knight fought
in earlier issues of Detective Comics,
was promptly killed off in his first issue.
You see, Bill Finger, who was the person responsible
for basically everything great about Batman,
really didn't care for the idea of recurring villains.
Finger's mindset was, if you go toe to toe with
the Caped Crusader, there's no coming back.
Most bad guys in early Batman stories
were killed by either Batman himself,
or by others, or just themselves.
Like the Joker here accidentally stabbing himself
in a fight with the Dark Knight.
However, DC editor Whitney Ellsworth
didn't want to waste such a cool character.
He demanded that the final panels of Batman No. 1
reveal that the Joker survived his self-stabbing
and would return.
And that he did.
The Joker, quickly, became Batman's arch nemesis,
and arguably the most iconic comic book villain
in existence.
But we wanna look at what happened before all of that.
How was the Joker created?
Who was responsible?
And what was the inspiration behind this man who laughs?
Ah, great segue me.
All accounts of the character's creation bring
up, in some way, the 1928 silent film The Man Who Laughs
which featured the character Gwynplaine,
I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly,
played by Conrad Veidt,
another name I hope I'm pronouncing correctly.
Gwynplaine was disfigured by a monstrous surgeon
who carved a permanent smile on his face.
As an adult, he joined the traveling circus
as The Laughing Man.
The full tale involves love, and sword fights,
and is way too much to get into right now,
but Bill Finger was a fan of foreign films,
and would always remember The Man Who Laughs
in the back of his mind,
and would eventually use it as inspiration
for Joker's visual appearance.
That much we know to be true.
Everyone can agree on that,
but every other detail,
from the multiple accounts of Joker's creation
is up for debate.
So, let's take a look at each of them,
and see if we can parse out what really happened.
And let's continue with Bill Finger's recollection.
In the fanzine, Batmania, Finger gave an interview
where he openly talked about how
classic Batman characters were created.
It's an incredible resource,
and I will have it linked in the description down below.
It includes details on how Robin was created,
how Penguin was created,
how they decided on the alter ego Bruce Wayne.
It's a just a ton of stuff I could use for different videos.
But the important thing for this video is the paragraph
about Joker's creation.
Bill Finger recalls that he received a call from Bob Kane,
the other co-creator of Batman.
Trust me, trust me, we will talk about him
and his shenanigans in a bit,
but for now, according to Bill Finger,
Kane was holding a playing card with a joker on it,
and spouting about his concept for a new villain.
Kane even drew up a sketch of what he wanted
the Joker to look like,
but Finger didn't particularly care for it.
He thought it seemed a bit too much
like a traditional clown.
Finger remembered his personal copy of The Man Who Laughs
which came with a photograph from the movie
featuring Conrad Veidt's creepy smile.
As he explains, quote,
"I cut the picture out of the book,
"and gave it to Bob, who drew the profile
"and gave it a more sinister aspect.
"Then, we worked on the face, made him look a little
"clown-like, which accounted for his white face,
"red lips, the green hair.
"And that was the Joker," end quote.
And that sounds simple enough.
Bob Kane and Bill Finger created the Joker together.
It was a joint effort.
Ah, but wait a minute, we seem to be overlooking
a little bit of a small detail in that story,
the card that Bob Kane had, right?
The one that featured the joker on it,
where did that come from?
Well, in short, it came from a ghost.
Artist.
A ghost artist.
Sorry, the lighting in here's just a little bit
spookier than normal.
I wanted to play it up a bit.
Anyway, so while the art in early Batman stories
is often attributed to Bob Kane,
the reality is that Kane wasn't a particularly
talented artist.
When he wasn't blatantly swiping from other comics,
the work that was credited to Bob Kane was,
in large part, done by ghost artists who drew for him.
Which, you know, sounds bad,
but was a fairly common practice back in those days.
One of these ghost artists was Jerry Robinson,
who also helped with lettering and inking,
but what he really wanted to be was a writer.
As superhero stories, and Batman in particular,
started to take off, Bill Finger was swamped
with the number of comics he was tasked with writing.
Robinson, having a bit of an ulterior motive,
volunteered to help take some of the load off,
and write a Batman story for Finger.
His initial goal was to create a new villain
for the Dark Knight.
As an English major, Robinson found inspiration
in stories with antagonists who put the hero to the test.
David and Goliath,
Holmes and Moriarty.
Robinson wanted someone larger than life
who would be a worthy opponent rather than
just another small-time gangster.
Someone who would genuinely test
the world's greatest detective.
And that was a pretty new idea for superhero comics.
The prevailing mindset during the first handful
of years was that the hero was the focus,
the villains should never be too powerful
lest they overshadow the superhero.
Nowadays, I'm sure we could all agree
that, like, 80% of what makes Batman interesting
is, in fact, his villains.
Robinson also wanted to give this new villain
some contradictory attributes
to make him stand out a little bit.
Like an evil paradox.
A murderous psychopath
with a sense of humor.
Quote, "The Joker was a diabolically sinister villain
"and yet had a clownish aspect.
"I found the idea of a sinister clown utterly fascinating,"
end quote.
With this comedy motif, he began to think
of what the character's name would be.
It's probably no coincidence that Robinson's brother
was a champion Bridge player.
Decks of playing cards were all over the house.
He didn't have to search long for the name
of this new villain.
It was right there in front of him the whole time.
It couldn't possibly be anything else but Joker.
Robinson pulled out a deck,
and started drawing up a conceptual sketch
of this new character based on the joker cards.
It's an image you've probably seen in the comics,
especially, in the Bat-cave.
Once again, what happens next is up for debate.
Robinson claims that he brought the design
to Bob Kane the next morning,
who loved it so much that he started to sketch out
the full character then and there.
Shortly after, just as before, Kane called up Bill Finger,
who didn't really care for the initial sketch,
and instead proposed to base the character's
appearance off The Man Who Laughs,
and the rest is history.
Or is it?
It's not.
This whole video's confusing.
Because now, we get to the final story
that calls into question the exact timeline of the events.
So, take a deep breath,
bear with me,
let's finally hear Bob Kane's side of the story.
So, here's the thing that you need to know about Bob Kane,
if you don't already.
He had an enormous ego.
Author Neil Gaiman put it best when he said, quote,
"Bob Kane was, by all accounts, a strange guy.
"He didn't have much talent, but he had a certain
"amount of luck.
"And most people know that Bob Kane was the creator
"of Batman, even if they don't know that he didn't
"write or draw any Batman stuff.
"No one else who did anything got any credit
"in Bob Kane's head.
"The other people who drew Batman, even Neal Adams,
"or Frank Miller, in Bob's mind, were just his ghosts.
"The only thing that was important to Bob Kane
"was Bob Kane," end quote.
So, with that in mind,
and now you are properly biased,
I'm sure it won't shock you to learn that
Bob Kane attempted to discredit Jerry Robinson
as the co-creator of Joker,
instead claiming that he, himself, created the clown prince
independently of Robinson.
Quote, "Bill Finger and I created the Joker.
"Jerry Robinson had absolutely nothing to do with it,
"but he'll always say he created it till he dies,"
end quote.
Kane's story is that he and Bill Finger were
already in the process of creating the Joker
when Robinson came in with the Joker playing card sketch.
Quote, "Jerry drew this card after Bill Finger and I had
"already created the Joker.
"If Jerry had come to me first with the playing card,
"then I would have drawn the Joker
"in the image of that card, instead of like Conrad Veidt
"in the movie The Man Who Laughs," end quote.
So, I wanna pause here and just appreciate that response,
because that is basically Bob Kane saying,
Robinson didn't come to me first, because if he did
I would've stolen his work.
Amazing.
So, okay with all of this said,
why should we even believe Bob Kane?
Why should we believe this side of the story?
We already know, it's already been established
that he loves to take credit for things
that he didn't actually do.
Why would this explanation hold any water?
Well, as author Brian Cronin wrote in
Was Superman a Spy?, quote,
"What makes this story different from other Kane
"stories is that this time Bill Finger told a DC editor
"that he felt Kane's version was correct.
"Robinson feels that Finger is simply confused
"about the time frame, and that the Veidt comparison
"came about after Robinson showed the drawing.
"But it's likely something that will never be sorted
"out for certain," end quote.
Over the years, stories change, memories fade
and become corrupted.
They lose details,
they add false detail,
and the true history remains unclear.
Sometimes it's remembered one way,
sometimes another,
but if Joker's gonna have a past,
I prefer it to be multiple choice.
(maniacal laughing)
What do you guys think?
Which one of these stories is the real origin of the Joker?
Are there any details that I may have missed?
Are you happy with he story being left a bit ambiguous?
Let me know all of your thoughts
in the comments down below,
and I'll respond to some of them in Monday's
Monday's Comment Response video.
Forgot how to pronounce the word Monday there for a second.
Also, if you love these real origins of superheroes
as I've branded that,
you'll be happy to know that I'm writing a book
all about it with my friend, Chris.
You can head on over to RealOriginsBook.com
to get more info,
and you can even read some of our chapters
before anyone else over on Patreon.
Which speaking of, I wanna give a huge thanks
to our patrons,
especially Cristoffer Lange, Keaten Lampert,
Elizabeth Moncel, and the rest of the wonderful nerds
who help keep this show going over at patreon.com/nerdsync.
Link in the description.
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My name is Scott,
reminding you to read between the panels,
and grow smarter through comics.
See ya.
(upbeat music)