Each portrayal of everyone's favorite Batman
villain has its own feel but only a few of
them feature a backstory.
In many adaptations, it's been made explicitly
clear that even The Joker himself isn't sure
of his own past.
Most recently, Jared Leto portrayed The Harlequin
of Hate in 2016's (apparently Oscar worthy)
Suicide Squad.
Once again, his backstory remained a mystery.
Personally, I'd love to know how they managed to cross Jim Carey, a large tiger and Jared Letto.
THIS HANDSOME HUNKA, HUNKA!
* Joker starts growling and purring *
Now, I've touched on all of this before, but
today I want to revisit the channel's most
popular video.
I want to talk about The Joker's most consistent
character trait.
Let's discuss his belief in the philosophical
doctrine of nihilism (And hopefully do a better
job than Jay from the past was capable of).
This is Batman, The Joker and Philosophy:
Nihilism Revisited.
Buckle up, this is a long one.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy does
a great job of summing up nihilism.
Nihilism is the belief that all values are
baseless
Unfortunately, the article then goes off the
rails and displays some serious bias.
It claims that all true nihilists have no
loyalties or purpose other than perhaps an
impulse to destroy.
That, simply put, is not the case.
In short, they muddy the waters between what
it means to be a nihilist and how some people
cope with nihilism.
This is very common a problem.
Nihilism in the existentialist sense, in the
eyes of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche,
does not entail any particular response.
The nihilist doesn't necessarily believe that
life must be meaningless.
Rather, the nihilist rejects that life has
any inherent meaning.
One possible response to this could be an
impulse to create meaning rather than to destroy
(and we'll get into that in more detail in
a moment).
First however, in order to set the The Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy straight, let us
endeavor to indulge in the tired cliche of
quoting the dictionary:
The rejection of all religious and moral principles,
often in the belief that life is meaningless
Okay, so that seems to fit the Joker.
I would say that he strongly rejects all religious
and moral principles.
The man has no rules.
His only goal, in most adaptations, is to
simply prove his point of view to Batman and
the rest Gotham.
All Jokers are nihilists at heart because
(again) even at his silliest, he still strongly
rejects all religious and moral principles.
Whether he's a prankster out to take over
Gotham City with a flying saucer or a mobster,
driven mad, climbing to the top of the criminal
underworld, he's always the nihilist.
And I know what you’re thinking.
By that definition, lots of villains are technically
niliihists.
Well, yeah, but being a nihilist and allowing
your nihilism to drive your every action are
not the same thing.
Over time, adaptations of The Joker have become
more and more nihilistic, thanks due in large
part to some extremely influential work by
Allan Moore.
However, even before The Killing Joke, the
more silly aspects of the Joker (and Batman)
we're mostly due to the Comics Code Authority.
It enforced strict guidelines during the Silver
Age of comics.
DC Comics retconned most of these stories
to have taken place on Earth-Two, one of many
alternate DC realities.
So let's explore The Joker’s coping mechanism.
Do laughter and complete devotion to chaos help him deal with what he sees as the meaninglessness of life?
Did his nihilistic attitude originate from just one day day?
Joker: All it takes is one bad day. That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.
John Marmysz (author of Laughing at Nothing:
Humor as a Response to Nihilism) describes
nihilism as a force every human must reckon
with, which arises as people contemplate their
own mortality, the nature of human existence,
and see the futility and lack of meaning in
their lives because of life’s inevitable
outcome: death.
In short, you are a speck of carbon stuck
to the side of a rock flying through space
and nothing you do will affect the universe
at large... and if you think about it that's
kind of funny.
Or as The Joker puts it:
You have to keep pretending that life makes sense, that there's some point to all
this struggling!...
Sill Goose! It's all a joke!
Everything anybody ever valued or struggled for... it's monstrous!
So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing?
People cope with existential questions in
a few different ways.
Marmysz explained that people who dwell on
the seeming futility of life can suffer from
malaise or "a general feeling of discomfort,
illness, or uneasiness whose exact cause is
difficult to identify".
Do order, morality, and knowledge matter if
life is truly meaningless?
Why not do whatever you want when we're all
just going to die anyway?
Enter the Joker whose way of dealing with
his own existential crisis was to devote himself
to chaos and laugh at the absurdity of life.
It’s interesting to note that Batman and
the Joker both deal with nihilism, but both
react in opposite ways.
Although more recent versions of the character
get pretty existential, Bruce Wayne becomes
Batman because of a personal loss and not
nihilism.
Sill, he's affected by (and must react to)
The Joker's nihilism and his own existential
questions.
The Joker embraces the concept that life has
no meaning and devotes himself to chaos, while
Batman becomes a vigilante on the side of
justice to create meaning... and also more justice.
The juxtaposition of these two characters
creates conflict, driving the stories forward
in interesting ways.
It's good writing.
Joker tries to convince Batman to let go of
the meaningless conventions set up by society
and embrace chaos.
Batman tries to convince Joker to adhere to
societal norms.
Or as Wisecrack once put it:
Batman and The Joker Have something in common. Both live their lives are responses to traumatic-world shattering events.
Events that represent an existential crisis that most people have to deal with, sooner or later.
How do you respond when life destroys your sense meaning? Choosing how to deal with this loss of meaning animates the entire Batman universe.
Batman decides to uphold some form of conventional
morality as a vigilante.
The Joker chooses to abandon it entirely and
the villain two-face splits the difference,
literally flipping a coin to decide whether
he'll uphold conventional morality or rebel
against it.
* bang *
Batman and The Joker arise as super-villain
and superhero because of each other, being
tied together to various degrees depending
on the adaption.
While most people find meaning in their daily
lives and the things they do, the Joker feels
that their efforts are just meaningless attempts
to maintain control, something they never
had in the first place.
Perhaps you've also heard someone say that
The Joker is an Absurdist.
The first version of this video got a couple
comments to this effect.
So let's take a moment to discuss exactly
what that means.
An absurdist is someone who is intentionally
ridiculous, surreal or bizarre.
"Mista J" certainly fits that description.
a person who holds the belief that we exist
in a purposeless and chaotic universe.
Well, honestly that fits The Joker perfectly
as well.
So, can both of these viewpoints be correct?
Let’s take this opportunity to further define
our terms.
I’m taking these directly from the essay
“The Difference Between Existentialism,
Nihilism, and Absurdism” (link in the description
below).
Existentialism is the belief that through
a combination of awareness, free will, and
personal responsibility, one can construct
their own meaning within a world that intrinsically
has none of its own.
Nihilism is the belief that not only is there
no intrinsic meaning in the universe, but
that it’s pointless to try to construct
our own as a substitute.
Absurdism is the belief that a search for
meaning is inherently in conflict with the
actual lack of meaning, but that one should
both accept this and simultaneously rebel
against it by embracing what life has to offer.
To me, being an absurdist can be a reaction
to nihilism.
So basically The Joker is an absurdist because
he has reacted to his nihilistic views.
Now you may see this a different way and that’s
okay.
As writer Daniel Miiessler points out, people
have written entire books on each of these
terms.
However, agree or disagree, let’s explore
the concept of Absurdism a little further.
In philosophy, the concept of the absurd,
as defined by Albert Camus, refers to a conflict
between the human tendency to look for inherent
value and meaning in the universe and the
complete lack of any such value or meaning.
Put simply, we want the universe to have meaning,
order, and reason but the universe is chaos.
Walter White: The universe is random.  It's not inevitable. It's simple chaos. It's sub-atomic particles in endless, aimless collision.
That's what science teaches us... but... What is this saying?
To Camus, an "Absurd Hero" is a person who
can see and fully comprehend the lack of both
meaning and inherent value in the universe,
accept it, and embrace the freedom that knowledge
brings.
They make their own meaning and they're happy
with that.
In short, Camus suggests that acknowledging
the truth, the eternity and futility of our
fate, is enough to render it less crushing.
His point was that we can accept and live
in a world devoid of meaning or purpose.
So this video is far from over.
In fact, we’re only halfway there.
Fortunately, it was all written and recorded
at the same time.
So join me on Thursday and we’ll continue
our discussion of Batman, The Joker and Philosophy.
We’re going to discuss The Myth of Sisyphus
and how it relates to Camus’ Absurd hero.Then
we’ll explore the origin of The Clown Prince
of crime, both in the comics and real life.
And finally, we’ll tell the story of The
Joker’s one bad day and discuss what The
Joker really wants.
Thank you for watching.
Go my children, in the name of the like, the
share and the holy subscribe button.
Get the channel some exposure.
I would really appreciate it.
This channel is totally fan-funded by our lovely patrons on Patreon. If you can, please support the channel at Patreon.com/FancyTeeth.
Even $1 a month can make a big difference.
Until next time, be kind to each other, I’m
Jay Parks.
