Assessment: The Killing Joke


It’s been a while since I’ve read The Killing Joke in full, probably a couple of years, but I remembered it pretty well. It makes sense since it’s so iconic. Through this re-reading, I remembered that it’s a story about how different people handle trauma. Even when Joker degrades Commissioner Gordon the whole day, even showing pictures of his daughter naked and shot, Gordon comes out of the experience sane. It’s ultimately an uplifting story about how humans survive through adversity. Joker is almost trying to convince Commissioner Gordon to become insane through logic, talking about how one can break away from all of the world’s problems by simply going mad. Interestingly, it’s up for debate how the Joker went mad in the first place: Was it through his trauma or the chemicals that he fell into?
            Though it is true that somedays, I feel as though it would be beneficial to just not give a shit about the world around me and become a cynical lunatic. The monotonous life of a college student can be tiresome and stressful, not to mention all of the political drama that our country is caught up in right now. However, and this might be an egotistical thing to say about myself, I think I care too much about other people’s feelings to be able to do that. I always care about how people feel about me and if they are comfortable being around me. My empathy and social anxiety can sometimes be a cross to bear, but they keep me from becoming unhinged. I’d probably be like Commissioner Gordon in his situation, or even more likely to end up like Barbara Gordon if we’re being realistic.
            As an animator, I am tempted to adapt this story into an animated feature or animated short-film (45 minutes at least). The one that was made in recent years, in my opinion, is a bit of a disappointment. Even cutting out the Barbara Gordon Batgirl segment at the beginning of the official film, the animation style doesn’t capture the horrifying nature of the comic illustration. They were certainly on the right track recasting Mark Hamill as the Joker and Kevin Conroy as Batman, my personal favorite iterations of the characters are from Batman: The Animated Series. This may be my bias as a 3D animator showing, but I would prefer to adapt this into CGI. The comic itself already has a very “uncanny valley” look with the realistic faces and proportions, so a film that’s stylistically like the Batman: Arkham Asylum games might be a good fit. As much as I adore stylized CGI like Captain Underpants or Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I want this to be a horrifying version of The Polar Express without the stilted motion-capture animation. Honestly, I just wanna see those freaky baby people realized to their full potential because those things are horrifyingly drawn.

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