The Joker: Insane or not insane?

#1 Edited by Green Lantern 2814.5 (62 posts) - 2 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

Does the Joker do what he does because of a deep mental illness that causes him to lash out onto innocent people around him or does he just see what we all try to ignore and only slightly recognize whenever a crime occurs?

#2 Posted by Crom-Cruach (7707 posts) - 2 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

No, he really is truly insane.

#3 Edited by johnny_spam (2004 posts) - 2 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

@Green Lantern 2814.5: This is quite interesting I noticed some writers like Steve Englehart, Grant Morrison, Jim Kruegger, Judd Winick, I think Alex Ross and Paul Dini prefer to say Joker is just an evil man and not insane it makes him all the more sinister that he is aware of the terrible things he does and hides behind the face of insanity.

I don't think we are suppose to understand he is just pure violence and death. It's why the animated Joker (the version voiced by Mark Hammil) in comics makes no sense that was a children's version of the character as he is too sinister to have showed up in DCAU shows that is until Return of The Joker and Justice League at that point the audience was older and the makers were allowed to be more true to the character watch those alter productions and Mark Hammil's performance is stronger.

#4 Posted by DeathpooltheT1000 (5903 posts) - 2 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

Is hard to say it, but the Joker is not insane, thats is a problem, since the rest of the world is insane.

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#5 Posted by ClayfaceTheTerror (21 posts) - 2 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

I think the Joker is insane, but he is also a genious. It makes him a very dangerous threat.
Really the way I see it, either the Joker really is insane, or really good a fakeing it.

#6 Posted by punchlineLMH (9 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

I also like to think he's insane - which makes him much more dangerous and unpredictable. BUT, as in the brilliant "Case Study", there is the possibility of him being totally sane and aware of all his acts - but simply ingoring them with the heart of a true sociopath. Point is, since Dr Harleen Quinzel came up with that theory, it isn't worth a penny in court^^.

#7 Posted by InnerVenom123 (27555 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

He's so crazy he's not crazy. But he is crazy. Not. Kind of.

He's so crazy that determining his mental status could drive YOU crazy.

#8 Posted by Primmaster64 (21131 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

Din't Jason say something about this?

#9 Posted by blade hunter (1813 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

@Primmaster64 said:

" Din't Jason say something about this? "

Yes, "you're not as insane as you wont everyone to belive or even as you want to belive, you just use it as exuse for all the sick thing you do" i think Jason is right on the money here.

#10 Posted by Primmaster64 (21131 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

@blade hunter: Yeah something like that

#11 Posted by the referee (2533 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

My guess is The Joker has something like reverse alzheimer. Let me explain. I think he's insane but has moments of clarity.

#12 Posted by AtPhantom (14454 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

I'm amazed at how many don't consider this clear considering that he's basically a poster child for being frighteningly sick in the head. Morrison can wank his out-of-this-world theories about super-sanity or heightened awareness, but the fact is this guy has so many screws loose his head is held together by glue.

#13 Posted by ClayfaceTheTerror (21 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

@AtPhantom said:

"I'm amazed at how many don't consider this clear considering that he's basically a poster child for being frighteningly sick in the head. Morrison can wank his out-of-this-world theories about super-sanity or heightened awareness, but the fact is this guy has so many screws loose his head is held together by glue. "

I agree.

#14 Posted by DeathpooltheT1000 (5903 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

@AtPhantom said:

"I'm amazed at how many don't consider this clear considering that he's basically a poster child for being frighteningly sick in the head. Morrison can wank his out-of-this-world theories about super-sanity or heightened awareness, but the fact is this guy has so many screws loose his head is held together by glue. "

To say he is insane is a way to explain why he is what he is.
To control him and try to undeerstand him.
If he is insane he could be change, for the fact he is less that normal people.
Sorry, but he is more that normal people, like Batman is more that most of people.

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#15 Posted by The_Jokes_On_You (73 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

@InnerVenom123 said:

"He's so crazy he's not crazy. But he is crazy. Not. Kind of. He's so crazy that determining his mental status could drive YOU crazy. "

#16 Posted by Agent9149 (2841 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

He is not insane...he just seems insane because he doesn't do the normal things you do

#17 Posted by tensor (3315 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

he is on an off

#18 Posted by Winfield (116 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

Insanity is a legal term not a medical one. Legally I think there is an argument that he is insane.
Medically I dont think he has a mental illness but his though processes and values are far removed from the norm.

#19 Posted by Ms. Omega (3561 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

Nah he is Outsane

#20 Posted by Thor's hammmer (7184 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

he passed insane a long time ago

#21 Posted by Croaker (293 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

Uniquely insane. His madness is one of a kind.

#22 Posted by Trump Card (4 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

That fact that this is an issue at all makes him one of the most interesting characters in any comic book or any story altogether.

#23 Posted by wesleyearl (10 posts) - 2 years, 9 months ago - Show Bio

i think he's definately eccentric because the thinks that what he does is justified, but he can't be all bad since he thinks he's doing it for the greater good

#24 Posted by SuperTide (15601 posts) - 2 years, 8 months ago - Show Bio

he's insane but super smart.

#25 Posted by The_Jokes_On_You (73 posts) - 2 years, 7 months ago - Show Bio

There's a point at which you past crazy and just become legally evil.

#26 Posted by XIDEADPOOLXI (1 posts) - 2 years, 7 months ago - Show Bio

I think that he is so fed up with societies behavior he's gotta be that crazy to get his point across...to other people his antics are insane but to him, they havent even scratched the surface of insane.

#27 Posted by Zoom (14636 posts) - 2 years, 7 months ago - Show Bio

@blade hunter said:

" @Primmaster64 said:

" Din't Jason say something about this? "
Yes, "you're not as insane as you wont everyone to belive or even as you want to belive, you just use it as exuse for all the sick thing you do" i think Jason is right on the money here. "

It's funny because THE SPECTRE, who I put a little more faith in since Jason Todd is pretty freaking crazy in his own right and doesn't have the power to look into people's souls, disagrees. He says that the Joker is so crazy, he can't comprehend the difference between good and evil and he was thus unable to smite him.

#28 Posted by CATMANEXE (17045 posts) - 2 years, 7 months ago - Show Bio

* in the comic reality: Joker is insane. He is insane as he has been declared it by authority, and technically in the real world thats all it is. Insanity is a declaration, label
and sometimes judgment passed by your peers. Personal thought though is really, Joker might have qualified for it back when he started out, but say currently there are so
many characters that exhibit many of the same traits, hero or villain (its a world of characters running or flying around in costumes with powers shooting lazers and what not
and doing anything but conforming to societies norms) that i could say he's actually sane by proxy (he has to survive Gotham for instance) or at least juts part of a culture and not
an example of the real textbook definition which is one who cannot grasp static reality, (more on this). Outside of thoughts as well as being declared insane, Jokers character is
a specific model of the least finest points and idiosyncrasies associated with criminal madness.

* if he came here: while Joker would be found to be an eccentric, egotistical criminal and killer, he would not be legally declared insane by the professionals as he displays
a well enough grasp of reality, ie: he knows whats going on around him and sees and hears what is actually there and can react/interact with it according to the way a person
normally should, as opposed to say believing that he is Abraham Lincoln trapped in the Age of Dinosaurs and being led on a quest by a talking pink elephant named Bert.
he would fall under other classes of mental illness however, likely mania of the highest order, and deemed a danger to himself and others, than medicated to the point his
eyeballs turned milk white, shoved in a facility to wander around and bump mindlessly into walls like a pinball, and if that failed a lobotomy, but still not within this worlds
qualifiers for the legal insane declaration.

#29 Posted by Dracade102 (8175 posts) - 2 years, 6 months ago - Show Bio

#30 Posted by harleenquinzel10 (35 posts) - 2 years, 6 months ago - Show Bio

I think he is very insane. If he wasn't, he would have a classified problem. Yet, Joker escapes any mental classification and has been diagnosed incorrectly many times. His complete disregard for human life also makes him totally insane. However, I do think he notices things about the world that we try to ignore, but I also believe thats part of what makes him crazy.

#31 Posted by RichIII (11 posts) - 2 years, 6 months ago - Show Bio

Joker is so sane he is found to be insane.

#32 Posted by 1frankcastle4 (151 posts) - 1 year, 1 month ago - Show Bio

the joker is not insane. i agree with the super-sanity. theres no illusions to him.the world in scope is stark and clear to him, way more clear then anyone else probably sees it. thats the dangerous part to his personality. he cuts the bullshit out and breaks it down to what you start with. its you and the world, do with it what you will. so he chooses to destroy and reak havoc. why? because thats what he does.thats all. you get up and go to the fridge and grab a drink for refreshment - he walks outside and shoots someone square in the face and then dances around the body. it doesn't matter whats considered normal to others at the present time or throughout history. he does him. sometimes its repulsive voilence, or maniacal mischeavious crime. whatever he wants to do, he does it. as they say he invents himself each day. if you end up part of the plot or in his wake when he's up to somthing- to him its "sorry bout your bad luck" type of a feel, if not less. to him people and their lives are lower then pawns to him in his plot. its like they arnt even real to him at all or just dummies. living in an ongoing joke they call life. but at the same time he understands the weight of taking life and how it affects the world and each person involved. so hes fully aware of the harm he causes,just killing is what he does. thats the thought process of a sociopath. he just choses what he wants to take from things and disregaurds the rest. why? because he can because its what he wants to do. he cherishes his view on himself and the world and the fact nooone else seems to think like him. he loves expressing it with all his bravado. hes prideful to be the anomoly no doctor can figure out. when the answer is clear cut and crisp. he just doesn't give a rats ass, cause its just him and the world. and hes going with the flow every second. he's sane alright. the joke is that he has everyone convinced otherwise.

#33 Posted by Supreme Marvel (10992 posts) - 1 year, 1 month ago - Show Bio

Already made. By me. 5 years agoish.

#34 Posted by Imagine_Man15 (1610 posts) - 1 year, 1 month ago - Show Bio

@Ms. Omega said:

Nah he is Outsane

#35 Posted by DeathpooltheT1000 (5903 posts) - 1 year, 1 month ago - Show Bio

The Joker and Batman are Sane, they decide what they are and how they live.

The rest cant decide that.

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Joker

The Joker, Clown Prince of Crime, is Batman's arch-nemesis. An agent of chaos known for his purple three-piece suit and insidious smile, he has caused Batman more suffering than any other villain he has ever faced. His origin and true motivations are shrouded in mystery.

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