Batman: It's Joker Time!

[The Laughing Fish]

Has anybody read this? To summarise it, the Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum after being tortured and left braindead watching a trashy TV talk show, and finds himself taken into custody by that same TV show during a live broadcast on the street. In a despicable bid to maintain high TV ratings, the show is given the legal right to broadcast a series of interviews with the Joker in front of a live audience; trying to psychoanalyse what makes him tick and trying to explore his past. Unbeknownst to the idiotic broadcasters and viewers, the Joker takes advantage of this attention to recuperate his time from Arkham, fakes contrition for his crimes to win the audience and plots his escape.

I thought it was a good satirical story that explores the lowest common denominator's fascination with trash TV/content, and the dehumanisation in glorifying and sympathising with lunatics, both in terms of far media networks would go to get ratings and gullible people ready to believe in anything. The talk show is a parody of the notorious Jerry Springer Show, and it sensationalises the Joker's presence while the villain himself manipulates to gain sympathy from an easily fooled television audience. Is it really that far fetched to believe people would become so eager to forgive the Joker? Sadly, I don't think so. History has shown us how monsters like Ted Bundy and Richard Ramirez can win the hearts of depraved groupies while answering for their crimes in court, and even people on the internet have celebrated killers who committed atrocious crimes. Plus, the supreme court's ruling in favour of the TV broadcasts and prohibition of Batman and the police to investigate makes it easier for the Joker to start pulling the strings of the show's programming, and manipulating ratings-hungry executives, producers and hosts. I think this is the first comic I've read of Gotham City being such a dystopian hellhole of this degree since The Dark Knight Returns. And because of such a horrid state of social affairs, it's quite fitting the Joker escapes in the end. Poor Batman is constantly disgusted by how a media network like Goth TV could endanger the public, both in terms of safety and moral decency, and Commissioner Gordon is outraged by the supreme court enabling the network. If there is a moment that would break Batman's faith in humanity, this would be it.

One amusing factor into this comic is the Joker makes up different versions of his backstory when interviewed on the air. Some of it is as ridiculous as being a disgraced spirit from Ancient Egypt, to the failed comedian pretending to be the Red Hood. Nearly all of the stories he tells have one thing in common: they all end with him falling into vat of chemical waste that bleached his hair and skin. The only story that breaks the pattern is him killing his mother's abusive boyfriend when he was a child, and got his homicidal mother killed by accident. This is the kind of idea I wish Alan Moore came up with in The Killing Joke if he wanted to convey the Joker's backstory was unreliable, instead of trying to make you second-guess by throwing in that half-assed "multiple choice" line.

I should be honest and say this is perhaps the closest thing I've read in the comics that's similar to how TDK's Joker tells different stories how he got scars on his face. With that said, I much prefer how it's done in It's Joker Time!. The difference is the comic has the character telling stories to trick the psychologist interviewing him and the live audience to build his plans to escape, whereas the movie version telling stories don't add anything to the plot at all.

A good read, if you have the stomach for cynicism.

[thecolorsblend]

I'll look into it. Sounds interesting.