We all have our favorite Joker. To some of our parents, nothing can ever replace Cesar Romero’s painted-over mustache; to kids today, metal teeth and tattoos may define the Clown Prince of Crime. But regardless of whom we’d pick as the absolute number one, most fans agree that both Mark Hamill and Heath Ledger absolutely nailed their respective versions. Ledger was posthumously awarded an Oscar for his, and Hamill has been rewarded with by far the longest run of portraying the Batman‘s big bad.
But what does he think of Ledger, and how would Hamill’s Joker have read The Dark Knight dialogue? In some convention footage from 2011 that’s being freshly discovered due to interest in a new Ledger documentary, the once and future Luke Skywalker opines. And not only does he give the performance its due, praising the late actor’s “tongue-centric” take, but he also validates it as wholly original and equally legitimate to his own. So it’s official: you can still prefer one or the other, but if you disrespect either, you are contradicting Mark Hamill.
He saves the best for last, and offers a line-reading of one of the scar-faced Joker’s signature lines, before singing “Happy Birthday” to the audience questioner in a Joker voice and calling him an S.O.B., in a Don Rickles-style loving insult. It’s moments like these that make conventions worth the trip. Now, if anybody sees Jared Leto on a con panel, let’s see if we can get him to read some Cesar Romero lines. You know it’d be good if he said yes.
Which Joker is your favorite? Or is it impossible to choose? Have the last laugh on us in comments!
Image: Warner Bros.
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