Who was the better Joker?

[Chairman Miaow]

Gotta go with Hamill. It's a shame that he was tied to a kids cartoon, because the darkness that Ledger nailed is still there in Hamill's version, but it had to be toned down for kids. Thankfully you get to see a lot more of that darkness in the games.

The level of insanity that Hamill's version portrays is so damn funny too. I watched an episode recently where he sets himself up as a judge, and then randomly uses a rubber chicken as a gavel as the scene ends. And then there's Harley Quinn, who is an awesome character.

There was still some pretty dark stuff with Hamill's joker.

 

[Dethenger]

I think the question is better phrased, who was the better Batman? Hamill's and Ledger's Jokers were both so perfect because they were exact ideological antitheses to their respective enemies: Batman. This isn't explored too much in the animated series, seeing as it's mainly for kids, but the distinction is rather clear. Batman is iron-clad. The Joker is malleable. Batman is always planning. The Joker is unpredictable.
In that regard, I prefer Ledger's, because while Batman and the Joker are always reciprocals, In Nolan's film that's the point of it all. The Joker just wants to prove he's right, wants to make Batman break his one rule. The Joker aimed higher than Bane did. Bane wanted to break the Bat: The Joker wanted the Bat to break himself.

I was always of the opinion that Ledger was just copying Nicholson anyway, but with better make-up.

Please explain.

 

[Storm Dragon]

Mark Hamill.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Mark Hamill and a team of animators. No matter how good your film portrayal is, the stuff you can do with animation can convey more because its not grounded in what you can physically do.

 

[thesilentman]

Every single one of Nolan's 'Batman' films felt more like "Nolan's dark gritty action hero series" and he just slapped on a Batman label to attract a larger audience. The Joker didn't feel like The Joker at all - I'm not saying Ledger is a bad actor, he was amazing, but the sort of personality they wrote in for The Joker in The Dark Knight felt like... well... this:

"I'm a murderous maniac with no clown elements to me at all, I just laugh now and then and put on some make up. But wait, I'm saying deep philosophical things! Maybe I'm not insane, maybe I'm just being completely honest! WOOAAAH! BE IMPRESSED AUDIENCE, THIS IS SO DEEP." He didn't feel like The Joker or anything like The Joker, just a maniac who took thought about human behaviour for a few minutes.

Ledger hits the exact right spot between killer and clown perfectly, and hell, Nicholson was pretty good in his own right too.

I've never read a comic (played Asylum/City though), so could you explain about 'not being the Joker'?

The reason that it worked for Nolan was that it just felt more threatening. Someone who doesn't give a shit about the world is always an interesting character, especially in the way TDK was set up.

"shrugs" To each his own then.

As a loooongtime comic fan The Joker was almost always more about the gag than the overall crime or the body count. It was supposed to be fun first and foremost...THEN terrifying. To that end I felt Ledger was great...but backwards. For 50+ years the Joker was really much more like the Cesar Romero and Mark Hamill incarnations. That doesn't knock TDK, but I admit I much prefer the more lighthearted take.

Oh, makes sense. Thanks.