That’s a line, given by Heath Ledger’s joker in The Dark Night, that I’ve often wondered about. He says the line, and Gambol threatens to kill him. There are many possible reasons why, easily Googleable:
The statement has no particular significance, Gambol is just sick of being called out by the clown.
The Joker is implying that Gambol’s grandma is a prostitute, and a 5 cent rate.
The Joker means a nickel bag of drugs, which his Grandma abuses.
Those are all clear, and all plausible, but I don’t think they’re the answer. I think “getting a nickel for grandma” sounds like an expression from a Little Rascals cartoon. An old timey saying, that means … something. Perhaps implying that Gambol isn’t as urban as he’d like to be believed. Like he’s from the deep south, and somehow, this expression means something to him. Has anyone heard this in another context and can confirm?
I thought it was clear that the specific statement wasn’t important; Gambol was just on a slow boil and finally lost it. The Joker had stolen $68M of the mob’s money, Lau had taken the rest without permission, the Joker laughed at them about the theft (“the suit? It wasn’t cheap. You oughta know, you bought it.”), killed Gambol’s man, insulted them (“did your balls drop off?”), and called out Gambol individually when the other mobster wanted to listen to the Joker, and the Joker gestured dismissively at Gambol. Watch Gambol throughout the scene, you can see his temper building throughout.
The statement itself simply means the mobsters won’t have any money left if they don’t get Batman, not even a spare nickel for their grandmas.
That’s what Google said, and I mentioned it in my posting, so I got that bit. If that’s all, than yeah, an interesting line, and fodder for Cafe Society.
But that’s not my question, so that’s why I didn’t put it in Cafe Society first.
I … um … I never gave my Grandma a nickel. Was I supposed to? She gave me quarters, as a gift, sometimes. Where does this expression come from? Why does his Grandma need a nickel? Why doesn’t his mom need a nickel? Or he himself? I get it Batman and Harvey Dent have so squeezed the mob, they’re running out of money. But why a nickel for grandma?
I’m assuming if he’s making a lot of money in his criminal life, he’s being nice to his grandma, who’s benefitting from it, even if in a modest way. Wouldn’t you if you had a major windfall?
That’s why he won’t be able to give his grandma a nickel anymore. His cash flow will have dried up.
I always thought he was just using it as an expression to explain the severity of the situation.
At that point, he had already told the mob he wanted half of all their money to kill Batman, so he was basically saying “half for me, you guys divide the other half, or eventually you’ll have nothing at all.”
I suspect he was simply bringing the guy’s family into it just to push buttons. The phrase doesn’t have to have a great deal of internal logic.
And BTW, doesn’t Heath Leger’s performance stand the test of time so well? Even when you see the Joker in little snippets he seems a fully formed character.
There’s absolutely nothing ambiguous about this line.
He’s implying (as an insult not as a factual allegation) that Gambol is sleazy enough that he’d pimp out his own grandmother. The insult is compounded with the implication that Gambol’s grandmother wouldn’t attract so much as a nickel’s worth of revenue for her whoring.
It was written, directed, and acted with the full expectation that everyone in the audience over the age of twelve would know exactly what was meant.
It means quite a bit and gives insight into the Jokers background. The joke is that if the Joker dies things will change for gambol (and others) so that not only will Gambol not be able to get a nickel to give to his grandma, but that he wouldn’t be able to sell his grandma for a nickel either. Apparently Gambols success is dependent on the Jokers life.
Notice the instant the joker conjured up the gangsters impulse to kill him he whipped out the grenades but immediately beforehand was the joke. Magic exists.
