# Hey, you know who would make a good "Joker"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 20, 2005, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618 "2005-09-20T23:23:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Guy\_Incognito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Incognito)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/21 "2005-09-21T19:24:56Z")
I think Alan Cummings would make a good Joker. I think he looks a lot like the depiction of the Joker as seen in the \*Killing Joke \* graphic novel.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/22 "2005-09-21T19:38:35Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> I would say you’re right about the look. He looks just like the Joker in flashbacks during “The Killing Joke.”
I don’t know what that looks like, but his face is long enough to play the cartoon version of the character. Yiy!
I liked Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow. He’s not supposed to be intimidating, and sure pulled off crazy well enough. I think he’d be a very good Joker. I’m on board with Tim Curry, too, but I’m sure they’ll go with someone substantially younger.
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### Author:  [@unophobia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unophobia)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/23 "2005-09-21T20:19:27Z")
John Lithgow. He has proven to play both serious and wildly comic roles, a perquisite to playing The Joker.
Or…how about Bob Dylan? It is said that he refers to himself as the ‘Joker’ or ‘Jokerman’.
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### Author:  [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/24 "2005-09-21T20:30:40Z")
Bob Dylan? I vote for Steve Miller instead.
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### Author:  [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/25 "2005-09-21T20:34:01Z")
I wouldn’t go with anyone younger than 40 or older than 45 for the joker. He has to be intimidating (which middle age helps) but still physically fit. I’d also go for someone who is thin, or at least not as fat, besotted and wrinkly as Jack Nicholson was in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman. Yes, Jack was god at playing insane and scary. He was still too fucking fat to be believable doing all the physical work required as a comic villian.
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### Author:  [@cstamets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cstamets)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/26 "2005-09-21T20:41:45Z")
Does anybody remember Mark Hamill as The Trickster on “The Flash” (the TV series)?
Add my vote to the Mark Hamill group.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/27 "2005-09-21T20:43:00Z")
How big and physically robust is the Joker supposed to be? Sometimes he seems taller, but thinner than Batman who is about 6’2". Other times he’s shorter. Sometimes he’s tall and more athletic than skinny. Sometimes he’s craven, other times he’s trading Batman punch for punch, and sometimes seems on the verge of winning fights when Batman stumbles.
What’s the scoop on this?
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### Author:  [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/28 "2005-09-21T21:30:23Z")
I’m shocked…SHOCKED…that the voice of the Joker that I listened to for years was Mark Hamill. I also can’t believe that it was back in '92. Damn, but Hamill was perfect.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/29 "2005-09-21T21:32:50Z")
Mark Hamill is 54 years old. Let’s go a little younger.
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### Author:  [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/30 "2005-09-21T21:46:50Z")
Don’t laugh at me, but…
Tom Cruise.
He’s the right age, he can act (when reined in by a strong director) and his personal ego is big enough to fill up that of the megalomaniac (sp?) that the Joker is.
Problem is - TC would want creative controll over the movie, which would sink it in the Mariana Trench (n less than 20 minutes), so it’s not gonna happen.
But the way TC is always chewing the scenery - he’d be perfect.
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### Author:  [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/31 "2005-09-21T22:15:32Z")
The fact is that you need someone larger than life to play the Joker. Cilian Murphy and Ed Norton aren’t “big” enough. Jack Nicholson definitely was.
I think John Malkovich could bring the intensity necessary for the role.
Maybe…maaaaybe Steve Buscemi.
Even less likely: If Billy Bob Thornton can do an accent as extreme as the one in Sling Blade, surely he affect a non-accent.
And, just as something to chew on: Johnny Depp. Man, just imagine that…
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/32 "2005-09-21T22:20:07Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#):
>
> Hey, looking at his IMDB page, I have learned that they’ve already made **American Pie 4: Band Camp** , which may or may not be being released straight to video. Ah, the age we live in.
I’m only going to watch this if it’s a porno and stars Allyson Hannigan.
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### Author:  [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/33 "2005-09-21T22:25:14Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#):
>
> I’m only going to watch this if it’s a porno and stars Allyson Hannigan.
:heavy breathing:
Hell yeah.
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### Author:  [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/34 "2005-09-21T22:36:33Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#):
>
> I’m only going to watch this if it’s a porno and stars Allyson Hannigan.
Does Allyson Hannigan really have a sex tape floating around the net?My, eh, friend says he seen one advertised on a, eh, educational website…
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/35 "2005-09-21T23:19:44Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#):
>
> They need to STOP casting pretty-boys as villains. The intimidation factor totally disappears.
I think Jude Law is [far from being “too pretty” to play the Joker.](http://www.larrymudd.com/images/b3ta/jude_joker.jpg)
(Of course, a two-minute colouring job is no substitute for good prosthetic makeup on an actor in character.)
If “pretty” guys couldn’t pull off intimidating, then Christian Bale would hardly work as Batman. The Joker isn’t intimidating because he’s ugly – he’s intimidating because he’s batshit crazy, cunning, armed, physically fit, and has an army of loyal goons.
Get somebody who can act the part and you can sell “intimidating.” For me, Jude Law would work because he’s a great physical actor, and the one feature that he has that wouldn’t be obscured by make-up are perfect. While his eyes are _often_ doing that easy “come fuck me” thing, he’s quite capable of putting an icy, bone-chilling “I’m just crazy enough to eat your eyes out through your arsehole” look into them. That’d work.
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### Author:  [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/36 "2005-09-21T23:24:14Z")
Jude Law played an amazing psychopath in another comic book movie, the underrated and beautifully-shot _Road To Perdition_. At the time, it made me think of the Joker.
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### Author:  [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/37 "2005-09-22T03:13:02Z")
> [@Hung Mung](#):
>
> And, just as something to chew on: Johnny Depp. Man, just imagine that…
Damn! **Hung Mung** stole my suggestion! _pouts_
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### Author:  [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/38 "2005-09-22T04:57:06Z")
:d
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### Author:  [@Hung\_Mung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hung_Mung)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2005, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/39 "2005-09-22T05:02:58Z")
wtf…I clicked the smiley button… 😃
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### Author:  [@parthenokinesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parthenokinesis)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hey-you-know-who-would-make-a-good-joker/322618/40 "2005-09-22T13:34:52Z")
Sam Rockwell.
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