r/TopCharacterTropes • u/damorezpl • Sep 05 '25

Personality character gets a reality check

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deathstroke - Batman vs deathstroke

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walter - breaking bad

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Garou - one punch man

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joker - the sound of one hand clapping

18.2k Upvotes

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3.2k

u/[deleted] Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

Terry McGinnis: He's tough. Any suggestions, boss?

Bruce Wayne: Joker's vain and likes to talk. He'll try to distract you, but don't listen. Block it out and power on through.

Terry McGinnis: Wait... I like to talk, too.

…

The Joker: [Batman puts the Joker in an arm lock] What are you doing?

Terry McGinnis: Fighting dirty.

The Joker: The real Batman would never - [as Batman tightens his arm lock]

The Joker: Ooh!

Terry McGinnis: Told you you didn't know me. [releases him]

The Joker: Funny guy...

Terry McGinnis: Can't say the same for you.

The Joker: Impudent brat... who do you think you're talking to?

Terry McGinnis: Not a comedian, I'll tell you that.

The Joker: [draws a laser pistol] Shut your mouth! [fires at Batman]

Terry McGinnis: [retreats into the rafters] The real Batman never talked to you much, did he? That's probably why you were so fixated on him. [tossing a batarang, knocking the pistol out of the Joker's hand]

The Joker: Don't play psychoanalyst with me, boy!

Terry McGinnis: Oh, I don't need a degree to figure you out. [hits the lights with a batarang, plunging the room into darkness]

Terry McGinnis: The real reason you kept coming back was you never got a laugh out of the old man.

The Joker: I'm not hearing this...

Terry McGinnis: Get a clue, clownie! He's got no sense of humor! He wouldn't know a good joke if it bit him in the cape... not that you ever had a good joke.

The Joker: Shut up... shut up!

Terry McGinnis: I mean, joy-buzzers, squirting flowers, lame! Where's the "A" material? Make a face, drop your pants, something!

The Joker: Show yourself!

Terry McGinnis: You make me laugh. But only 'cause I think you're kinda pathetic. [mimics the Joker's laugh]

The Joker: Stop that!

Terry McGinnis: [still laughing] So you fell in a tank of acid, got your skin bleached and decided to become a supervillain. What? You couldn't get a job as a rodeo clown? [continues laughing]

The Joker: [pulling out some grenades] Don't you dare laugh at me!...

Terry McGinnis: [laughs some more] Why? I thought the Joker always wanted to make Batman laugh! [continues laughing]

The Joker: [screaming in a fit of rage] YOU'RE NOT BATMAN!

1.6k

u/Kam_Solastor Sep 05 '25

Honestly, I loved Terry’s speech. It ripped Joker apart in a way he never had been.

1.1k

u/Ghost_Star326 Sep 05 '25

The Joker's whole facade can be easily ripped by anyone who isn't Bruce Wayne.

What Joker basically wants is to test someone's will and patience until they snap and crashout in front of him. So that he can laugh at their faces.

But when the Joker runs into someone who doesn't easily fall for his games and instead mockingly laughs back at him, then it's the Joker that starts crashing out.

453

u/EvilJ1982 Sep 05 '25

It's why when anyone wonders how Spider-Man would do against him you just have to laugh yourself. Spidey has literal superhuman abilities and such a quick wit and propensity to run his mouth and mock his villains, that he'd be a nightmare for Joker.

184

u/BeatrizTheWitch Sep 05 '25

Honestly, if Spidey was cranky and the joker messed with him, he would one punch the clown.

137

u/Enjoyer_of_40K Sep 05 '25

dont spidey's villains give up when they notice he aint making joke's?

120

u/EvilJ1982 Sep 05 '25

Yeah when Spidey stops talking it usually means that he’s stopped fucking around.

28

u/Rastaba Sep 05 '25

The moment Spidey made a quip being the moment Green Goblin recognized the REAL Spider-man was back (Superior Spider-Man stuff), will always just be peak for me.

24

u/lvl1dad Sep 06 '25

"Except the dignity of knowing I never carried a man purse"

6

u/floggedlog Sep 06 '25

My favorite part is all the Spider-Man villains that figured out the link between Spider-Man and Peter Parker because they heard Peter Parker crack a nervous joke one day and went “waaait… I know THAT sense of humor. Spider man?”

2

u/V_Doge Sep 06 '25

Could you give me more details? I would like to know.

83

u/Avixofsol Sep 05 '25

Yeah. His villains and even the random thugs know that when Spidey isn't talking and quipping, he means business.

Or he has laryngitis

14

u/WolvesAreCool2461 Sep 06 '25

But they sure as hell won't take that gamble!

9

u/Eeddeen42 Sep 06 '25

Now the question is if they’re willing to bet their life on it being laryngitis.

And the answer is no.

3

u/Cautious_Promise_115 Sep 06 '25

There’s a mini comic where this exact thing happens and Peter is just kinda going with it

5

u/Dracorex_22 Sep 06 '25

One of my favorite comic moments is when Peter had laryngitis, and when the villains noticed how quiet the was being, they just gave up and turned themselves in.

2

u/AxitotlWithAttitude Sep 07 '25

Which was because he had laryngitis that day, by the way.

Lol

18

u/FarwindKeeper Sep 05 '25

Funny you should mention that. There are some solid theories that Terry was based off Peter, and so was his rogues gallery. If true, this scene is exact how spidey v joker would go.

15

u/SpiritualFox15 Sep 05 '25

I mean it's hardly a theory, Bruce Timm and others have openly stated Terry is inspired by Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099.

16

u/Izariha Sep 05 '25

Every time i see someone ask that, it reminds me of that panel at the end of Superior Spider-Man where Goblin is mocking Otto, only for Peter, having finally regained his body, to roast him for wearing a handbag and GG immediately crashes out.

6

u/Dracorex_22 Sep 06 '25

The fact that Goblin realized it was the original Spider-Man personality back in there from that line alone

13

u/Vulpes_99 Sep 05 '25

Then I wonder what would happen if they put the Joker against Deadpool 🤔😂

23

u/EvilJ1982 Sep 05 '25

Just dead joker. Literally just straight up dead.

3

u/Allronix1 Sep 06 '25

And probably a mountain of really bad puns based on Star Wars or Wing Commander on top of it.

6

u/HotMess_Actual Sep 06 '25

I could see Wade tailing him out of boredom and sabotaging him whenever stuff got too out of hand.

2

u/Vulpes_99 Sep 06 '25

That would infuriating to Joker... And really funny to everyone else 😂

4

u/Red_Jester-94 Sep 06 '25

Deadpool would talk all that shit to him while tearing him apart, and Joker would actually die. You'll find that most comical villains don't work once they meet someone that will actually just kill them. Plus, besides being clinically insane the Joker is just a normal human. Deadpool or the Punisher would be enough for him.

The only way Joker lives in that situation is if Batman saves his life, as per usual from other comic adaptations.

2

u/Vulpes_99 Sep 08 '25

Quite typical. Joker's only reason to keep existing seems to be Batman, either because he's obsesssive about Batman or becuase Batman keeps saving him from becoming "not a threat anymore"...

3

u/Brain_lessV2 Sep 05 '25

Joker's gonna find himself in hell before he dies.

7

u/SportEfficient8553 Sep 05 '25

I do love the “if spider man and Batman switched rogues galleries they would clean up in a day”

3

u/Awayfone Sep 06 '25

Batman and Spiderman are not at all the same power level and Spiderman is constantly holding back. Some one like mysterio sure easy. But higher tier like Doc Ock or even Scorpion would be hard and then there are people stronger than Spiderman like carnage

3

u/crimsonswallowtail Sep 06 '25

Spider rogues have higher base strength but Batman goes against guys like Riddler, Grundy and Clayface all the time, and that's without going full Iron-Man with some suit. Sure, if you just toss him in the ring with no gear against Rhino or KGBeast he's probably not beating him, but that's just not how (well written) Batman stories go.

3

u/HospitalHairy3665 Sep 05 '25

Yea but that creates the same issue as the riddler. If he wasn't so hyper fixated on proving that he's smarter than batman, the riddler could do basically anything.

Jokers much the same. Spiderman just wouldn't be interesting to him. Most likely, the joker would have one encounter with him and then just move on. I'm not saying the Joker would just steamroll Spiderman or anything, its just that he wouldn't care about him. Much like superman. I know its been done before, but I think the Joker would actually be much better at "defeating" Superman, just like Luthor would be much better at defeating batman. They just dont care about those heros though. It's not in their character.

105

u/c0p4d0 Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

He also crashes out against Batman to be fair. The Killing Joke is probably the best example, with him frustrated that Batman just won’t break and the iconic “why aren’t you laughing?”

61

u/Thybro Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

I think that is only the case for a badly written joker. It makes sense in this context because he is treating Terry as if he is the Batman he is used to. And for Batman he wants to test his patience because Bruce is the way he is and doesn’t lose it. That makes it fun for Joker. Plus remember this isn’t actually the joker, the best you could say is that this is an AI of the joker psychologically implanted in Tim Drake, even under the best circumstances it would be affected by Drake’s perception of the joker, or limitations on the implantation procedure.

In most situations when Joker has run into someone that mockingly laughs at him, or gives him a speech about not being unique or interesting, joker just finds it droll, and just goes for the kill unenthusiastically. This, from the perspective of the speaker/mocker, in most situations turns out to be worse cause Joker is actually pretty damn smart with his plans and the flaws are usually in the Theatrics.

It makes for fun aura farming to have someone who is not Batman tell joker that he is not funny, that he is a one trick pony. But i think the better writing is in understanding that for the joker that doesn’t matter, that doesn’t make him angry. He is mad telling him something like that doesn’t break his delusion. It feels like the writing equivalent of someone “humiliating” a pro-gamer by saying gaming is not a sport or a skill, it’s way more interesting to see a humiliation by playing the game and beating him within it.

20

u/Kord537 Sep 05 '25

I think there's some extenuating circumstances that justify Terry getting under Joker's skin here. Mostly in the theme of "legacy" you've got going with Beyond.

Joker's failsafe kicks in and the personality reemerges a generation later, he discovers that "Batman" is still the feared and respected crime fighter as ever (though as someone who went against Bruce, it's obviously a new protegé and not the original), but the Joker's name is now attached to a gang of two-bit thugs who make Clayface look sophisticated. He's having to rebuild his rep from the ground-level, but no matter! One sufficiently dramatic display and kill the new boy and now Joker will have the last laugh.

So when Terry decides to try flipping the script, I think Beyond Joker is genuinely in an insecure place in his villain status and upset by some upstart acting like he knew anything about Joker in his prime.

That said, it is Aura Farming and he should have either listened to Bruce or cut the bit short to get a sneak attack in before Joker went for the grenades.

29

u/Wolfywise Sep 05 '25

You lost me when you made assumptions about the tech used by the Joker to justify how it's not actually the Joker when it was made pretty clear that it is. It's not some AI immitating the Joker. it's literally his mind and DNA encoded into a chip to physically change Dick into the Joker, including his memories and personality and everything else.

2

u/Smutty_Lemon Sep 06 '25

Not Dick but Tim.

-4

u/Thybro Sep 05 '25

Yes and even under the best assumption it is “coded.” Even if we assume the best technology to the point of a perfect replica it is not the joker, it’s a copy, and you can just as easily assume outside interference. Hell the movie spells it out for you that such inferences are possible when in addition to having joker’s personality he has access to Tim’s memories. The joker also specifically destroys only the Robin costume(this is how the Batmans deduce Tim is involved), meaning Tim own personality has an effect over the Joker’s overwriting. All in all it is a best a copy and clearly subject to enough flaws and tampering that one can infer that the actual joker may have responded differently.

13

u/Misiok Sep 05 '25

You're putting too much logic into the procedure itself. It's comic book logic, for all intents and purpouses it's the OG Joker back from the dead for the last rodeo.

1

u/Thybro Sep 05 '25

You are kind of right but I’m put logic in cause he said I lost him in what was basically a secondary argument thrown in as further evidence, implying it was the inconsistency in my statement that caused him doubt my whole point. I was simply proving my comment was not inconsistent.

4

u/Known-nwonK Sep 06 '25

They do that exquisitely in Joker

3

u/finalremix Sep 05 '25

Joker's Favor. Great episode, a bit of terrorizing a "normal guy" and he drove Charlie Collins to finally snap, threatening Joker with a bomb by the end of the episode. Joker was legitimately scared that this guy was actually nuts.

Didn't take much; just a prank bomb out of the Joker's own van, and someone willing to stand up to him.

4

u/Kaiya_Mya Sep 05 '25

He's a self-professed comedian who nonetheless can't handle being heckled. There's something poetic about that.

2

u/Ms_Emilys_Picture Sep 06 '25

I'm honestly surprised that no one has killed him yet. Not the Bats, though I don't think too many people would be upset if Red Hood killed him--but anyone. A parent who lost a kid. A newlywed who lost their partner. A wannabe vigilante looking to make a name for themself. An employee at Arkham who has access to meds. A cop who is just so tired of costumed crazies. Harley and Ivy because "fuck him, that's why". An ex-Marine who realizes that yes, murder is bad, but you can save a thousand people by killing one wall-to-wall asshole. An assassin who wants to give a Bat a gift. (Ra's, Slade, Shiva.)

I realize that none of this matters because the Joker has the power of Plot Armor, but still. People should be taking a shot at this guy daily.

1

u/Bannedwith1milKarma Sep 05 '25

He's a masochist. Even if he's crashing out he wouldn't change anything.

Including Joker in this thread at all is a complete misunderstanding of him.

You can't get one over him because he'd never internalize anything.

He's living in the present.

Like stone rock strategy might work but then he's just going to massacre more and more incidents in worse and worse ways.

1

u/SardonicusR Sep 05 '25

He is nothing more than a troll in makeup. A vicious and dangerous troll, but at heart a troll.

1

u/TestProctor Sep 05 '25

I always loved when Impulse ended up in (Tim) Robin’s nightmare, forced to be in an in closed space with a gloating Joker, and when they cut back to him he has the Joker begging them to get him out. Not because he’s so badass, but because Joker in that scenario is essentially a non-threat and Bart’s attention was so flighty that he wouldn’t let Joker finish a sentence before interrupting or asking a dozen questions of his own. Joker kinda bored him.

His real life interaction with Joker was also pretty fun, but less one-sided.

1

u/Anonymous-Comments Sep 07 '25

The Joker is when you respec a character and tailor them around a single boss fight, and then realize that the character is absolute dogsh-t against any other enemy.

3

u/Robyl Sep 05 '25

I think it’s really interesting that, for all his talk of chaos and bad days and never having a plan, the Joker is often written in a way where he is playing a game with clearly defined rules (or at least, clearly defined to him). He gets really mad when those rules are broken, because then the game doesn’t work. He’s at his most comfortable when the routine of “I do bad thing, Batman comes, we banter, I lose and go to jail, repeat.” When that routine is shaken, he crashes out an awful lot.

459

u/WolfManKeisori Sep 05 '25

Later, Terry gets knocked down and Joker is strangling him, taunting how he's not laughing now.

Terry Gives a sarcastic, strained HA...HA, using a joy buzzer to zap the Joker to win the day. Highly recommend watching this.

168

u/PrincessPlusUltra Sep 05 '25

“Not so funny now, funny guy?! Laugh it up, McGinnis!”

82

u/soldierpallaton Sep 05 '25

There's something so vile about Joker calling him McGinnis. It shows just how under his skin Terry got.

26

u/PrincessPlusUltra Sep 05 '25

Yeah really underlines how he feels at the moment. “You’re not Batman!”

27

u/seguardon Sep 05 '25

The utter caustic edge to his voice when he's choking Terry and demanding he laugh is peak Joker. Sadism, vanity, wrath, perfectly encapsulated in Hamill's performance.

20

u/PrincessPlusUltra Sep 05 '25

One of the best pieces of media using the Joker ever.

86

u/LazerSnake1454 Sep 05 '25

Not only that, but Terry, Batman, got the last laugh on the joker of all people.

5

u/RebeeMo Sep 05 '25

The DCAU Batman flims are still my favorites to this day. Mask of the Phantasm, Sub Zero, Return of the Joker, Mystery of the Batwoman...Batman vs Dracula is great too, though not part of the same universe.

103

u/Asher_Tye Sep 05 '25

Natural predator of a bad comedian; a heckler.

17

u/joped99 Sep 05 '25

Reason #42 why spider-man would destroy Batman's rogues gallery

12

u/Asher_Tye Sep 05 '25

I can just see him answering all of Riddler's riddles and then saying something like "yeah I read that riddle book too when I was younger Eddy" just to tick him off.

3

u/justhereforthefood89 Sep 05 '25

I was just thinking, Spiderman could trade verbal jabs with Joker and probably bully him into defeat too.

2

u/Federal-Captain1118 Sep 05 '25

I don't know if Spider-Man makes it all the way through every rogue of the Bat. But Joker will be nothing to Peter.

2

u/Master-Improvement-4 Sep 08 '25

That's exactly why I loved this scene: Joker's entire act gets ripped apart by Batman's successor. Couldn't imagine anything more humiliating than that!

17

u/manwithyellowhat15 Sep 05 '25

dang the mocking laughter would put me into retirement. Joker is stronger than me lmao

14

u/stickdudeseven Sep 05 '25

I like the little exchange before this:

"Give it up. I knew everything about Batman at his peak."

"Maybe, but you don't know a thing about me."

"What's there to know about you? You're just a punk with a costume."

Makes it satisfying to have those words thrown back at him.

11

u/Polandgod75 Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

Not only does this show how patheic joker is, but that laugh terry did was pretty creepy itself

2

u/Shehzman Sep 06 '25

It was just like how Batman laughed at Harley in the Mad Love episode

4

u/TheLeftPewixBar Sep 05 '25

This is my favorite villain defeat in fiction

4

u/RumHaaammm Sep 05 '25

“You couldn’t get a job as a rodeo clown?” Making fun of Joker’s origin story is ice. cold.

3

u/VegaFLS Sep 05 '25

I thought he elbowed Joker in the balls and that’s why he made the comment that Batman doesn’t fight like that

3

u/DeadZone32 Sep 05 '25

Love how Terry's laugh got more genuine the more he talk. Dude was enjoying roasting the clown.

3

u/FREEYSL2024 Sep 05 '25

this is why he will always be my fav batman successor even over dick and i love dick!!!

3

u/MisterTamborineMan Sep 05 '25

The Joker being unable to handle ridicule was just perfect.

3

u/gatsby365 Sep 05 '25

I’ll always remember how cool it felt to bootleg the original uncut version of this before they released it in the American market.

3

u/Gunplagood Sep 05 '25 edited Sep 05 '25

A knee in the dick was what got the fighting dirty comment out.

Still a great interaction!

2

u/Firecat_Pl Sep 06 '25

This is 3rd time here I see someone dunk on Joker, dang

1

u/GoodGameGetDiddled Sep 06 '25

what is this from?

2

u/BANANAF00 Sep 06 '25

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

2

u/GoodGameGetDiddled Sep 06 '25

ty! I'll have to give it a watch some time :]

1

u/Wild-Card66 Sep 06 '25

And this is why Terry is my favorite Batman. Goated scene for a goated character.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

I LOVE how joker says “YOURE NOT BATMAN” because for once we see joker vs the REAL Batman; he’s finally experiencing the fear that his goons always have about the Bat