The Killing Joke
The nature of hope and distrust in one amazing joke
as told to Batman by the Joker:
See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum… and one night, one night they decide they don’t like living in an asylum any more.
They decide they’re going to escape!
So, like, they get up onto the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moon light… stretching away to freedom.
Now, the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem.
But his friend, his friend didn’t dare make the leap.
Y’see… Y’see, he’s afraid of falling.
So then, the first guy has an idea…
He says
“Hey! I have my flashlight with me!
I’ll shine it across the gap between the buildings.
You can walk along the beam and join me!”
B-but the second guy just shakes his head.
He suh-says… He says
“Wh-what do you think I am?
Crazy?
You’d turn it off when I was half way across!”
For a little context, in this story the Batman finally catches up with his arch enemy the Joker in an abandoned amusement park, where having gathered a band of misfits and mutants, the Joker is making his last stand. After shooting Barbara Gordon (the commissioner’s daughter) in a home invasion and kidnapping and torturing Commissioner Gordon, he sends an invite to the Batman to come to the park.
The batman, finally having had enough of the carnage that their vendetta has wrought, makes one last bid for a peaceful conclusion to the Joker. This is where the Joker tells him the joke above (see fig.1), where the Bat finally realises there is no saving the man (see fig.2). And this is when at last the Batman makes the decision to murder the Joker.
fig.1
fig.2
Batman: The Killing Joke is a 1988 DC Comics
one-shot graphic novel featuring the characters Batman and the Joker
written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Brian Bolland.