Bad Jokes

"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!"

Almost everyone knows the Joker? Comics and movies? So what's up with him?

*

Joker: A year ago, these cops and lawyers wouldn't dare cross any of you. What happened? Did your balls drop off? You see, a guy like me...

Gambol: Freak. (Laughter, which the Joker tries to ignore.)

Joker: A guy like me...

*

That was part of the Dark Knight's script during the mob scene. Rather interesting to see it from another point of view, or our usual normal point of view.

How many times have we tried to introduce ourselves successfully? How many times have we attempted to give ourselves a good image, one that is accepted by everybody? To endeavour so that people like us?

Results? A freak.

Don't give the shit about being one own self, that I/You don't care about what people think. That is a lie, and a lie will be dealt with ways that you will recognise yourself.

And friends... they can turn into freaks themselves too.

The truth?

"the most upstanding citizen is capable of going mad after having "one bad day".

Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it. You know, I just… do things. The mob has plans, the cops have plans, Gordon’s got plans. You know, they’re schemers. Schemers trying to control their little worlds. I’m not a schemer. I try to show the schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are.

I do agree with Mr. Joker here. Some people are just 'pathetic', wearing their hearts out on their sleeves. They scheme and they devise and plot, and in the end they win. Naturally they lose their souls, and it turns them into something ugly, something they don't like, and thinking that the world has let them down, they want revenge.

Can we really control things in our lives? Maybe the things we are trying to control are entirely not up to us. Maybe we think we are in charge of our lives. And when there is chaos, we blame everyone but ourselves.

"Nobody panics when things go “according to plan.” Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that, like, a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it’s all “part of the plan.” But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!
Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I’m an agent of chaos. Oh, and you know the thing about chaos? It’s fair!"

Strange, isn't it? Logic and reasoning are powerless here.

I believe whatever doesn’t kill you, simply makes you…stranger.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We are tonight’s entertainment! Well, you look nervous. Is it the scars? You want to know how I got ‘em? Come here. Hey! Look at me. So I had a wife, beautiful, like you, who tells me I worry too much. Who tells me I ought to smile more. Who gambles and gets in deep with the sharks… Look at me! One day, they carve her face. And we have no money for surgeries. She can’t take it. I just want to see her smile again, hm? I just want her to know that I don’t care about the scars. So… I stick a razor in my mouth and do this…to myself. And you know what? She can’t stand the sight of me! She leaves. Now I see the funny side.Now I’m always smiling!"

And of course, like any good hero-villain novel, there is the bad guy's lousy love story. He rarely has a past that he can boast about, and in this case, neither is his romance history something brilliant. On the contrary, it is horrible, a loser's predicament, and usually the bad guys are the ones who suffer at the hands of their loved ones.

So what happens here is that love, if left untreated and uncontrolled, can manifest into something pretty scary. The deeper it is, so is the obsession with that person. That person is so powerful, it only takes a disapproval from him or her to inflict the worse damage to the heart and soul. The wounds are never shown outside. They are buried inside, deep within, silently feasting on our hearts' core, until one day, that little piece of sanity is destroyed forever, and our hearts are no more.

Bad jokes they are. They don't usually last, not really, but they can kill.