Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker is among the best Joker performances to date. His performance as The Clown Prince Of Crime won him an Academy Award. There were many reasons that The Dark Knight became a massive Box Office success. And the inclusion of Heath Ledger as the Joker in the film is one of them. This film catapulted both Heath and his portrayal of Joker to new heights of popularity. The movie has achieved cult status over the years and has inspired numerous memes like The Joker saying his famous line “Why So Serious”.
This iconic line has instantly become a fan favorite and was adopted with an open heart by the internet community. The “Why So Serious” line by The Joker not only inspired memes but also became the new normal of saying calm down to someone.
In this article, we will look at the story behind this famous line and some of the famous memes that have been inspired by this line.
Joker “Why So Serious” Backstory
After the events of Batman Begins, Batman has scared the criminals of Gotham to such an extent that they are even afraid to meet at night. And start to conduct their official meetings in broad daylight.
At the beginning of the movie, we see a gang rob a mob bank. After which all the mob bosses call a meeting with their corrupt accountant Lau, who has moved all the money to an undisclosed location. And Lau himself has run to Hong Kong. But the meeting is interrupted by The Joker.
During the meeting, The Joker offers to kill Batman due to which the mob bosses have been cornered in their own fortress city like Gotham. But the mob boss Gambol threatens The Joker for robbing their money and puts a bounty on him dead or alive.
“Why So Serious” Story Narration by Joker
As the movie proceeds some teenagers bring his body to Gambol and ask him for the bounty money. But The Joker is alive and comes out of the body bag and puts a knife on Gambol’s face while the teenagers hold Gambol’s gang hostage.
While holding Gambol hostage The Joker asks him does he want to know he got these scars. And he starts to tell the story that his father was a drunk and a mad man. One day his father came home more drunk than usual and starts to beat his wife. But The Joker’s mother picks up a knife to defend herself but the father does not like this.
The father of the Joker takes the knife and comes to his son and puts the blade in his mouth and asks him ” Why so serious”? Let’s put a smile on that face and cuts his child’s face open. And these scars are actually the healing wounds of the cuts that his father gave him while asking him “Why So Serious”.
This story also offered an in-depth look at The Joker’s childhood. And helped the viewers understand the reason behind Joker’s descent into madness.
Joker “Why So Serious” Memes
The phrase coupled with an image of Ledger in costume became a well-known meme even before the release of the movie. The meme became so popular that people even started to dress up as the Joker and take images. Then place the “Why so serious” graphic on these images. Other common memes were created by using photoshop and placing his distinctive makeup on the faces of celebrities or animals. Then this photoshopped image was paired with a “Why so serious” graphic.
This Joker “Why so serious” meme is generally used as a response on social media when someone is seen to be upset or extremely serious about something. It’s the equivalent of telling a person to “calm down” or “chill out”. The meme is usually meant to be read in a sarcastic, or a prodding way. “Why so serious” memes are among the most famous well-known memes of all time.
Conclusion
If you like this article, you should definitely visit our website for other interesting articles. Our website is a complete digital library on Batman and everything and everyone in the Bat universe.
The Joker is such an iconic character, and when you have him a line that is easy to remember like “why so serious?” you turn him into a legend.
