
DC Comics
The Joker
The Joker works because he is the exact structural opposite of Batman and nothing else. Batman is order imposed by will; the Joker is the argument that order is a joke.
- First appearance
- Batman #1 (1940), DC Comics
- Created by
- Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson
- Also known as
- The Clown Prince of Crime, The Ace of Knaves
- Universe
- DC Universe
- Appears in
- comics, film, television, animation, games
Who is The Joker?
The Joker works because he is the exact structural opposite of Batman and nothing else. Batman is order imposed by will; the Joker is the argument that order is a joke. He has no fixed origin — the character has explicitly rejected one, most famously in the line about preferring his past to be multiple choice — and no stable motive beyond proving that anyone can be reduced to his level given one bad day. That refusal to explain him is why he has survived reinvention better than almost any villain: he can be a giggling prankster in 1966, a mass murderer in 1988, a scarred anarchist in 2008, and a study in social collapse in 2019, without any of those versions cancelling the others. He is also the rare antagonist who outsells the hero on merchandise, which says something about how audiences relate to him.
“Why so serious?”The Dark Knight (2008)
The Joker: the details
- First appearance
- Batman #1, April 1940 — in the same issue as Catwoman
- Created by
- Credited to Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson; which of the three contributed the core idea has been disputed for decades
- Visual source
- Widely traced to Conrad Veidt's appearance in the 1928 film The Man Who Laughs
- Nearly killed off
- He was written to die in his second appearance; an editor's late change kept him alive
- Deliberately no origin
- The Killing Joke (1988) offers a backstory and then has him disown it, which became the character's standing position
- Comics Code era
- Softened into a harmless prankster through the 1950s and 1960s, then returned to lethal form in the 1970s
- Academy Awards
- Two performers have won Oscars for playing him — Heath Ledger in 2009 and Joaquin Phoenix in 2020
Why The Joker endures
The most commercially successful villain in comics and the benchmark against which comic-book antagonists are judged. He is also the clearest case of a character whose appeal is aesthetic rather than moral — the merchandise sells to people who have no interest in defending anything he does.
What The Joker looks like on a shirt
Signature motif: Green hair, chalk-white skin and a red rictus grin, usually over a purple suit
The purple-and-green pairing is a deliberate colour clash and is instantly readable even in silhouette. Shirts lean heavily on the grin alone, on playing-card imagery, and on the 'HA HA HA' text treatment.
Adult sizing dominates here, and rightly so. The most common treatments are a large photographic or illustrated face print, the purple/green colour block, and card-suit graphics. Note that this character is not carried on the kids' pages.
The Joker T-shirts
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Buying from outside the United States? Prices shown are amazon.com in US dollars. Links redirect international readers to their local Amazon, where pricing, sizing and availability are shown in local terms.
Price and availability are taken from Amazon at the time shown and can change. The price on Amazon at the time of purchase applies.
Sizes: kids to adult
The Joker shirts are produced across the full US size range. These links run a live Amazon search filtered to each band, so they show what is genuinely in stock rather than a cached list.
| Band | Ages | US sizes | Search |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toddler | 2–4 years | 2T, 3T, 4T | Search toddler sizes |
| Kids | 4–7 years | XS (4/5), S (6/7) | Search kids sizes |
| Youth | 8–14 years | M (8), L (10/12), XL (14/16) | Search youth sizes |
| Adult | 15+ | S–3XL | Search adult sizes |
US sizing shown. Cut and measurement vary between brands — see the size guide before ordering, especially for youth sizes. Base search: Joker t-shirt.
Who has played The Joker
| Performer | Production | Year | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cesar Romero | Batman | 1966 | Live action |
| Jack Nicholson | Batman | 1989 | Live action |
| Heath Ledger | The Dark Knight | 2008 | Live action |
| Jared Leto | Suicide Squad | 2016 | Live action |
| Joaquin Phoenix | Joker | 2019 | Live action |
| Mark Hamill | Batman: The Animated Series | 1992 | Voice |
The Joker T-shirts: common questions
Who created The Joker?
The Joker was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson, first appearing in Batman #1 in 1940 (DC Comics).
What does a The Joker T-shirt usually look like?
Green hair, chalk-white skin and a red rictus grin, usually over a purple suit. Adult sizing dominates here, and rightly so. The most common treatments are a large photographic or illustrated face print, the purple/green colour block, and card-suit graphics. Note that this character is not carried on the kids' pages.
Are The Joker T-shirts made for children?
No. The Joker comes from work made for older audiences, so we keep the character off our kids pages even where children's sizes are manufactured.
Who has played The Joker?
The Joker has been played on screen by Cesar Romero (Batman, 1966), Jack Nicholson (Batman, 1989), Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight, 2008), Jared Leto (Suicide Squad, 2016), and voiced by Mark Hamill (Batman: The Animated Series, 1992).
How much does a The Joker T-shirt cost?
The Joker shirts we currently track start from around $19.99 on amazon.com. Every price on this page is dated, because they move.
This profile was compiled from published reference material about The Joker — first appearance, creator credits and production history — and is a secondary source rather than a substitute for the original publication. Where a detail could not be corroborated it has been left out. We do not physically test garments; see how we work for what that means and what it does not.
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