Personally, the most entertaining Batman remains Batman the Movie (1966), and of course the television series of the same time-period, now that’s hilarious fun! But when you get tired of the laughs there's the 2008 film The Dark Knight for nihilistic mention. Dark Knight makes full use of the film noir elements of contemporary Batman to make a dark and intense action flick where the villain, the Joker, adopts aspects of nihilism to act as an interesting foil against the quasi-hero of Batman. Although the Joker is portrayed as a criminal psychotic, by the second half of the lengthy film he begins to explain his motivations and indeed much of the Joker’s efforts are an attempt to show how foolish authorities are to try and control every aspect of society, going so far as to portray himself as an agent of chaos; “You know, the thing about chaos? It’s fair.” At another point the Joker sets fire to a mountain of the mafia's money saying, “It’s not about money, it’s about sending a message: everything burns.” The Joker points out that the way people behave under duress is often radically different than under typical circumstances, that civilization is composed of tenuous and often illusionary elements that only serve to mask true human nature. Of course the overall presentation could easily be considered anti-nihilist because the Joker’s character is intended as an emblem to be reviled, nevertheless this fictional film clearly portrays how a ‘madman’ can shatter illusions and radically reorder popular assumptions.
It’s not about how “emotionless” or “charismatic” he is, the Joker, he’s got it all good: Everything is worthless, and life itself and existence entirely is worth losing, so yeah, in all his influenza, “why so serious”; honestly, the only reason we’re afraid to die is because we take life too seriously. So yeah, ‘Why so Serious?’
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