The Joker’s humor is that of a twisted, embittered individual. Luckily, we real-life mortals are more likely to use humor to help overcome our misfortunes and maybe even make the world a better place. Humor has always been the way Jews have dealt with hardship and looming terror, going back to the book of Proverbs (“A joyful heart is good medicine, a broken spirit dries the bones”).
Humor as a coping mechanism has aided Jews throughout the ages; Emil Fackenheim, a noted philosopher and survivor of Auschwitz, observed, “We kept our morale through humor.”
Heath Ledger’s tragic death may well cast a pall over the film and prevent audiences from embracing the charismatic villain in greasepaint this time around. While the Joker’s gift for the memorable one-liner is enviable, one wishes – as with all comic-book bad guys – that he’d use that power for good instead of evil.