The Joker: (at least in comics and some movies) the fear made flesh and laughs

Dressed as Red Hood, a long time Batman´s foe, an underdog comedian tries to make a last effort to bring real money to the table for his wife and unborn son...nothing would be the same after that night...Wondering what if Batman knew the class of villian we would be partially reponsible for... would he have broken his non-killing rule or letting him away in order to prevent the shocking moment when this low-class comedian dies and The joker rises and allow him a second chance to be a normal person...a human being...WOW!!! being DC's most vicious villan only for a badday? that's pretty messed up!!!.

Having a notion of (at least the most popular) the origin of the clown prince of crime, now we can talk about the angles from where this terrifying, and sometimes ridiculous let's admit it, character has been seen; mostly in the filmic universe...

First lets have this crystal clear: The joker's personality has never been figured out completely, because of the times the character is wirtten (is was created more than 50 years ago) and he can be described as grim or cartoonish as it gets, sothat would be a very wide and tricky source.
Now in the movies, there has been three main characterizations, which were made in very different contexts, but everyone is iconic in their own way:

Cesar Romero (60's Batman Series and 2 movies adapted from it).

This version of The Joker is considered the most childish and in some levels ludacris (not the musician), but in a contemporary context is kind of"kitschy". A self called the best thief who always puts Batman and Robin in over-elaborated traps, always capable of escaping from them like the giant tea cup with acid...total classic. His motives never were deep; being the "clown prince of crime", gibing the city a better class of criminal (sounds familiar?).for the 60'sat the edge of World War III and political, social and racial conflict, TV made sure TV shows were as distant from reality as it vcoud get...and nothing better than a BOOGIE BOOGIE dancing Batman for that job!!!

Jack Nicholson (1989 movie by Tim Burton (I am your humble sheep Lord Burton)).

The whole concept for the movie was a reboot from the perception of Batman outside comics (who fears BOOGIE BOOGIE dancing guy with spandex and a belly ).Tim Burtondirected this master piece creating a chimera (eye blink) of the raw concept by Bob Kane, the other authors and Burton himself; creating as a result a noir film in german-expresionist (not familiar with the term? watch DR CALIGARI'S CABINET) atmosphere...Surreal!!!

Nocholson's Joker was, in my hmuble opinion, a super grim and more serious version of Cesar Romero's; still with bad little jokes, still wanting to be a crime lord...but not afraid to burn, explode and electrocute people for doing it,His character meets origins from a very serious and plane personality thug, Jack naiper, who,while confrontingBatman, gets burned and deformed, unleashing this joking beast. Something remarkable in his way of killing is the laughing gas, killing people with a smile in their faces (his life long obsession ),very fitting to Burton's dark, grim, a little gothic and yet cartoonish point of view.

Heath Ledger (2007 movie DARK KNIGTH)

Currently considered the best joker ever mainly for the ultrarrealistic psycopathic behavior it exhibs. A very interesting fact is Ledger's trainnig method for the character, whichconsisted in a previous and very long chat with the writers/directors in hotel room where they tried to figure out the Joker and the best ways to perform it, in order to have a good background, Ledgerwas given with many comic books (mainly graphic novels by authors like Frank Miller) in order to have a good idea of what kind of monster he ought to be. The trainnig lasted almost for a week, Ledger approched that time inpracticing the voice, manners and expressions, even came up with the primal concept for the make up, approbed and improved by the director and make up department.

Ledger's Joker was the complete Batman's counterpart, sharing the core of their methods: FEAR. while Batman scares you the shit by kicking your ass and letting you live to tell the story, Joker barely has that kind of mercy, the only clue left is a kind of smile carved on his victim's faces. Dark Knight's Joker is a prankster sends messages like a terrorist...this message appears tobe that with the right circumstances everybody can turn in some kind of freak like Joker himself or Batman, in the best case scenario.

"some people just can't be bullied or negociated with, some people just want to watch the world burn"

Now that you've met The Jokers ("Meet The jokers" with Ben Stiller,Chris Bale and DeNiro sounds like a blockbuster waiting to happen :P), let's see who's the best...and the winner is...actually the three of them are the winners!!!!

Why @kimeramovieblog (my twitter)? Why would you say such a blasfemy, everybody knows Ledger is the best Joker you scum stupid sadistic abusive f'ING...ok I´llstop!!!

Yes, Ledger is the best Joker...for his time, it's impossible (more like unfair) to compare any of this Jokers to eachother; for example, Can you imagine Ledger's Joker in a scene of The 60's Batman...they would off been banned from the pilot episode...or Cesar Romero's Joker in Tim Burton's version, ALERT FOR WORST VILLAN!!! (here I realize I'm giving favoritism to Jack Nicholson, because I think, with some adjustments, he would fit in any version).

CONCLUSION: ALL OF THEM WERE THE BEST AT THEIR RIGHT TIMES AND CONTEXTS, AND AS I SAID, IT'S UNFAIR COMPARE GRANDPA ROMERO WITH SUPER YOUNG STUD LEDGER (R.I.P.)

PS: Let's not forget tohse unknown heroes...sorry villans that performed Joker for animations, shortcuts, fan films, etc. Most of them were actually good, but in terms of acting skills, there is no comparison, not even with Cesar Romero.

Andrew Koening (formerly known as "Boner" from the series GROWING PAINS) performed The joker in a world wide famous shortcut called BATMAN: DEAD END, in which Batman confronts a threat even more dangerous than Joker...Predators and Aliens. His rol was short but very impacting for the story. I consider his performance as a prototype for what Ledger created in DARK KNIGHT.