They say if an actor spends too long with a character, they start to absorb some of that character into themselves. Mark Hamill, who has voiced the evil-for-funsies Joker since 1992, just made a great case for the theory.
Fans of Batman understand that part of what makes the Joker such a sinister bad guy is that he is having a blast being evil. Joker isn't looking for revenge, out to settle a debt, or right some perceived wrong; so he's not going to stop once he has reached some goal.
Homie is just out there having the time of his life, like with the lift and everything. He's the life of the party as far as he is concerned, and Batman is his favorite playmate. People are just the toys he uses to play.
Mark seems to have absorbed a little bit of that "playing with the people for fun" thing. He put together an April Fools' Day prank that would have absolutely messed with people's hopes if they fell for it.
Ever the king of the last-minute redemption arc, he pulled up last minute.
Hamill decided that maybe this year; with a pandemic and millions of people sick, dying, out of work, the stock market tanking, the world on fire, and everyone generally spiraling - that maybe this year wasn't the year for a cruel prank.
Just sayin'.
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He didn't want the joke to go to waste, though, so he shared it on Twitter anyway. He just waited a bit and made sure people understood it was a joke.
So what would Hamill have almost done that would potentially mess with people's heads so much he would decide not to use it? Nothing made sense.
Oh dear.
Yup. Totally get why he opted out on that one. While we could certainly use the temporary uplift that such a headline would inspire, the disappointment at the realization of the joke that would inevitably follow would have been more than we could bear.
Twitter had some thoughts.
While many thought April Fools' Day should have been canceled this year, it still brought many much-needed smiles.
But we support Hamill's gut instinct not to go through with this one. Turns out he's more Luke Skywalker than Joker in the end after all.
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