Joker Immunity / Live-Action TV

• Alias: Both Julian Sark (whose constant escapes eventually become a Running Gag) and Arvin Sloane (who, at one point, manages to survive his own execution) enjoy this immunity.
• Arrowverse:
  • One villain who simply will not die is Eobard Thawne, aka the Reverse-Flash. While other villains in the franchise have come back via resurrection, Thawne is unique in that, no matter how many times he is ostensibly erased from existence, he always comes back. Even after the Black Flash caught up with him in the Season 2 finale of Legends of Tomorrow, and it seemed like his luck had finally run out, he eventually turns up on Earth-X, working with the Nazis just for kicks. When Barry comments on this, Thawne doesn't even bother with an explanation, and just handwaves it via the Timey-Wimey Ball. In the Season 5 finale of The Flash (2014), an explanation is finally given, as he explains that the Negative Speed Force which gives him his powers is somehow immune to the alterations to time, unlike the regular Speed Force, so it protects him.
  • Lex Luthor in Supergirl (2015) also has some form of this, as after being killed off, the Monitor resurrected him for an important role in Crisis on Infinite Earths (2019).
• Bones:
  • Christopher Pelant. He keeps escaping and Booth even nails him in the head and leaves half blind. He finally gets his Plot Armor revoked in season 9 when Booth kills him.
  • Broadsky qualifies too with his repeated escapes during season 6. Booth finally takes him alive.
• Several villains from Buffy the Vampire Slayer evade death repeatedly, including Spike, Dru, and Darla (who technically dies about four times over the course of Buffy and Angel, but only the last one takes).
• "Dead Larry" Sizemore of Burn Notice, partly because of his badass spy skills and his relationship to The Hero, partly because he's just too cool to kill off. In the season 5 summer finale, it looked like death had finally caught up with him. Then a newspaper article said that two people had been found dead. There were three people in that building.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Master may be a Time Lord, but they should still be dead by now. Particularly since they'd already used up all their natural regenerations while the Doctor was still on body number four. In the 80s, the Ainley Master would start getting into apparently fatal situations at the end of each story, then pull an Unexplained Recovery. They were seemingly killed off in "Castrovalva" (trapped in a dimensional implosion), "Planet of Fire" (burned to a crisp), "Survival" (trapped and abandoned on the disintegrating Cheetah Planet), the Made for TV Movie (sucked into the Eye of Harmony — incidentally, the film opens with the Master cheating death yet again), "Last of the Time Lords" (dies in the Doctor's arms, refusing to regenerate), "Death in Heaven" (vaporized), "The Doctor Falls" (shot in the back with an Anti-Regeneration blast and left for dead, minutes before an explosion that leveled an entire spaceship deck), and "The Timeless Children" (exposed to a "death particle", supposedly capable of destroying all organic life on a whole planet). That last one took them out of circulation for about ten episodes and didn't even cause them to regenerate. In one of the Big Finish audio dramas, Missy estimates that they've been killed and come back to life eighty-five times.
    Missy: Okay, cutting to the chase: not dead, back, big surprise, never mind.
  • The Daleks rival the Master for the number of times they've been "killed off completely" (including to the extent of being erased from time); it's happened seven times to date^{In order:}"The Daleks", "The Evil of the Daleks", "Remembrance of the Daleks", "Dalek", "The Parting of the Ways", "Journey's End" and "The Vanquishers". Twice more they're left with only a few survivors, in "Doomsday" and "Evolution of the Daleks"., with none of them sticking. They're very analogous to the Joker, as they're the Doctor's defining villains (Russell T Davies has said you basically can't have Doctor Who without the Daleks) and the Doctor has a strong moral code that would make them hesitant to wipe out an entire race. That said, the Doctor really hates the Daleks, has pulled the genocide trigger before, and has been known to fly into a rage whenever the Daleks reappear (such as in "Victory of the Daleks", when Eleven finds them apparently behaving as docile British weapons wandering around World War II-era London).
  • Davros, the Daleks' creator, was seemingly intended to suffer a permanent Karmic Death at the end of his first story by the writer and then-showrunners, with an originally planned scene indicating that he'd gone into stasis when the Daleks turned on him for the first time of many being cut. This turned out not to be permanent, and since then he's survived apparent death at least once. Russell T Davies responded with a Shrug of God when asked if he had survived the ending of "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End", which was later conclusively answered.
    • Lampshaded in "The Witch's Familiar":
      Davros: I am dying, Doctor.
      Doctor: You keep saying that, you keep not dying. Can you give it some welly? Come on!
  • The Cybermen are frequently killed off or otherwise sealed away, though due to severe Anachronic Order of their stories and multiple factions of Cybermen this can muddle things incredibly. It's justified on their part; even if the Cybermen themselves are wiped out, their technology can convert or assimilate something else into a Cyberman, which can multiply from there. The Twelfth Doctor said that Cybermen "evolved" on multiple planets independently, and were inevitable once a human population in dire straits reached a certain level of technology.
  • The spin-off Class has a subversion. The team's greatest enemies and major recurring villains are Corakinus and his legions of Shadow Kin. The first time they're beaten, the Doctor himself drives them back to their planet. The second time, it's April who beats their King, takes his title and drives them back to their planet. The third time they show up, it ends with their entire planet getting imploded and the entire Shadow Kin race being rendered extinct. Human teenagers are a lot less strict about pacifism than an ancient Time Lord, especially when you start killing their parents.
• In the Doom Patrol (2019) episode "Casey Patrol", it's brought up by Dorothy that Casey Brinke's battles with her father Torminox in the Space Case comic book always resulted in Casey killing Torminox, only for Torminox to subsequently come back to fight his daughter again. When facing her father in the real world, Casey is more reluctant to finish him off after learning from Dorothy that death is permanent here due to being afraid of killing her father for good this time.
• On Farscape, off-and-on Big Bad Scorpius was only supposed to be part of a two-episode arc, but he ended up becoming very popular and kept returning, even after being shot and buried on screen. The show also started making a point of how he's a Crazy-Prepared Magnificent Bastard, which helps explain how he keeps surviving. He even earned a Promotion to Opening Titles after we learned that he's actually a Well-Intentioned Extremist with an enemy in common with the heroes.
• On Glee, Sue Sylvester very obviously has no business working at a school as she bullies both the faculty and the students, but it is kept around because the audience apparently finds her funny. When she finally gets fired for bringing a gun to school in Season 4 which wasn't actually hers, she manages to somehow become principal by framing the previous one, despite the fact that she should be banned from the premises.
• Jerome Valeska on Gotham, who might well be the series' incarnation of the Joker, is stabbed through the throat and dies. He gets better a season later, which is even more of a hint that he might someday adopt the nom du guerre Joker which is the only thing missing as he is for all intents and purposes a fully grown Joker in personality and motivation. His immunity is finally revoked late in Season 4, when he's finally Killed Off for Real, but not before setting in motion a plan that drives his twin brother Jeremiah insane, allowing him to become the show's version of the Joker.
• Wo Fat in the original Hawaii Five-O always got away at the end of the episode, to the point that the series finale was, and could only be, McGarrett hunting him down to arrest him personally — except the final shot shows he has a file in his shoe. Similarly in the reboot. It's Wo Fat's notorious Joker immunity more than any other that's being parodied in The Simpsons "Spin-Off Showcase" segment "Chief Wiggum, P.I.", in which Big Daddy escapes very slowly.
  Principal Skinner: He's gradually getting away, Chief.
  Chief Wiggum: Ah, let him go. I have the feeling we'll meet again, each and every week. Always in more sexy and exciting ways.
• On Heroes, Sylar seems to have the universe bending over backwards to keep him alive, largely because he's a very popular character. He was originally intended to be killed off at the end of Volume 1, but since then he's survived:
  • Being technically killed off at the end of Volume 3, only to appear at the start of Volume 4 without so much as a Hand Wave (which came eventually but was pretty stupid).
  • A kill squad getting the drop on him in the Volume 4 opener, only for them to inexplicably use tasers instead. What's particularly dumb is that they had discussed beforehand how to make him Deader than Dead.
  • Getting knifed in the back of the head in the penultimate episode of Volume 4. He survived that by getting back up right away, which completely violates the show's established rules of regeneration. They Hand Wave this by saying that he shapeshifting in a way that moved "the button" that turns the brain off — which implies that he shifted his brain stem to his rear end or something.
  • Getting knocked unconscious in the Volume 4 finale, which gives the heroes a single chance to end him for good. They blow it when Angela and Noah order Matt Parkman just to erase his memories and force him to assume the life of Nathan Petrelli, whom he had Killed Off for Real. This lasts for four episodes before Sylar reverts to his old self.
  • Not one, but two Heroic Sacrifices in Volume 5, neither of which work. Nathan's involved jumping off a building; it was undone before he even hit the ground.
• James Horton in Highlander seems to die twice, but comes back both times. The first time, Joe got him to a hospital; as his brother-in-law, he didn't want to stand and watch him die. Macleod finally did off him for real the third time.
• Kamen Rider
  • Kamen Rider: The Great Leader of Shocker was the Arch-Enemy to the Kamen Riders throughout most of the Showa era. Despite appearing to be killed multiple, the Great Leader would always be able to return because of his true nature as an evil spirit (and so the writers can keep using him). Although ever since his original voice actor Gorō Naya passed, the Great Leader has appeared much less often.
  • There have been several instances where a villain has been popular enough that they manage to survive past the end of their series instead of being killed. Kuroto Dan and Evolt are two notable examples, both of whom are still currently at large in the Kamen Rider universe. Although considering one is a mad genius who converted himself into a computer virus, and the other is a planet-devouring, seemingly immortal alien, permanently killing either would be very difficult. Woz is another notable example, as he was originally intended to be the true Big Bad of his series, but his popularity led to him staying the Token Evil Teammate instead and surviving.
• Ben Linus from Lost is too adored by the fanbase to get rid of. He lies, manipulates, and murders to his heart's content. He's tried to kill Locke so many times we lost count, and he succeeded in season 5. He's killed (directly or indirectly) four main characters by the end of the show. Despite this, Sayid is the only one to actually try to kill him — but Ben is a child when he tries, so the attempt not only fails, but is also implied to make Ben what he is today.
• On MacGyver (1985), Murdoc the Assassin keeps "dying" in over the top ways (dying in a collapsing building, diving off a mountain after cutting his own rope, plunging into a fiery pool after being electrocuted, carelessness with dynamite, drowning in a flooded mine shaft, driving a Jeep off of a cliff). But even though he's pronounced dead each time, they never find his body and just rationalize that he couldn't possibly have survived that. It's never adequately explained how he just keeps surviving certain death. After a while, MacGyver starts to assume that if there isn't a body, Murdoc will turn up to try to kill him again, an expectation that's the cause of increasing tension as time goes on.
  "MACGYVER!"
• Multiple episodes of Merlin end with Morgana unconscious or incapacitated, yet Merlin and the other good guys never take the opportunity to finish her off, despite the tremendous damage she has caused.
• Zig-zagged with Moriarty in Sherlock. He manages to survive the stand-off in the Season 1 finale, but is apparently killed in the Season 2 finale; most expected this death to stick, seeing as he was Killed Off for Real in the Sherlock Holmes story it was based on. However, he ends up returning in the Season 3 finale, which surprised everyone in-universe, and Sherlock is convinced he's still dead and it's just a very elaborate recording. In the season 4 finale, he suddenly shows up, and his scene goes on for several seconds before we realize it was set five years previously; the show is playing on the audience's expectation of his Joker Immunity.
• On Smallville, Lex Luthor has been shot, stabbed, and mindwiped. He's had the Fortress of Solitude collapse on his head reducing him to an Evil Cripple, and he's been blown up in a truck explosion shortly afterwards. The series concludes with his resurrection from the dead, which was of course, a Foregone Conclusion. It's been suggested, but not outright confirmed, that his immunity derives from his Green Rocks-given ability.
• Apophis is like this in the early seasons of Stargate SG-1. When they finally manage to make his death stick, Anubis takes on the mantle. Apophis's final death was rather definitive (his flagship was rammed into a planet at high speed with Apophis trapped on its command deck), but even then Colonel O'Neill is only 99% sure he's really dead. Anubis was even harder to get rid of because his incorporeal "half-Ascended" state made him physically invulnerable.
  O'Neill: Son of a bitch! Someone's gotta teach that guy how to die.
• On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Weyoun is killed off at the end of his very first episode. The character proved popular enough to bring him back, but they did so by cloning him; we eventually meet five different clones of Weyoun throughout the show's run. He's not Killed Off for Real until the finale, after the destruction of his cloning facility left him Out of Continues.
• Supernatural: Lucifer never ceases to return to torment the Wincesters. He's been consigned to the Cage built by God for him in the deepest pit of Hell multiple times, been torn out of his vessel by Amara, had his new vessel physically fall apart on him, been marooned in the Apocalypse Universe (twice) and actually killed by his brother the Archangel Michael in Dean's body - and none of it has ever managed to keep him down for good.
• John Graves Simcoe in Turn is portrayed as a bloodthirsty psychopath, and frequently gets into situations in which he is at the mercy of people who have plenty of reason to kill him. Nonetheless, he manages to weasel, finagle, or simply get lucky an implausible number of times, partly because he is a delicious villain, and partly because he is based on a real person who survived the war and went on to become an able administrator in Canada.
• In Van Helsing (2016), Sam was a cunning serial killer when human and knows the group and their weaknesses, so it makes sense that he'd be particularly dangerous as a vampire. However in addition to being extremely lucky, he also appears to be physically almost indestructible for no reason the show even hints at. A single bullet can severely impede most vampires, while Sam was hosed with gunfire and seemingly only bothered to fall over to lure them closer, and another vampire pronounces No One Could Survive That! about a fall that barely slows him down. This is finally justified by The Reveal in the Season 3 finale that he's a potential Elder.
• In The Walking Dead (2010), the Governor kept coming back after a number of seemingly fatal defeats. His immunity is eventually revoked in the Season 4 mid-season finale, where he is Killed Off for Real during another attack on Rick's group at the prison.
• The Cigarette-Smoking Man from The X-Files has been "presumed dead" multiple times and it never seems to stick. He's "dead" again at the end of The New '10s revival, but another revival would be needed to see if this time was the one.

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