Basic Trope: A character (usually a villain) who is an expy of Joker.
- Straight: The Court Jester invokes a Monster Clown appearance as he commits evil acts.
- Exaggerated: The Court Jester is a hard-core, borderline copyright-violating Captain Ersatz of the Joker, down to having green hair, white makeup, red lipstick and a rap sheet that copies all of the Joker's better-known atrocities.
- Downplayed: The Court Jester has a few scenes that are clearly homages to some versions of the Joker as well as a very notable obsession with being the one who defeats Captain Good.
- Justified: The Court Jester is a fan of the Joker in-universe, and wants to follow his acts.
- Inverted: Batman Parody.
- Subverted: The Court Jester takes some pains to differentiate himself from the Joker, like being a villainous Pagliacci.
- Double Subverted: Then DC Comics' latest Retcon has the Joker running around dressed as Pagliacci and/or always having been inspired by Pagliacci and the Court Jester has problems convincing people that he's not ripping off the Joker's gig.
- Parodied:
- The Court Jester is a Villainous Harlequin mostly based on the sillier versions of the Joker, such as the version from the 1960s TV show.
- The Court Jester is met by DC Comics' legal team and given a cease-and-desist that prevents him from copying the Joker in any way, shape or form, up to and including a restraining order that prevents him from being within twenty miles of or contacting any superhero that resembles Batman. The Court Jester is left grumbling about how strong copyright laws have become in the new era of supers.
- The Court Jester is a very deliberate Take That! to the Joker, without the Plot Armor, the impressive strategic plotting, the absurd amount of resources, the "agent of chaos" manifesto debunked, his role as an ultimate evil shown to be non-existent, and his capture (or demise) utterly humiliating.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: There aren't any villains based on the Joker at all.
- Enforced:
- "The Joker is a good inspiration for a Laughably Evil villain, why don't we make our villain based on him?"
- "What's a Batman Parody without a Joker Parody?"
- The story was originally written while the writer still worked at DC, so he had to at least file the serial numbers off to have a chance at getting it published.
- The writers have decided that being given carte blanche by the executives means that they can make their own half-a-million-dollars Batman fan film, and which is the villain that is easier to write in a week considering how much he does in canon for kicks?
- Lampshaded:
- "If you ever wanted evidence of how ubiquitous… how pervasive… how much of a plague the Joker has become, just look no further than our beloved Court Jester."
- "I don't wish to disrespect the dead, but I'm pretty sure this is not the kind of legacy Heath Ledger wanted to leave behind when he chose to work for Chris Nolan."
- Invoked: The man who would become the Court Jester was a huge fan of The Dark Knight and has decided to create a big homage to one of the greatest super hero films of all time - with him in the villain role, of course.
- Exploited: Captain Irksome, the Court Jester's Arch-Enemy, does extensive research on all things related to The Joker knowing that the Court Jester is imitating the Joker's "greatest hits". As a result, plans like turning the city into the set of a copycat of The Purge are prevented.
- Defied:
- "No, I'm not gonna be like the Joker - I'm a Monster Clown, but I'm gonna be my own monster clown instead of copying someone else, dammit!"
- The In-Universe writer of the text in which the Court Jester appears knows that it will be impossible to truly escape from the Joker's shadow, but he nevertheless refuses to base his character on any iteration of the Joker, thinking that it would reduce his options in how to portray the Court Jester.
- "Can we get Mark Hamill?" "He retired from voicing the Joker for good after Kevin Conroy died." "(Beat) …then write some other character for him to voice. Something. Anything. Just don't use the Joker as a basis in any way, shape or form. And don't make me have to look over the script with a microscope and the Batman Wiki."
- Discussed: "You know you're not the first villainous clown to ask "Why so serious?", Court Jester."
- Conversed: "It's interesting that so many villains are based on the Joker, even if they're not necessarily clown-themed."
Back to Practically Joker, where you can find out how I got these scars.
