Total Nerd Ranks: Details About The Joker

Did you know that a key aspect of Heath Ledger's iconic performance as the Joker actually came from a makeup malfunction

We're going to be detailing this and many other facts about the clown prince of crime in this episode of Total Nerd Ranked

Today, we're counting down 10 small details from Heath Ledger's Joker that you definitely missed, as voted on by you, the viewer

Welcome to Total Nerd Ranked, the show where we rank nerdy stuff

And here we go. Number 10, he's always watching. Remember the scene where Rachel, Bruce, and Harvey

are all having dinner together? It's a tension-filled tête-à-tête. Is Wayne Manor in the city limits

You know, is there a new DA? You might want to figure out where your jurisdiction is

Well, believe it or not, there's actually a fourth character in the scene. And no, it's not the blonde woman at the table

with our primary trinity. It's Heath Ledger's Joker. Yes, that's right. He's in this scene, sitting just behind the table

that Bruce, Rachel, and Harvey are at. If you blink, you'll miss him, but he's there, always watching

cleaning, scheming. Do I really look like a guy with a plan

Number 9, Bazooka Good Times. Most of the time in movies, real life laws of physics

don't apply. You see the rock firing bazookas, rattling off miniguns, and just plain old having a good time with a rocket launcher

But none of the real world implications are ever examined you know aside from the explosions Holy That not the case with The Dark Knight It both gritty and grounded while still having its theatrical flair where everything is thought of specifically when it comes to bazookas

What, is that a bazooka? You see, the Joker has thought through everything

including the fact that when he's firing a bazooka in a semi truck, both side doors are open, because if they weren't

the backblast would kill everything in the trailer. Number eight, self-applied makeup

Heath Ledger insisted on applying his own makeup for the film. In a few key scenes, you can see makeup on his fingertips

Ledger convinced Nolan to let him apply the makeup because he argued that it was more realistic

and that it helped him get into character because the Joker was someone who absolutely would have had to do his own makeup

moments before entering a scene. I thought my jokes were bad. 7. Illusion of Choice

One of the key scenes in the movie involves the Joker convincing Two-Face to embrace anarchy

Hi. He convinces Dent to let fate decide and instructs him to flip his coin

Only issue being, if you pay close attention to the scene, you'll notice something else

The Joker's finger is compressing the hammer. Even if Dent's coin had instructed him to fire the pistol, it wouldn't have worked

because the Joker was keeping it from firing. He was manipulating Dent with the illusion of choice

just like he did with Batman and the passengers on the two boats. Number six, the Joker has a sentimental side

You wouldn think the Joker would be someone who hangs on to keepsakes but you be wrong In the beginning of the film he takes a shotgun from the bank manager Then later in the movie he shows up to a party wielding wait for it the same shotgun which means he just been hanging on to it

He's just been keeping it around for a rainy day, or a day where you need to potentially murder

a bunch of people at a cocktail party. Number five, the Joker's mask. One reference that very few people

got from The Dark Knight is that the mask he wears in the opening bank heist is visually very similar

to the mask he wore in his first live-action TV show on the 1966 TV show

In the episode titled The Joker is Wild, he dresses as a Pagliacci-inspired clown

with a red nose, blue stubble, and white frowning mouth. The mask in the dark night is ostensibly the same

only minus one stupid-looking hat. Number four, 50-50 shot. At the climax of the interrogation scene

the Joker tells Batman that Harvey Dent is being held at 250 52nd Street

When the actress is said out loud, it's 50-50. You know, like how Dent has a 50-50 shot at surviving

even though he doesn't, because let's be real, the Joker knew exactly who Batman was going to save

No! No, not me! Why are you coming for me? And purposefully gave him reversed addresses

Number three, a man with a secret plan. Throughout the movie, the Joker refers to himself

as a man without a plan. Do I really look like a guy with a plan

Even going so far as to suggest he's like a dog chasing cars. I wouldn know what to do with one if I caught it But this just isn true He purposely trying to under and over This is evidence in the climactic boat scene where he can be seen reading monologue notes before his run with the bat Yes that right If you pay close

attention, he's literally prepping, reading notes about what he's going to say and murmuring to

himself, just to make sure he gets it all right. Number two, the Joker doesn't do dirty work. The

Joker has every situation cased. He knows exactly how much risk he must take and how much force he

must use. He never takes more risk than necessary. In the beginning of the film, when the Joker gets

into the back of the van with his other henchmen just prior to the bank heist. He picks up a gun

he loads a magazine, and racks the slide, but it stays back. Meaning one simple and inarguable fact

the gun was empty the whole time he was robbing the bank. In fact, if you pay attention to the

heist, you'll see it was never even cocked. Number one, Heath Ledger's lip smacking

Heath Ledger's powerful and unhinged charisma propelled his portrayal of Gotham's resident

clown-themed criminal into the public consciousness in a way that will likely never be touched

and a substantial component of that is directly related to a physical tick that is coming in at our number one slot

Inarguably, the most iconic thing about Keith Ledger's Joker performance is his incessant lip smacking

The truth of the matter is that the reason why his performance was developed like this is because of a makeup malfunction

That's right. The makeup Ledger was wearing of the Joker's mouth scars would buckle and crease as he moved his mouth

In order to keep them in place, he developed this personality tick of constantly licking his lips

Pretty crazy, right