Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill!!!

There’s a huge difference. I’ve done acting as well as writing for over 20 years. The handful of voice over jobs and the many years of radio I did was easier because no one could see me. It’s like writing anonymously on the internet. You can say things you’d never say if your username is Jokerfan327 as opposed to well, Lance. Hamill’s performance is enhanced by a disconnect from people watching him. He can riff and cackle and even annunciate oddly because he’s only using his voice. Ledger’s body language, facial fueatures, that creepy licking thing, all are more natural because he’s being seen by human eyes.

For my money and in my opinion. Ledger’s Joker is better because of the physicality involved. It’s the same reasoning that the greatest basketball player is more artful than the best golfer. He has to do more to achieve his goal.

I loved your post. Sorry I found it so late after you wrote it.

Let’s get my first point out of the way; Jack Nicholson just plain looks like a psycho, and can act a psychotic part very well. Good examples of him freaking audiences out can be found in the characters he plays in The Shining, Anger Management, and many others. Honestly, I’m starting to think Jack Nicholson IS a nut. He did pretty well at the evil, creepily joyful laugh of the Joker. He was able to incorporate some of the goofiness, while still portraying someone who was trying to mass murder an entire city of people with poisons hidden in everyday products. Jack Nicholson was able to emulate a little bit of Mark Hamill’s Joker enough to remind me of him, which is why I liked his performance.

Heath Ledger’s Joker was simply… captivating. I can’t get over it. My only complaint is that he didn’t laugh quite enough. The character’s name is the Joker, after all. He played a meticulous wackjob who’s only concern was one very specific goal, and he took several over the top and over-calculated measures to achieve that goal. He was super intelligent, but obviously obsessed with his work, and therefore absolutely insane.

Mark Hamill though, in my opinion, is THE voice of the Joker, and listening to him rant on with his random announcements over the speaker system in Arkham Asylum brought back nostalgia only rivaled by my playing of an old Pokemon game (don’t judge me). Hearing him again in Arkham City is just the same.

If someone could perfectly combine the meticulous method acting that Heath Ledger showed us in the Dark Knight with Mark Hamill’s over the top insanity style of Joker, I would watch the crap out of that movie.

I wish I came up with this paragraph. I totally feel the same.
I think Nolan’s version is not a good impersonation of the Batman universe.