If you’re a self-respecting fan of the Dark Knight, then odds are you found some way to appropriately celebrate Batman Day over the weekend. Being a native of the Detroit area, I wasn’t fortunate enough to see the Bat-signal lit in my own city, though I did pick up some free comics on Saturday.
To some, it’s arguable that the Joker is just as big of a pop culture icon – and that he deserves his own day of recognition as well. Hey, what with the new movie starring Joaquin Phoenix coming out, now would’ve been an opportune time to pull the trigger in that regard.
Well, if you’re also of that school of thought, then it should be comforting to know that fan favorite voice actor Mark Hamill is right there with you. Just yesterday, the Batman: The Animated Series alumnus posted the following to Twitter, along with a few choice panels to further thrust home his point:
“Love all your support for a day recognizing the #ClownPrinceOfCrime. The fact there is no #JokerDay may be the biggest boner* of them all!
* (from the more innocent days when ‘boner’ meant ‘a stupid mistake’ or ‘a foolish & obvious blunder’)
#JokesOnYou”
Originally published in Batman #66 in 1951, “The Joker’s Comedy of Errors” has lived on as that one story in which the Clown Prince of Crime used the world “boner” over and over again. As Hamill pointed out, it was a slang word that meant “error” at the time. But it’s pretty amusing to read it today when the same term is applied to penile erections – especially when Commissioner Gordon says, “I’m worried about the boner he’s readying for you!”
In my view, a more recognizable Batman/Joker story should’ve been used for one of this year’s free books, as opposed to reprinting The Batman Who Laughs one-shot tying into Dark Nights: Metal. It could be brought up how 2017’s festivities were christened as “Harley Quinn Day,” but I’m pretty sure this year’s event wasn’t dubbed “Joker Day” because this happened to be Batman’s 80th anniversary. In other words, the Caped Crusader is going to take top priority when reaching such a milestone. Then again, next year is the the Joker‘s 80th, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
