The Joker is no stranger to brutality, but his murder of one of Batman’s rogues using a banana peel showed that nastiness and silliness aren’t mutually exclusive. He might have considered himself the devil, but Dr. Hurt proved himself just as much a clown as the Joker with his ignominious defeat.
The most important antagonist in the first two-thirds of Grant Morrison’s tenure on Batman is the criminal mastermind Doctor Hurt. Simon Hurt is the alias of Bruce Wayne’s ancestor Thomas Wayne, a devil worshiper from the 1700s. Hurt’s summoning of the Apokoliptian monster the Hyper-adaptor, in the shape of the Bat-demon Barbatos, grants him near-immortality. In the present, Hurt becomes a psychologist and uses his connections to manipulate Batman’s very mind, but critically underestimates the caped crusader’s tenacity, planning, and allies. However, Hurt’s last appearance in Morrison’s run would lead to an even more humiliating defeat and death at the hands of the Joker who took influence from a classic gag.
In Batman and Robin Vol 1 #16 by Grant Morrison, Cameron Stewart, Frazer Irving and Chris Burnham, Hurt is finally defeated for good when the Joker tricks him into slipping on a banana peel This is of course a classic slapstick gag, and the absurdity of the moment is underscored by the brutality of Joker then burying Hurt alive much like Hurt did to Batman in Morison and Tony S. Daniel’s Batman Vol 1 #681. This is the culmination of the Joker’s story throughout Batman and Robin Vol 1. Throughout the series, Joker posed as celebrity crime writer Oberon Sexton and systematically wiped out Hurt’s organization (the Black Glove) in a series of murders resembling jokes, and the banana peel gag is the ultimate cherry on top.
Morrison's Clown Prince Was A Combination Of All Jokers
This murder spree by the Joker is perfectly emblematic of one of the key intentions of Morrison’s run on Batman. Morrison has said that their goal was to make a run in which every different version of Batman is canon, even those that seemingly conflict tonally. Morrison applies this literally to the Joker, and in Batman Vol 1 #663, "The Clown at Midnight" by Morrison and John Van Fleet, the Joker explains that his psychosis literally evolves, taking on new personalities in response to stimulus. The form Joker takes in his war against the Black Glove feels like a combination of almost all the Jokers. Brutal in his murders, cunning and manipulative in his trickery, but still committed to the inherent silliness of something like the banana peel pratfall.
Every Villain Thinks They're Batman's Greatest Foe
Said fall also serves as the perfect capstone to Dr. Hurt’s own hubris throughout Morrison’s run. Hurt considers himself Batman’s greatest villain, self-describing as the devil and heaping mythic importance upon his own actions. However, for all his grand aspirations and manipulations, he still constantly underestimates Batman, his allies, and most importantly the Joker. Hurt’s death only comes after he once again underestimates Bruce, tricked by the Dark Knight into believing that the secret to eternal life was within his reach, obsessing over a box that turned out to have one word inside: “Gotcha”. The Joker himself calls out Hurt’s hubris in Batman #681, saying to Hurt that –
“I’d like to bet you have no idea what you’re dealing with. I bet, double or nothing, batman crawls out of that shallow grave… and hunts you down like the dogs you are”
Hurt may be an expert manipulator, but pride cometh before a fall, and Hurt’s own fall on the Joker’s banana peel is the perfect culmination to the systematic dismantling of his own ego by both Batman and the Joker, and proof positive that you can never, ever, overestimate either of them.