9 Years Ago Today, This Divisive Batman Show Gave Us a Killer Joker Twist Unlike Anything We’ve Ever Seen

Batman’s lore is deeper, wilder, and more convoluted than that of any other superhero, and if you don’t think so, look no further than The Joker. At this point, Joker has become as big a global icon as Batman has – heck, he even has his own series of movies. A lot of people may think that Todd Phillips’ two films, Joker and Joker: Folie A Deux, are some of the weirdest and most out-of-pocket Joker stories that have ever been put onscreen – but they are wrong.

9 years ago today, the entire Batman fandom took notice of an event that happened on a Batman TV series. It was a Joker story that had been years in the making, but when this particular episode dropped… Let’s just say fans were left to catch a major curveball.

Gotham‘s Infamous “Smile Like You Mean It” Episode Premiered 9 Years Ago

Gotham Season 3 Episode 13, “Smile Like You Mean It” first aired on January 23, 2017, on Fox. At this point in the season, madman Dwight Pollard (David Dastmalchian) had started a cult dedicated to Jerome Valeska (Cameron Monaghan), the cackling serial killer (and proto-Joker) who had terrorized Gotham City by leading a breakout at Arkham Asylum. Jerome was betrayed and killed by his “mentor” Theo Galavan (James Frain) early in Season 2 of Gotham. Monaghan being off the show was a blow that many fans had a hard time taking, as the actor had won over the fandom with his initial performance as Jerome, going from sheepish boy to laughing killer (of his own mother) in the span of one police interrogation.

Read Next

Gotham Writer Reveals Hilarious Failed Pitch for DC Show

The creative team behind Gotham knew how much of a prize Monaghan was, because they strung out Jerome’s return for more than a season, first using story arcs about and re-animation to build up the possibility of resurrection, then introducing an entire cult dedicated to bringing Jerome back, in a slightly satirical mocking of real-life fan dedication to the character. However, when the episode began, it looked like Gotham had faked fans out yet again, with Jerome’s “corpse” being featured in the show, instead of the villain making an actual return to the show. However, that didn’t turn out to be the case: Jerome does return from the dead, but there’s a major issue when he wakes up: Dwight has cut off his face and is wearing it!

Needless to say, Jerome took poorly to his Face/Off experience; he ambushed Lee Thompkins (Morena Baccarin) and snuck over to the TV station the cult is attacking to kidnap Dwight. The episode ended with a spectacular climax, as Jerome blows up the Gotham power plant (and Dwight along with it), plunging all of Gotham into darkness. It was another iconic performance from Monaghan, which only cemented his place in Gotham going forward, eventually leading him to play Jerome and his twin, Jeremiah, with the latter serving as Gotham‘s “true” Joker character.

“Smile Like You Mean It” Brought One of Batman’s Craziest Stories to TV

Besides Monaghan’s performance, “Smile Like You Mean It” got a lot of attention because it was the first live-action adaptation of one of the most famous modern Batman comic stories, “Death of the Family”, by writer Scott Snyder (Absolute Batman, Batman: The Court of Owls).

The story arc ran from late 2012 to early 2013; in it, the Joker finally re-emerges after a year in hiding. He had his own face surgically removed by another villain (Dollmaker) as a “rebirth” event. He comes back and reclaims his own face by tying it around his skull like a Leatherface mask; Joker is revealed to be targeting the entire Bat-Family after seemingly spying on them all year long. He manages to capture them, and Batman (even poor Alfred), and forces them to have a demented dinner in the Batcave caverns. Joker achieves his real goal: mind-screwing Batman into believing his many friends, family and allies are a liability to his crime-fighting mission, while also convincing the Bat-Family that Bruce isn’t trustworthy for keeping secrets – namely the reveal that Joker may have known Batman’s identity, his allies’ identities, and the location of the Batcave, ever since their first few encounters.

Gotham still gets praised for the ambition and makeup effects used to make Death of the Family‘s Joker-Face imagery work on TV. Jerome’s face, with its intricate tracks of staples to hold his face on, has become one of the more iconic looks associated with Joker or Batman lore, thanks to the entire generation of fans who were raised on Gotham.

You can purchase the show on various DSPs, or discuss this milestone and other topics over on the ComicBook Forum!