ENTP Villain: The Joker
20May 23, 2014 by philipbullitthughes
Everyone has a dark side. And some have a maniacal, psychopathic, schizophrenically mass-murdering entirely insane side. Of course, I’m referring to none other than Heath Leger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight. Yes, he’s crazy. And yes, he’s an ENTP.
It’s important to note that anyone suffering from the plethora of psychological issues the Joker suffers from can and will do feats of insanity that range from weird to sadistic, yet none with the flare and genius that are so unique to the ENTP.
The Joker has one goal: to be entertained. The strange thing about the ENTP, crazy or not, is that they are often restless, feeling bored with the simple humdrum of everyday life where others might be satisfied. But the Joker is a Perciever, so naturally structure, order, and the like are a far cry from what he desires. Minions? Nothing more than pawns to accomplish his goals. He wants chaos, anarchy—to prove that the rest of the world is just as monstrous as he is at their core. So what is a demented ENTP to do but start blowing things up, foil the plans of the mob, and outwit and slaughter the
authorities at every turn? Very quickly, however, he realizes there is little joy in the ease of conquering such simpletons. He wants more. Someone to challenge him, to give him purpose. ENTPs don’t just want to win. There is no pleasure where there is no rivalry. They want the prizefighter—someone who will match their intellect, to throw fists with an equal, and above all for that person to be their tireless toy.
Finally, when all hope for a mind-mate suitable for his needs seems lost, the Joker finds his purpose.
Of course, it takes another NT to match his brilliance, but other than that, Batman is his opposite in every other way; the order to his chaos, the introspection to his indiscretion, the justice to his mayhem. The ultimate challenge. In the Joker’s mind, it’s easy to manipulate the average person into committing atrocities. But Batman? No. Batman cannot simply be tricked, he has to be broken.
And so the Joker formulates a plan. He will destroy everything Batman believes in, the ideals to which he holds. His love, his hope—all of it must be burned. He’s even willing to enlist Gotham’s mobsters to do so.
Naturally, we all know the outcome of the Joker’s scheme. And for many, there was a small inkling to see him succeed, for him to plunge Gotham into unrest and prove the rottenness in humanity. Why? Not because people naturally root for the villain, but because he is a frightening reminder of a part of us that lurks within; that all of us might be capable of terrible things if our minds become twisted enough. And that we might even like it.
In the end, it’s important to remember that the Joker is not indicative of all ENTPs, at least as far as his wickedness is concerned. He is merely a portrayal of the depths, nay—the absolute bottom of the moral cavern into which one of their personality might slide. If you’d like a look at what a good ENTP has to offer, check out my previous post on Iron Man.
If you enjoyed my post, leave a comment, like and subscribe. If you’d like to see your own personality type’s villain, please don’t be shy in saying so!
What's My Type? 
I can’t wait to see INFP and ISTP!
“The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect.”
– Carl Sandburg
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Thanks, those are coming!
INFJ!
The INFJ is coming 🙂
Great start to the new series.
Though I hope you would be continuing with the relationships series. I am awaiting your take on INTPs there.
As far as villains are concerned, I would keenly wait to read about the evil mastermind, an INTJ villain.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
I plan on continuing with the relationships! Just mixing it up so as to not get bored. And the INTJ is going to be fun. So many villains to choose from!
Great post!
Thanks Hannah!
Oh, where are you lost my friend… looking forward to future posts… 🙂
I’ll write again soon! Just working on my book, so it’s taking up a lot of my creative energy. 🙂
Love the Joker… in that purely platonic way I love demented ENTPs, of course. 😉
Haha, I know what you mean. It’s an admiration and interest that transcends good and evil…Yeah.
Thanks for this!! in relation to my suggestion last April hahah!
Proud ENTP here. and Joker is my absolute favorite
The Joker is the best villain in my humble opinion. Chaos is his mantra, so you never know what he will do next!
Why would it take an NT to match an Entp’s craziness and genius? That’s a retarded comment, the only one in the article. Go fuck yourself, just so you remember this.
I’m sorry you didn’t like it. Truly I meant no offense. I am actually not an NT, so I don’t think all NTs are the most intelligent by any means. I simply was paying the NTs a compliment in regards to their (on average) tendencies to be strong willed and eager to battle it out when it comes to the mind.
In keeping with my perceived understanding of the article, the author was writing in almost a narrative format using the lens of an ENTP. With Batman as an INTJ (considered by most to be a natural complementary type of ENTPs), it appears the author was capturing the essence of the narrative in which the Joker would have perceived the situation. He was bored with everyone else in Gotham but the Batman.
Going off of Myers-Briggs theory, often NTs (who have yet to develop their feeling cognitions) have to logically deduce how they are feeling about situations. So they may or may not recognize how much their emotions are actually influencing them. If they don’t recognize it, then they likely perceive their decisions as being impervious to emotional influence, deceiving themselves by thinking they are able to solely rely on logic to make decisions. As the feeling cognition is more developed, this goes away and the more balanced NT recognizes the multidimensional aspects of their decision-making processes. Not implying that this process happens for every (or even any) NT, simply explaining the Myers-Briggs theoretical aspect in why an NT may (incorrectly) perceive NTs as being the most intellectually capable. If or when it does happen, it almost certain stems from the similarity in values, thinking patterns, etc. that could provide a horridly mistaken impression of “thinkers are logical and feelers are not.”
Thus, the author’s comment was, from my understanding, simply capturing the essence of how the Joker appeared to have been thinking and demonstrating the author’s ability to recreate that pattern of thinking in his writing.
I thank you not only for your understanding, but for your diplomatic approach. You captured the essence of what I was trying to communicate perfectly.
As an ENTP who researches the physiological influence (mostly long-term) fear exerts on the brain and how it impacts decision-making (specifically within conflict, extremism, and violent extremism), I must ask: Do you believe you have accounted for the backstory of the Joker (remaining solely within the realm of The Dark Knight Trilogy – comics, tv shows, other movies, etc. would be interesting, but Heath Ledger’s rendition is also interesting standing alone)?
His stories of how he got those scars could be perceived as revealing partial truths about his background. It depends on if you perceive his “clues” of who he would target next as entirely clues leading to his next targets or if they were also a double-bluff to see if Batman could understand how Joker thought or not. Often ENTPs “reward” others with personal insight into their lives by telling seemingly obvious clues containing multidimensional components to see if individuals will catch all of the elements within them. Additionally, anyone can be clever enough to hide clues in a story, but if the story were secretly revealing past traumatic experiences – we ENTPs do love talking about ourselves – it would transcend the cleverness most people may be expected to pick up on.
If one were to consider those stories as insight into the Joker’s background, then it could be perceived that he has tried to bring about good around him – even to the point of possessing idealist values. But attempts to actualize these values around him have all failed. Cynical and perhaps a tad bitter, Batman may have reignited a fire within him that had been consumed by hopelessness. Except that fire for change had been corrupted by cynicism. The Joker has no hope in humanity, but the Batman intrigues him – so the Joker moves to do what he knows Batman can never do: go far enough to see dramatic short-term change instead of waiting for decades of reform under Batman’s current strategy. The marginal utility principle (economics – http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marginalutility.asp) is similar in that Batman’s efforts saw major short-term change initially but the amount of change occurring continues to decrease over time.
Thus, the mind game element could be solely to test Batman (while allowing for many laughs at the other poor souls struggling to comprehend what’s truly going on) – to see if he truly is the mind-mate suitable to meet the Joker’s needs. But the Joker is actually fighting corruption in Gotham just as much as Batman – simply in a different way. He literally breaks apart the very in-group bonds of the criminal syndicates within Gotham so that they can no longer trust each other, not even as loosely as they did in the beginning of The Dark Knight. Once the in-group of the criminal syndicate has been broken, it would have become far easier for Batman to capture criminals without the support of the syndicate – and easier for even a prosecutor without Harvey’s skills to convince a jury to find the criminals guilty.
Breaking the Batman doesn’t come from the criminal syndicate’s victory. It stems from the Joker’s beating Batman to the punch of ending crime in Gotham through means directly opposing Batman’s philosophical approach to justice. The game isn’t over Batman’s losing everything he loves – that’s inconsequential to the Joker – it’s about proving to Batman that he can do it better than Batman, and that the Batman could have ended the battle long ago had he only been willing to do what the Joker is willing to do. Knowing that he could have saved those Batman had lost if only he would have been willing to adapt instead of refusing to budge (what may be considered the refusal to adapt by some) would have broken Batman. Much of Batman’s backstory is learning to accept failure and learn from it instead of shutting down.
Also, come on – Joker had to know if Batman actually took himself that seriously or not? And if so, why? If not, why did Batman attempt to project his serious image? ENTPs have to know what makes people tick. If an ENTP doesn’t understand why someone does something (either at all or in a particular manner), the ENTP will poke and prod until the ENTP learns why. So why not play a mind-game with the only interesting person the Joker sees in Gotham, prove him wrong by doing his job for him through undermining Batman’s entire philosophical foundation, actually implement the more idealist values through Joker’s own cynical lens of the world around him, and have some fun while doing it? If the Batman truly were “incorruptible,” then the Joker would have found his mind-mate – his challenge. He wouldn’t need the crime syndicate, he would have Batman to mess with.
And frankly, to assume that the Joker burned all of that cash simply to see the guy’s reaction is fairly understandable, but ENTPs will always combine strategy, tactics, and fun if at all possible. So I would strongly suggest that burning half of the crime syndicate’s funds (and likely most, if not all of their cash funds) served numerous purposes. But isn’t that the most terrifying possibility of all? That the Joker may not have been nearly as crazy as he were jaded and bored?
Disclaimer: Of course the Joker is crazy, but often we assume there aren’t genuine reasons for behaviour we don’t understand. Bounded rationality is a far more complex but useful tool in attempting to understand others.
Thanks so much for your comment. The detail you’ve gone into is not only strong, but also impressive considering the depth of your analysis.
In truth, I did not account for the other media the Joker is found in. This is more based on Heath Ledger’s portrayal.
I agree with you–the Joker is so complex it’s difficult to really peg all of his motives. And I also agree that Batman presented a true challenge, igniting his passion. Though when it comes to crazy, like you said, it’s not easy to bind them to rationality…Especially with someone as wildly demented as the Joker.
Well said, and well written!