The Jonkler

About

The Jonkler is an intentional misspelling of The Joker, usually referring to him as he appears in the Batman: Arkham series of video games, in the /r/BatmanArkham subreddit. Posts about the "Jonkler" will usually be written in broken or grammatically incorrect English, picking up from the Is He Stupid? that grew popular in the sub. The meme eventually gave rise to the Evil Jonkler Cart meme in 2024.

Origin

On April 21st, 2023, Redditor horny_cabbage69 posted a screenshot of The Joker from the Batman: Arkham games in /r/BatmanArkham,^[1] writing, "Why does the jonkler? is he stupid?" The post gained over 430 points in five months (shown below).

Precursor

"Is He Stupid?" is a catchphrase and phrasal template that started on the /r/okbuddychicanery subreddit in which users ironically ask about certain plot details of the Breaking Bad universe lore. The meme grew widely popular on /r/BatmanArkham, and was adopted for many jokes in the sub.

On February 5th, 2023, Redditor u/Encajado shared a picture of a Batman: Arkham Knight scene in which Batman is looking over the city after the villain Scarecrow activated a device that shrouded the entire city in a deadly fear gas. User u/Encajado added the image in the lore recap section of the /r/BatmanArkham subreddit with the caption "Why doesn't Batman just call the Justice League for help? Is he stupid?" The post received 5,500 upvotes and 550 comments in one month (seen below).

Spread

Over the following months, posts about "Jonkler" in the "Is he stupid?" template remained popular on /r/BatmanArkham. For example, on August 8th, 2023, Redditor MADU_IN_HEAVEN7^[2] posted art of a genderbent Joker, writing, "Why did the Jonkler become a woman? Is he stupid?", gaining over 1,200 points in six weeks (shown below). Additionally, jokes would make "Jonkler" the rival of "Man," a version of Batman with his suit altered to remove the points on his helmet representing bat ears. On August 16th, user @Flekkenz_^[3] posted art of "Man" and female "Jonkler" in a romantic situation, gaining over 5,000 points in one month (shown below, right).

On July 22nd, 2023, YouTuber Big A-Ron posted a humorous compilation of Jonkler posts from /r/BatmanArkham, gaining over 356,000 views in two months (shown below, left). On May 26th, YouTuber Christendo64 did the same, gaining over 388,000 views in four months (shown below, right).

Related Memes

Evil Jonkler Cart

Evil Jonkler Cart is a series of memes about vaping the hypothetical "Evil Jonkler cart," a vape cart referencing "the Jonkler," which is an intentional misspelling of The Joker. Memes about the Evil Jonkler cart first began appearing online as early as May 2024 and were popularized on TikTok in July of that year. The memes often use an AI-generated animation of The Joker laughing and moving his head erratically to a remix of China's Got Talent contestant Liu Lei laughing during a performance on the show.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References