Daily Dialogue — January 28, 2017

“Wanna know how I got these scars?”

— The Dark Knight (2008), screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, characters by Bob Kane

The Daily Dialogue theme this week: Callback.

Trivia: Unlike his counterpart in both the comics and Batman (1989), the Joker in this film does not have his hair and flesh permanently bleached by toxic waste. His trademark grin was never definitively identified in the comics as a disfigurement. However, its appearance here, as scars deliberately carved into his flesh, echo the character’s original inspiration, the character Gwynplaine from Victor Hugo’s novel The Man Who Laughs (1928).

Dialogue On Dialogue: The Joker says this line three times:

The comedy Rule of Three also works with drama. Three establishes a pattern and here it works beautifully because the third time the pattern gets broken when Batman interrupts The Joker by tossing him overhead.

Also the fact The Joker tells two different stories as to the origin of his scars is yet another way to play around with his trickster persona.

Great use of callbacks.