Daily Dialogue — November 30, 2018

“You wanna know how I got these scars?”

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

The Daily Dialogue theme for the 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: This qualifies as a creepy callback with one left to ponder… “What was Joker’s third explanation going to be?”