Heath Ledger as the ‘Ultimate Joker‘? Seriously? He was the ultimate Joker for my generation, but for my mother it’s Jack Nicholson (she’s told me she prefers him to Ledger) and for my grandmother it’s Cesar Romero (my grandmother told me she prefers him over all others). Apparently, the ‘Ultimate Joker’ is a generational or time sensitive thing, so a Joker-to-end-all Joker’s is a bit selfish.
Also, let’s not forget that Heath Ledger killed himself – that’s his bad. Worse, now his death is overshadowing the work of other talented people and negatively taints the various award ceremonies because people feel an obligation to vote for him because they want to memorialize him (because, lest we forget, he died from a self administered overdose), regardless of whether he truly deserves the award or not. Personally, I would take out all dead people from award consideration (at the least those people that kind of actually killed themselves) because it creates an unfair bias towards that person at the expense of all of the other talented nominees in the voter’s mind.
And seriously, would Warners Bros seriously be willing to give up the potential profits they would make with the inclusion of the Joker in any future movies? What happens if Warner Bros wants to relaunch a Batman franchise with the Joker as the villain in 2050? Are they seriously going to look back at a petition from 2009 and say, “Oh well, we can’t use the Joker because these people, who might or might not still be living, signed a petition requesting us not to ever use the Joker again.” Seriously? WTF?
But, I think I have the solution to this: maybe the people starting this petition and the people that sign it should just not watch another future Batman movie featuring the Joker, so that, for them at least, Heath Ledger will always be the ‘ultimate Joker’ and they can just leave the rest of us Batman fans alone. I think that’s a grand plan.
