THE JOKER - HAIR TODAY, GROAN TOMORROW

'Tis October, a month that is redolent with all things scary.  And what topic could be scarier than to discuss... the Joker's pubic hair?

When Cesar Romero was hired to play the Joker in the 1960's series 'Batman', he refused to shave off his trademark "Latin Lover" mustache.  And so the producers had no other option but to cover it over with clown white make-up.  Eagle-eyed viewers (I was not among them) could still see it however, especially in the close-ups.  But the medium was still considered a transient visual - aired today, gone tomorrow - that I'm sure the producers weren't too concerned about it.  They had no idea the Future would bring endless syndication, home recording devices, DVD sales, and video-streaming.  Sooner or later everybody was going to see the Joker's mustache and realize that it was painted over.

Let's do a quick recap of the Toobworld version of the Joker's origin story, which never was revealed on the TV series.  (So far as I can tell, the only 'Batman' villains to get an origin story were King Tut, Mr. Freeze, the Mad Hatter, and maybe the Bookworm.)

Victor Gervais was a high-ranking agent in the THRUSH organization whose career came undone when he became obsessed with an U.N.C.L.E. agent in training named Mandy Stephenson.  Gervais later escaped and hid in plain sight under an alias he had already established - that of statuary manufacturer Kinsey Krispin.  As Krispin, Gervais was also working as a double agent - even though it was for KAOS, another organization of baddies, this would appear as a betrayal by his THRUSH superiors.

Once again, Mandy Stephenson was part of his undoing, although he did not recognize nor remember her.  (And the fact that she was now working for CONTROL and known only as Agent 99 was a leading reason for that.)

Gervais/Krispin quickly escaped the inefficient CONTROL agents in charge of his incarceration and returned to his factory in hopes to put together enough money for his getaway.  But THRUSH agents were there waiting for him and they tried to kill him by drowning him in a vat full of the chalky white liquid used to make his statues.  Gervais ingested some of it and it metamorphed his cellular structure so that he became the spectral clown figure he is best known as today.

However, one would assume that the transformation also affected his hair, which on his head was a brilliant green in color.  And yet there's that mustache.

And the inner eternal fifteen year old in me begins to wonder about the hair on the rest of his body......

(Even when he went surfing, the Joker remained dressed in his traditional purple suit, so we couldn't check out any chest hair or underarm hair.)

Well, let's grab this by the short hairs and address it: ALL of the Joker's hair turned white that day, just like his mustache.  And that includes the hair on top of his head.  However, he dyed that green to enhance the image of the Joker which he was trying to convey.

Simple splainin.  And not as detailed as some of you probably feared!

BCnU!