What is the deal with the Joker?

With the advent of The Dark Knight, everybody is talking about the Joker again. Not that the Joker ever went away, but now the average person on the street is talking about him. People who I have never seen in the store are now coming in to purchase the Joker graphic novel, small kids want the Heath Ledger toy, and the Killing Joke is selling that sample sized pieces of crack.

But what is the deal with the Joker anyway? My friend Ben loves the Joker and says that the Joker is a mirror image of Batman, and that neither could exist without the other. I think that is bullshit. The Joker is now anti-Batman and Batman would continue to do what he does without the Joker around. It is the Joker who needs Batman, not vice versa.

Ben also says that the Joker isn't crazy, but is rather super-sane and it only appears like craziness to us normal sane people. I will also say that is bullshit. The Joker is crazy. I say this because sane people can describe something they are not, craziness, but no one has ever been able to describe super sanity to me. You know why? It doesn't exist. That's why.

So, what is the deal with the Joker? The Joker feels a need to make other people like himself, hence Joker gas, my having him mutilate random people, and his obssession with Batman. Why his obssession with Batman? Well, because Batman is someone who will never, under any circumstances, be like the Joker, and so the Joker has to try to change him.