In the rare case that you’ve been living under a rock, there’s a little movie out right now called The Joker that is generating some headlines. A divisive film, it is being hailed by many as one of the best of the year, and a real triumph for comic book-adjacent cinema. The movie focuses on the origin of one of the quintessential comic villains of all-time: a criminally insane clown with a demented sense of humor and a sometime penchant for deadly takes on comedy and clown tropes. The Joker was created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson as a foil for Batman in 1940. His look was based on Conrad Veidt in The Man Who Laughs (a really interesting silent film), and the Clown Prince of Crime has been a fixture in popular culture pretty much ever since.
So Joaquin Phoenix is the latest actor to have portrayed the Joker. Prior to that, luminaries such as Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Cesar Romero, Mark Hamill, Jared Leto, and Zach Galifianakis have taken on the role. It has long been considered an interesting character to portray. There are several different ways to translate the Joker’s persona: a prankster who just takes things too far, a low-stakes hood who enjoys his own humor, a twisted and tortured soul, an anarchist with no regard for life. With the Joker being such a prominent figure in pop culture and the collective consciousness, it was inevitable that the character would make his (and as you’ll see, sometimes her) way into porn.
The Joker popping up in porn (no pun intended) predates even the last two waves of parodies. Good ole Jeffton has gone ahead and scoured the HotMovies library to find every instance I could uncover of The Joker in porn and watched it all. I did it for you! I’ve decided to give each Joker portrayal a two-part score. The first rating is the “Joker Score”, which goes from 1-10 based on how well the actor personifies the Joker in the movie (allowing for all the different kinds of takes on the character). The second rating is the “Sexy Score”, which takes into account the costuming and the actor themselves to tell you how sexy the performance is (and since Jeffton is a straight guy, women Jokers do get an unfair advantage, but I’ll try to stay impartial). So here we are: the Jokers of porn!
Laz Fyre in Harley & Joker The Porn Origin
Joker Score: 7
This video is more about the origin of Harley Quinn (who scene partner Leya Falcon is just phenomenal as) than it is about the Joker. But those of you familiar with the characters know how fully the two are tied together (that is a double entendre given the bondage in the video). Dr. Harleen Quinzel, Joker’s asylum-appointed psychiatrist, falls in love with the man so deeply that she abandons her profession to become a costumed criminal herself. To illustrate her transformation, it was imperative that Laz Fyre’s Joker be something of a sympathetic figure. But part of her transformation was also her sexual ‘breaking’ at Joker’s hand (read: cock), and so Laz’s Joker also had to be demented and sadistic to a point.
He tows the line remarkably well. The script provided by Laz and Lady Fyre imagines a world in which we can understand the Joker’s trauma-fueled schism into criminal insanity and disturbed (/turned on) by his dominant bedroom personality. Laz has a great Joker laugh as well. His makeup and wardrobe are also on point. He would rank higher on the Joker Score if he just managed to be and stay a little bit more in character during the latter half of his sex scene, when he loses his dominant edge to Harley a bit and turns back a little bit into Laz trying to bust a nut.
Sexy Score: 8
Laz Fyre is a handsome cat. All the greasepaint makeup in the world isn’t going to hide that. The first scene of the video, where we cut back and forth between his therapy sob story and him absolutely ravaging a bound Leya, is the peak of where Jeffton finds BDSM to be hot. Any more, and it would be too much. Any less, and Laz would be lacking the sexual fire that feeds his pathos (and vice-versa). At one point he says, “You hurt the ones you love. And I love you so much that I’m going to hurt you until you love me back.” Swoon (and cue Good Girls Bad Guys by Falling in Reverse)!
As I mentioned briefly in Laz’s Joker Score, he loses a bit of that fire in the 2nd scene. Still hot by every measure possible, that bit of sex is used to show that Harley Quinn isn’t just some blonde fuck doll utterly at the whims and mercies of her clown paramour. Leya’s Quinn has hunger and damage every bit as much as her Mistah J. It works overall for the sex and the female empowerment, but it comes at the cost of diminishing the the Joker’s sexual impact on the scene a tad.
The Joker’s Back
Joker Score: 4
Confession: I’m not exactly sure what I just watched. The elements are all there, but in a fever dream sort of way. There is a Batman. There is a Batgirl. And there is a villainous clown named the Joker, but he’s not any Joker I’m familiar with. Our unnamed performer portraying the antagonist had a good heart in trying to fill those big (clown) shoes, but maybe needed to go back to the source material a bit more.
The hair is a bright red kinda-mohawk. That’s a new one on me. Not that I’m the foremost authority on all things Joker, but I’ve always seen the guy as having green hair. The red-and-black smoking jacket also doesn’t really scream “Joker” to me. The fact that our clown is British doesn’t necessarily strike me as a knock against his Joker-dom, but that he plays it up (even remarking that he’s leaving Batgirl alone in order to have tea) seems a bit outside of the realm of the character.
Instead of a maniacal laugh (the laugh is pretty good but not what we normally expect), this Joker relies on playing card puns in the 15 minute movie. Yes, the Joker in the comics has more than once parlayed the playing card connection, but it is a very secondary aspect of his villainy behind the clowning. It doesn’t really help that he goes back to the same puns more than once in the short runtime of the video.
Sexy Score: 3
I’m not the target audience for this kind of video: an ordinarily powerful woman is held in bondage and humiliated. I’m doing my best to divorce myself from my lack of connection there, and see things from the perspective of someone that wants to see Batgirl tied up and exposed. But I just don’t see our elderly British clown-approximating-a-strange-translation-of-Joker as a sex object; even as an inflictor of punishment and humiliation.
The bondage and Batgirl’s pussy rubbing up against the ropes creating a flicker, but it doesn’t seem extreme enough in some ways for it registering fully as what it’s supposed to be. She fights, but not enough. It’s done in front of a green screen, which is cute, but gives it the overall quality of a fever dream inspired by watching too much Tim & Eric. Lastly, and this is why California Star’s Sexy Score got bumped from a 4 to a 3—when the Joker is finger fucking Batgirl briefly, he calls it a “finger thrusting.” It just makes it sound less sexy in my brain and infinitely more English (not that the two are necessarily at odds).
Brendon Miller in Batman XXX and Batman V. Superman XXX
Joker Score: 8
Axel Braun is the definitive name in the superhero parody game. And it is telling that, through two movies, he stuck with the same man to wear the white makeup. Brendon Miller’s portrayal is directly derived from Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning performance. The backstory behind his smile scars are different. Instead of asking, “Why so serious?” Miller’s Joker uses the traumatic line, “Who’s smiling now?” to great effect.
Brendon won an AVN Award for The Dark Knight and scored a nomination for his Batman V. Superman reprisal. It is easy to see why. He captures a fair amount of the same chaotic dementia that Ledger infused into his Joker. So why not a higher score? Well, and admittedly this would be tough to do, but he doesn’t quite keep his Joker edge during the sex itself. There are a couple lines here and there to remind us of who is wielding the dick in the scenes, but I guess it’s just kind of hard to pretend to be twisted when you’re balls-deep in a porn star.
Sexy Score: 7.5
Rare for Jeffton, but I don’t have a whole lot to say here. Despite the makeup scars, Brendon is a handsome and fit guy. Axel is only one of the greatest living directors of adult, and so his scenes are always solid at a bare minimum… and usually well better than that. Such is the case with these scenes. In B V. S, the Joker has a romantic encounter with Harley Quinn and Catwoman (played by the bananas hot Kleio Valentien and Aiden Ashley, respectively). It is about all you could ask for in a superhero porn.
The docking of points comes mostly from a personal bias. In The Dark Knight XXX, Brendon’s Joker has a sexual encounter with a Batgirl, played by Penny Pax (one of my all-time faves)… in front of a naked and caged Commissioner Gordon (Tom Byron). The sex isn’t nearly as consensual as I normally like it; the Joker being a little too villainous here for him to be sexy to me. And Batgirl isn’t super down with it, and is constantly asking him to hurry up or finish… and I know that does it for some people, but it’s a bit of a killer for me.
Lizzy Borden in Batgirl XXX
Joker Score: 4
Lizzy Borden appears as the Joker in this forgotten, but very interesting, parody title. She is menacing, and just a tad bit hammy (which gives echoes of Cesar Romero without going bonkers). But nothing ever really said “Joker” to me… and that was even after I got over the idea of the Joker having tits. The Joker never really jokes, and the outfits she wears don’t really feel very Joker-y, either. Overall she could’ve called herself anything in this video and it wouldn’t have changed the plot or made me question the character any more than I questioned her being called the Joker.
Sexy Score: 5
Lizzy Borden is hot. However, Lizzy Borden doesn’t have sex. How do you rate the sexiness of a Joker performance in a porno without there being sex? I don’t know. She does wear a green dress that shows off her breasts as she’s bossing around the villains she’s freed, so that was nice. But outside of that, there really wasn’t anything sexy about the performance apart from the character just being a stacked woman in clown face paint.
Paul Chaplin in BatFXXX: Dark Night
Joker Score: 6.9
Paul Chaplin takes over in a super-long Batman movie, that’s really more a movie about the Joker that happens to have Batman in it. The award-laden production runs close to four hours (you’ll notice the movie is split into two discs) and has more Chaplin than you can shake a stick (or your dick) at. He plays something of a hybrid between the Heath Ledger Joker and Jack Nicholson’s portrayal, and the end result is unnerving. You absolutely buy him as a menacing figure that’s in the villain circuit for his own sick yucks (and fucks).
Where things go sideways for Chaplin is when things go horizontal, if you know what I mean. Chaplin strikes me as the kind of guy who (very blamelessly) got into porn because he had the money and connections, loved sex, and wanted to have sex with beautiful porn stars. And he strikes me as that guy mostly because of the huge disconnect between his acting performance and sexual acting performance. Just as much as I bought Paul Chaplin as the Joker skulking and scheming his way through his version of Gotham was how much I didn’t buy him as the Joker getting his rocks off. It is not the Joker having sex, it is Paul Chaplin in green hair and makeup having sex. Again, you really can’t fault the man. But that is what truly separates a good porno acting job from a virtuoso one.
Sexy Score: 7
Paul Chaplin isn’t what I’d call a sexy man. He’s perfectly fine, and I know he’ll float just as many boats as he sinks. He also isn’t what I’d call an exceptional performer. Again, he is just fine… but unremarkable. The scenes, too, just don’t really stand out for me.
The Joker gets lucky in one scene per disc, and both are group sex scenes. In the first, he gets involved with some lady gangsters. In the second, he has his way with Catwoman. The scenes were both fine, and filled with gorgeous ladies and solid porn studs. They’re both very serviceable scenes, but don’t do anything to differentiate themselves.
Taurus in Batman: Enslaved Crusader
Joker Score: 5
We have our second lady Joker on here, and the results in terms of authenticity are slightly better than with Lizzy Borden’s portrayal. Taurus has a very nice variation of a Joker look to her. Her green hair works perfectly, and her shiny purple two-piece and orange bowtie (and matching hair bows) evoke something that instantly brings my mind back to the classic Joker look. Taurus attempts some improvised jokes in the video that don’t land very well with her co-stars, but at least she’s trying. She then brings out a meat tenderizer that she teases Batman with; indicating that she might be poking holes in his poker. This doesn’t happen (thank god, because for a split second I thought I was going to watch some cosplay sounding), but the menace in the threat also helps sell the Joker illusion.
Sexy Score: 10
Taurus is gorgeous. If you’re not familiar with her (she has fewer than 20 credits on HM currently), you should get yourself familiar. She is an alt model that has done most of her work with House of Fyre and Burning Angel. In addition to her hot, tatted look and green hair, there’s just something really attractive about her skimpy Joker costume.
The sex in the video is hot. Laz plays Batman, and is ensorcelled by a chemical compound from Olivia Fyre‘s Poison Ivy. Ivy shares Batman with the Joker and a Mallory Sierra-played Catwoman. All three women are hot, and the way that they tease and ride The Bat is erotic. Taurus never breaks character during the sex, which works in her favor. This video will get you wanting to watch this over and over again, and seek out her other work, and that’s the mark of a truly sexy performance.
Rick Savage in Bat Bitch Triple Feature – The Erotic Adventures Of Bedman & Throbbin
Joker Score: 6
This portrayal of Joker came out in 1989, the year of Tim Burton’s film starring Jack Nicholson as the bad clown. Rick didn’t have a chance to channel or reference Heath or Hamill or Jared Leto. His Joker, therefore, is a little more pure in that there weren’t so many competing iterations of the scoundrel. Rick plays the character as unhinged, and that works. He cackles often as he goes about his business of spreading chaos and legs with a joy buzzer that turns people sex-crazed.
The biggest knock I have on the Savage Joker (which should be a name of a character at some point) is that his clothing never really felt Joker-y to me. Much of that I am sure has to do with the ridiculously low budget of this production. The film actually opens with him wearing a softball kind of uniform that evokes more a shoestring Baseball Fury from The Warriors more than the Joker. During sex, too, he loses some of that manic villain edge, which just goes to show you how difficult it is to be the Joker while pumping away.
Sexy Score: 7.5
Rick is just fine, even in clown makeup—a handsome guy that knows how to handle his junk. The women he’s with (he has two different scenes in the video) are both attractive. And there’s something really nice about him making it with a female Robin (or Throbbin, as the case may be).
But there is something about the super-cheap late 80s adult video, and I do mean video, that is simultaneously raunchy to the point of being hot and raunchy to the point of being repugnant. Rick Savage’s sex is filled with big hair and flat lighting and static cameras. If that is your bag, that’s awesome. If it’s not, you might need to look elsewhere. And if you’re not sure, you should totally try it! It is a fascinating era for the industry, and this is a really great example of it.
Tommy Pistol in Suicide Squad XXX
Joker Score: 8
If you made a short list of all porn actors, working or retired, who could pull off playing the Joker… Tommy Pistol might well be the very first name mentioned. Pistol rocks the hell out of his small-ish role in the award magnet Suicide Squad parody (by none other than Axel “I Have Made Every Superhero Parody” Braun). Tommy has a slightly deranged and highly comical demeanor in many of his roles that lends perfectly to the essence of the Joker. It is here in full force despite some dinky writing.
While Tommy’s performance was excellent (he won an XBIZ award for it and was nominated for an AVN), he stumbled onto the most tragic iteration of the Joker as far as what to portray. Even if he actually was Jared Leto reprising his role, it couldn’t earn a perfect Joker score. The source material is just too off-base, as the swarm of angry internet nerds can attest to. But Tommy channeled Jared’s speech-impediment-because-of-his-grill menace very nicely, and gave it a little extra Pistol punch to boot. I docked an extra point for not being all that Joker-y during sex in a threesome with Harley and Batman of all people.
Sexy Score: 6
Newsflash: unless it’s your specific thing, sex in a sewer isn’t very sexy. Nothing quite like the smell of human waste and the constant threat of catching some kind of disease to get you in the mood. Additionally, the fact that the threesome takes place on a narrow walkway just next to the river of sewage means that there aren’t many positions and configurations that can be performed. So what we have is a static sex scene that just doesn’t do much.
It gets rounded up above a 5 simply because Tommy is sexy, as is Charles Dera and Kleio Valentien (who make for a great Bats and Harley, respectively). I might have been inclined to give it another half a point if there were even a single cumshot, but the short sex scene with few positions ends pretty suddenly with no pops… only a transition to more exposition.
Randy Spears in Batman XXX
Joker Score: 10
Porn legend Randy Spears, whose characters in features typically feel low energy to match his brooding, gravelly persona, cranks things up to 11 in this all-time classic parody. The movie captures the essence of the lovably campy original TV series from the 1960s. Spears channels Cesar Romero beautifully, and it helps that his costuming and makeup is 100% on point as well.
If you are looking for the quintessential Joker in porn, this is it.
Sexy Score: 9
The scene he is in is also hot. As I stated before, Axel Braun knows how to shoot a porno. His casting of Andy San Dimas (another all-time favorite of mine) and Syren Sexton as hot 60s bunnies hanging out with the Clown Prince is phenomenal.
Somehow the scene manages to keep reminding you that Spears is the Joker, that you’re watching a send-up of the Adam West series, and still keep things interesting and sexy. There is a reason Randy Spears shot for a quarter century; the man is a stud. Even in this late-period piece, he’s more than a match for any would-be’s slinging their pork sword and coming after the throne.
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