Conrad Veidt Inspired Joker Grin

The Joker’s look traces back to "The Man Who Laughs" (1928), where Conrad Veidt plays a man grotesquely disfigured with a permanent grin. That film adapts Victor Hugo’s 1869 novel of the same name, which is why people point to it as a key visual ancestor for Batman’s Joker. Count it out, and that “inspiration chain” reaches back 157 years as of 2026.

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