<P> Though a number of backstories have been given, a definitive one has not yet been established for the Joker . An unreliable narrator, the character is uncertain of who he was before and how he became the Joker: "Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another...if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice!" A story about the Joker's origin appeared in Detective Comics #168 (February 1951), nearly a decade after the character's debut . Here, the character is a laboratory worker who becomes the Red Hood (a masked criminal) to steal a million dollars from his employer and retire . He falls into a vat of chemical waste when his heist is thwarted by Batman, emerging with bleached white skin, red lips, green hair and a permanent grin . </P> <P> This story was the basis for the most often - cited origin tale, Moore's one - shot The Killing Joke . The Joker quits his job as a Lab assistant, becoming a stand - up comedian to support his pregnant wife . Unsuccessful, he agrees to help mobsters with a robbery and dons the Red Hood . The heist goes awry; the comedian leaps into a chemical vat to escape Batman, surfacing disfigured . This, combined with the earlier accidental death of his wife and unborn child, drives the comedian insane and he becomes the Joker . This version has been cited in many stories, including Batman: The Man Who Laughs (in which Batman deduces that the Red Hood survived his fall and became the Joker), Batman #450 (in which the Joker dons the Red Hood to aid his recovery after the events in A Death in the Family, but finds the experience too traumatic) and "Death of the Family". Other stories have expanded on this origin; "Pushback" explains that the Joker's wife was murdered by a corrupt policeman working for the mobsters, and "Payback" gives the Joker's first name as "Jack". </P> <P> However, the Joker's unreliable memory has allowed writers to develop other origins for the character . "Case Study", a Paul Dini - Alex Ross story, describes the Joker as a sadistic gangster who creates the Red Hood identity to continue the thrill of small - time criminality . He has his fateful first meeting with Batman, which results in his disfigurement . It is suggested that the Joker is sane, and feigns insanity to avoid the death penalty . In Batman Confidential (#7--12), the character, Jack, is a talented criminal who is bored with his work . He encounters (and becomes obsessed with) Batman during a heist, embarking on a crime spree to attract his attention . After Jack injures Batman's girlfriend, Batman scars Jack's face with a permanent grin and betrays him to a group of mobsters, who torture him in a chemical plant . Jack escapes, but falls into an empty vat as gunfire punctures chemical tanks above him . The flood of chemicals (used in anti-psychotic medication) alters his appearance and completes his transformation . The superhero Atom sees the Joker's memory of burning his parents alive (after they find him killing animals) in The Brave and the Bold #31, and Snyder's "Zero Year" (2013) suggests that the pre-disfigured Joker was a criminal mastermind leading a gang of Red Hoods . </P> <P> The Joker has claimed a number of origins, including being the child of an abusive father who broke his nose and the long - lived jester of an Egyptian pharaoh . As Batman says, "Like any other comedian, he uses whatever material will work". </P>

What is the name of the joker in batman