View source for Joker's Thugs (The Dark Knight)

[[Image:REFIL-D 3Dposter Clowns.gif|thumb|280px|The Joker Thugs' masks in 3D. Clockwise from top left: Bozo (the Joker), Happy, the Bus Driver, Dopey, Chuckles, and Grumpy.]]The '''Joker's Thugs''' were a gang of criminals, in part a combination of small-time robbers, bounty hunters, shanghaied gangsters, and mentally-ill escapees of [[Arkham Asylum (Nolanverse)|Arkham Asylum]], who served under the [[The Joker (Nolanverse)|Joker]]. Because of the Joker's appearance, most of the thugs wore clown masks and similar apparel.

==History==
===Robbing of Gotham National Bank===
Five small-time criminals served under the Joker in the robbery of [[Gotham National Bank (Nolanverse)|Gotham National Bank]], & four of which were methodically or accidentally killed off in the heist. The Joker himself posed as one of his thugs, going by the call-sign Bozo. Going by one of the people involved, Grumpy's response about splitting it up into six shares instead of five, the heist was not the first time where the Joker disguised himself as one of his own thugs when they participated in a crime of some sort.

===Ending Gambol's Regime===
The Joker employed three bounty hunters to bring him to [[Gambol]], pretending to have been killed by them, and laying lifeless in a bag. The Joker then viciously murdered Gambol. With Gambol's men on the floor, and the bounty hunters aiming handguns to their heads, the Joker informed Gambol's men that he had opened tryouts for his new gang. He snapped a pool cue in half and dropped one half on the floor, then ordered his enforcers to be quick, hinting that he intended for Gambol's men to fight to the death until the sole survivor joins Joker's team.

===Crashing Bruce Wayne's Party===
The Joker and another group of the thugs crashed a fund raiser for new District Attorney, Harvey Dent. Outside, one of the Joker's thugs tried to ambush Bruce Wayne, but Wayne easily defeated him. Also, the thugs (including the Joker himself) fought Batman, but made a speedy escape after throwing Rachel Dawes out of a shattered window. There were seven members of the [[Party Thugs]].

===Assassinating the Mayor===
Before Commissioner Loeb's funeral, the Joker and his thugs kidnapped some Honor Guards who were to be at the funeral and took their guns and uniforms to assassinate Mayor Garcia. They tied up the real Honor Guards in Melvin White's apartment. At the funeral, the Joker shot Lieutenant Gordon, who got in front of the Mayor. The Joker and his thugs escaped, while [[Thomas Schiff]] was shot in the leg and captured by Dent. There are at least six members, including Schiff.

===Attacking Harvey Dent===
Some of these thugs assisted the Joker in attacking an armored [[Gotham City SWAT (Nolanverse)|SWAT]] truck carrying Dent. They were all arrested after their semi-truck was flipped over by cords left by the [[Batpod]]. There were three thugs in his van (including [[Kilson]]) and his [[The Joker's truck driver|truck driver]]. There were also two thugs dressed as clowns on the fire-escape-stairs of some buildings in downtown Gotham taking down a police helicopter with cable guns, and [[Joker Thug in Garbage Truck|one driving a garbage truck]] ramming some police cars.

===Ending the Chechen's Regime===
[[The Chechen]] met the Joker on a Container Ship with his [[The Chechen's Thugs|thugs]] and [[The Chechen's Rottweilers|rottweilers]]. The Joker burned his half of an immense mound of US dollars, which happened to be holding the mobsters' half on top of it, and betrayed the Chechen by having his own men join him, and possibly execute their former boss; also possibly involving cutting him up into tiny pieces and feeding them to his beloved rottweilers. There are only four thugs.

===Prewitt Building===
The Joker kidnapped a school bus full of hostages and placed them as thugs with clown masks in the Prewitt Building and had his thugs dressed up as the doctors and nurses. Batman realized the thugs were actually hostages and the hostages were actually the thugs. Batman was forced to fight the SWAT team to save the hostages. Batman saved all the hostages and the SWAT team took out the thugs, after finding out the Joker's ruse. There were several thugs posing as doctors and patients on at least two different levels of the building.

==Known members==
*[[The Joker (Nolanverse)|Bozo]] (who was secretly the Joker)
*[[Grumpy]]
*[[Chuckles]]
*[[Happy]]
*[[Dopey]]
*[[The Joker's Bus Driver]]
*[[The Joker's black bounty hunter]]
*[[The Joker's white bounty hunter]]
*[[The Joker's second white bounty hunter]]
*[[Gambol's Thugs]]
*[[Melvin White]]
*[[Thomas Schiff]]
*[[The Joker's truck driver]]
*[[Kilson]]
*[[The Chechen's Thugs]]
*[[Joker Thug with Shotgun]]
*[[Joker Thug with Machinegun]]
*[[Joker Thug in Garbage Truck]]
*[[Joker Thug in Semi]]

==Behind the scenes==
*During the [[Robbery of Gotham National Bank]], at least three of the thugs were given callsigns in homage to Dwarfs from Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' ([[Grumpy]], [[Happy]], and [[Dopey]]). The serial killer John Wayne Gacy, aka: the Killer Clown, whose clown character was named Pogo the Clown, was known to paint images from this film. The Joker may have assigned these callsigns with Gacy in mind.
*Chuckles was the name of a clown on ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show''. That Chuckles was also killed unexpectedly, albeit from an elephant attack.
*The Joker assigned himself as Bozo, as in Bozo the Clown, who was a very famous clown and television personality.
*It is currently unknown if the Bus Driver had a callsign like the rest of the thugs involved in the robbery. One possibility is that like three of the others he may have taken his name from one of the Dwarfs in ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. The four unused names are Doc, Sleepy, Sneezy, and Bashful.
Another possibility is that he took a name from a fictional clown character, as with [[The Joker (Nolanverse)|Bozo]] (the Joker), and [[Chuckles]]. This could range in anything from Clarabell, to Ronald, to Binky, to Krusty, to Pogo, to Pennywise, to Killjoy.
==Concept art / Screenshots from movie==
<gallery position="center" orientation="square" widths="140" captionalign="center" spacing="small">
robbliss-4aa289d5fcbcd.jpg|Joker thugs concept art.
robbliss-4aa0d71ffb80d.jpg
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robbliss-4aa28980fcbb9.jpg
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robbliss-4aa0d721fb812.jpg
robbliss-4aa28db5fcc5f.jpg
robbliss-4aa28daffcc5a.jpg
robbliss-4aa28dbdfcc67.jpg
robbliss-4aa28dbffcc6e.jpg
jokerthug_001.png|Joker thug at the party.
joker_thug_tunnel.png|Joker thug.
jokerthug_3332.png
TDK_725.jpg
TDK_joker_thugs.jpg|Joker and his gang.
tdk_tunnel_chase.jpg
hostages_autocontrast_532.jpg|clown hostage
ob_9fce96_hostages-3.jpg|two clown hostage
Happy & Dopey.jpg|Happy & Dopey (Zipline scene)
pretty boy.jpg|joker thug AKA "Pretty Boy"
long hair clown hostage.jpg|Long Hair Clown Hostage
joker thug at party.jpg|Joker thug at Party
clown hostage looks like bozo but makeup different.jpg|clown hostage that looks similar to Bozo
clown masks.jpg
bus driver getaway.jpg|Bus Driver (Getaway)
grumpy.jpg
joker and his thug.jpg
more joker masks.jpg|behind the scenes up close with the clown hostages and with a fighter stunt performer
truck clown.jpg
party joker thug.jpg
</gallery>

==Appearances==
*''[[The Dark Knight]]''
**[[The Dark Knight (novelization)]]

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Joker's Henchmen <font color=gray><small>(''The Dark Knight'')</small></font>}}
[[Category:The Dark Knight Villains]]
[[Category:Organizations]]
[[Category:Henchmen]]
[[Category:Joker's Henchmen]]