What is Joker’s IQ?
Three Joker IQs circulate (140, 160, 350) and none names an issue or a film; the comics write a chemist and schemer.
The Joker IQ that circulates, about 160, has no comic, film or DC page behind it: DC’s character page prints no number and lists his powers as “complete unpredictability” and “chaos agent.” This site’s estimated Joker IQ level for the main DC comics character is 150–170, a notch below Batman’s 175–195.
Joker’s estimated IQ
- DC’s Joker page lists his powers as “complete unpredictability, chaos agent, customized weapons” plus a toxin that makes victims die laughing, and prints no IQ; unlike DC’s Batman page, which says “a brilliant tactician and a genius-level forensic scientist,” the Joker page we read never uses the word genius.
- Wikipedia’s Joker article says he has no inherent superhuman abilities, that “the Joker’s chief asset is his mind,” and that his “chemical genius” produces his best-known weapon, the Joker venom he has used since Batman #1 (1940); its infobox lists “Criminal mastermind” and “Expert chemist.”
- His inventions are large and theatrical: “The Joker Follows Suit” (1942) has him build his own Jokermobile and Jokergyro, and Wikipedia says his technical genius lets him hijack Gotham’s television airwaves.
- In Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios, August 25, 2009, written by Paul Dini) he lets Batman take him into the asylum as part of a plan to seize it, and has secretly funded the Titan research behind that plan.
- In The Dark Knight (2008) he engineers a bank heist that leaves him the last of his crew, deduces Batman’s feelings for Rachel Dawes, and says Batman stayed incorruptible but his plan to corrupt Harvey Dent worked; Wikipedia calls the character an “anarchistic mastermind.”
This rates a character, not a person: writers have rewritten the Joker since 1940, Wikipedia says he “thrives on his mutable and irreconcilable identities,” and DC’s own power list is unpredictability, not intellect. 150–170 describes what the stories need him to do, the 2019 film’s Arthur Fleck is a different version, and the range is an inference with no test behind it.
- First appearance
- Batman #1, cover-dated spring 1940; DC lists “BATMAN #1 (1940)”
- Created by
- Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson; credit is disputed
- Publisher
- DC Comics; base of operations Gotham City
- Real name
- DC: “remain completely unknown”
- Origin stories
- Detective Comics #168 (February 1951); The Killing Joke (March 1988); no single definitive origin
- Documented skills
- Chemistry (Joker venom), inventing gadgets and vehicles; no superhuman abilities
- Played on screen by
- Cesar Romero (1966), Jack Nicholson (1989), Heath Ledger (2008), Joaquin Phoenix (2019); voiced by Mark Hamill in Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)
- Canonical IQ
- None found; 160 and 140–160 are unsourced, 350 is self-described speculation
What an IQ of 150–170 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Joker is
The Joker is a DC Comics character who debuted in Batman #1, cover-dated spring 1940; DC’s own page lists the first appearance as “BATMAN #1 (1940).” Wikipedia credits Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson with creating him but says their accounts of the conception differ. Kane said in a 1994 interview that he and Finger created the Joker and that Robinson brought only a playing card; Robinson said his 1940 card sketch was the concept; an Associated Press story of December 10, 2011 says many comic enthusiasts credit Robinson as the primary creator. All three accounts agree that Finger showed the others a picture of Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine in the 1928 film The Man Who Laughs, whose permanent grin shaped the look. Wikipedia adds that the character was meant to die in his second Batman #1 story, that Finger wanted that, and that editor Whitney Ellsworth overruled him with a hastily added panel, after which the Joker appeared in nine of Batman’s first 12 issues.
The Joker has no single definitive origin. The first, “The Man Behind the Red Hood!” in Detective Comics #168 (February 1951, written by Finger), makes him a laboratory worker who becomes the masked Red Hood to steal $1 million and falls into a vat of chemical waste when Batman foils the heist; Wikipedia’s article on the story says the money was to come from the Monarch Playing Card Company. Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke (March 1988), loosely adapted from that story, recasts him as a failed stand-up comedian who leaves a lab job and agrees to a robbery as the Red Hood to support his pregnant wife; its Joker is an unreliable narrator, and Wikipedia quotes him preferring a past that is “multiple choice.” Later writers vary the answer. Paul Dini and Alex Ross’s “Case Study” suggests the Joker is sane and researches his crimes to look like the work of a sick mind, and Batman: Three Jokers (2020, Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok) has three Jokers working in tandem, one of them a “methodical mastermind” in Wikipedia’s summary.
Whether the comics call him sane is a separate matter from how clever they write him, and no Arkham doctor we could read rates his intelligence. Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams’s Batman #251 (September 1973) returned him to darker stories, and Wikipedia says O’Neil’s run introduced the idea that the Joker is legally insane, which explains why he goes to Arkham Asylum rather than prison. Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers’s Detective Comics #471–476 (August 1977–April 1978), with “The Laughing Fish,” stressed his insanity. Morrison’s Arkham Asylum (1989) and “The Clown at Midnight” (Batman #663, April 2007) show a mind that rebuilds its own personality, and in Joker: Last Laugh (2001) the Arkham doctors convince him he is dying in an attempt to rehabilitate him, after which he launches a final crime spree. The evidence for the mind is craft: Joker venom, the Jokermobile and Jokergyro he builds in “The Joker Follows Suit” (1942), and Wikipedia’s note that his technical genius lets him hijack Gotham’s television airwaves. Is the Joker a genius? The stories write a chemist and schemer, and the borrowed power in “Emperor Joker,” where he takes Mister Mxyzptlk’s reality-altering ability and is defeated by Superman, says nothing about his own mind.
Screen and game versions differ from the comics and from each other. Cesar Romero played him in the 1966 television series Batman and Jack Nicholson in the 1989 film Batman. In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (released in the United States on July 18, 2008), Heath Ledger plays a Joker whom Wikipedia calls an “anarchistic mastermind”; Nolan and co-developer David S. Goyer gave him no origin story, and Nolan called the film the “rise of the Joker.” The plot shows planning: a bank heist that leaves him the last of his crew, a deduction about Batman’s feelings for Rachel Dawes, and a scheme to turn district attorney Harvey Dent. In Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios, August 25, 2009; written by Paul Dini, with Mark Hamill voicing the Joker) he lets himself be captured as part of a plan to take over the asylum. The 2019 film Joker, directed by Todd Phillips with Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, is a different version: Wikipedia calls it an “alternative origin story,” and Phillips set it in an 1980s New York–style Gotham “to separate it, quite frankly, from the DC universe.” The estimate here rates the DC Comics character, not that film’s version and not any actor. Against the fictional peers on this site, 150–170 puts the Joker below Batman (175–195) and Hannibal Lecter (175–195), another fictional antagonist whose range rests on documented traits rather than a number.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed August 2026
Joker: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1940Batman #1 (cover-dated spring 1940) introduces the Joker; Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson are credited.
- 1942“The Joker Follows Suit” has him build his own Jokermobile and Jokergyro, per Wikipedia.
- 1951Detective Comics #168 (February 1951), written by Finger, gives the first origin: a laboratory worker who becomes the Red Hood.
- 1973Batman #251 (September 1973), Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams; O’Neil’s run introduces legal insanity to explain Arkham Asylum.
- 1988The Killing Joke (March 1988), Alan Moore and Brian Bolland, retells the Red Hood origin with a failed comedian.
- 1989Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (Grant Morrison, Dave McKean) describes his mind as “super sanity.”
- 2001Joker: Last Laugh has the Arkham doctors convince him he is dying in an attempt to rehabilitate him.
- 2008The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, released in the U.S. July 18) shows a Joker with no origin story and a plan to corrupt Harvey Dent.
- 2009Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios, August 25) gives the Joker a plan to take over the asylum.
- 2019Joker (Todd Phillips, released in the U.S. October 4) presents Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a separate version of the character.
Where the 160 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
The Joker IQ that circulates most is 160, and nothing behind it is a test or an issue. sociosite.net titles its page “Joker IQ 160,” says “Joker IQ is estimated to be around 160,” and then labels the figure “an estimate discussed by writers and fans, not a measured test score.” comicbasics.com (Valentina Kraljik, June 1, 2023) writes “Joker’s IQ is estimated to be between 140 and 160” under the heading “Joker falls short when compared to his nemesis,” with no source, beside a Batman at 192. Neither page names an issue, a handbook or a test, and on the usual scale (mean 100, standard deviation 15) an IQ of 160 is four standard deviations above average, roughly 1 in 30,000. For how figures like these repeat, see where celebrity IQ numbers come from.
The Joker IQ 350 search leads to one page, and the page itself calls it speculation. decortweaks.com (article by Kevin Devid, last updated January 31, 2025) says the Joker scored 140 on “a test taken during his time at Arkham Asylum,” then argues that with “super sanity” his IQ “could be as high as 350,” which it calls “wildly speculating.” It names no test, issue, game or film, and uses Arkham only as a place. “Super sanity” is a real comics phrase: Wikipedia’s article on Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (1989) says the Joker’s condition is described as a form of “super sanity” in which he re-invents himself every day. That describes a shifting personality, not an intellect. On the 100/15 scale 350 is more than 16 standard deviations above average, and the highest IQ score a test can report explains why no test has items there.
Joker IQ in comics terms is a matter of description, and DC’s description is about behavior. Its character page calls him “an agent of chaos,” says his real name and identity “remain completely unknown,” lists his powers as “complete unpredictability, chaos agent, customized weapons” and a toxin that makes victims die laughing, and gives his first appearance as “BATMAN #1 (1940).” On the page we read the word genius does not appear, while DC’s Batman page calls Bruce Wayne “a brilliant tactician and a genius-level forensic scientist.” Wikipedia’s Joker article gives no IQ either, but it does say the original, dominant image of the character is a villain with “genius-level intelligence,” that he has no inherent superhuman abilities, and that “the Joker’s chief asset is his mind.” For what a genius IQ level means on a real test, the stories are no guide: they show a chemist and schemer, not a score.
Joker IQ vs Batman gets one answer wherever it is asked: Batman, by a margin nobody measures. comicbasics.com says the Joker “has a high IQ, but nowhere near Batman’s” and “manages to toy with Batman on occasion” by exploiting human nature, and fictionhorizon.com (Arthur S. Poe, March 3, 2022, updated June 30, 2023) concludes Batman “might just be a bit smarter” while admitting that neither exact IQ is known. The stories do not run the rivalry as a test of intellect: Wikipedia describes a villain whose crimes exist to keep his game with Batman going. On this site Batman is estimated at 175–195 and Lex Luthor at 180–200, which is why the Joker’s 150–170 sits a notch below both.
How we read a number →Joker page: tagline “an agent of chaos,” real name and identity “remain completely unknown,” powers “complete unpredictability, chaos agent, customized weapons” plus a toxin, first appearance “BATMAN #1 (1940),” no IQ, and the word genius not found. Batman page: “a brilliant tactician and a genius-level forensic scientist,” no IQ.
Label “The Joker,” description “fictional character throughout the DC Universe.” Confirms the entity is the character, not a film or the publisher (DC Comics is Q2924461).
Creators Finger, Kane and Robinson and the differing accounts (Kane’s 1994 interview); Batman #1, spring 1940; Ellsworth’s overruling; nine of the first 12 issues; Detective Comics #168 (February 1951); Batman #251 (1973) and legal insanity; Detective Comics #471–476; Joker: Last Laugh (2001); “Case Study”; Batman: Three Jokers (2020); skills section (“chief asset is his mind,” chemical genius, Jokermobile, television airwaves); Romero 1966, Nicholson 1989. No IQ.
Red Hood story: lab worker, Monarch Playing Card Company, vat of chemical waste. Killing Joke: March 1988, Moore, Bolland, colored by John Higgins, failed comedian and “one bad day.” Arkham Asylum (1989, Morrison and McKean): the Joker’s condition described as a form of “super sanity.” None states an IQ.
Dark Knight: Christopher Nolan, U.S. release July 18, 2008, “anarchistic mastermind,” plot of the heist and the Harvey Dent scheme, no origin story, “rise of the Joker.” Joker (2019): Todd Phillips, Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, “alternative origin story,” Phillips’s “to separate it” remark, U.S. release October 4, 2019. Arkham Asylum game: August 25, 2009, Paul Dini, Mark Hamill, the capture-and-takeover plan and the Titan funding. No IQ in any of them.
Says Robinson is credited by many comic enthusiasts as the primary creator of the Joker for Batman #1 and that he and Kane clashed over who first dreamed up the character.
comicbasics.com: “Joker’s IQ is estimated to be between 140 and 160,” “nowhere near Batman’s,” Batman “around 192,” no source cited. fictionhorizon.com: no IQ figure, says the Joker’s exact IQ is not known, concludes Batman “might just be a bit smarter.”
sociosite.net: “Joker IQ is estimated to be around 160,” “an estimate discussed by writers and fans, not a measured test score,” no method. decortweaks.com: 140 from “a test taken during his time at Arkham Asylum” (no test named), “could be as high as 350” with “super sanity” (“wildly speculating”), Batman at 192; no issue, game or film named.
Checked: DC’s Joker page, Wikipedia’s Joker article and its pages on The Killing Joke, Arkham Asylum (1989), The Dark Knight, Joker (2019) and Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009), and the aggregator pages above; none states a canonical IQ.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Joker, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
A Joker IQ of 160 is printed by sociosite.net (page titled “Joker IQ 160”) and, as a range of 140 to 160, by comicbasics.com (June 1, 2023), which sets him against a Batman at 192. decortweaks.com (updated January 31, 2025) says he scored 140 on “a test taken during his time at Arkham Asylum” and that, with “super sanity,” his IQ “could be as high as 350.” None cites an issue.
No page we could read gives the Joker an IQ that traces to a comic, film or game. DC’s Joker page prints no number and Wikipedia’s Joker article carries none. comicbasics.com’s 140 to 160 cites no source; sociosite.net calls its 160 “an estimate discussed by writers and fans, not a measured test score”; fictionhorizon.com gives no figure and says the exact IQ is not known; decortweaks.com’s 140 names no test, and its 350 is, in its own words, “wildly speculating.”
Unlike most circulating figures on this site, 160 does not sit above the range: it falls inside it, and the 140 to 160 printed by comicbasics.com overlaps its lower half. The outlier is 350, more than 16 standard deviations above average on the usual 100/15 scale, which no test or norm sample could produce and which its own page calls speculation. This range rests on what the stories show, not on any of these numbers.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Joker — frequently asked
What is the Joker’s IQ?
The Joker has no IQ that DC has published: no comic, film or DC page we could read gives him a number, and this site’s estimated IQ for the main DC comics character is 150–170. The 160 that circulates and the 350 on one page cite no issue or test, and the 2019 film’s Arthur Fleck is a different version.
What is the Joker’s IQ level in the comics?
The comics state no Joker IQ level that we could find. DC’s character page lists his powers as unpredictability, chaos, customized weapons and a toxin, and Wikipedia calls his “chief asset” his mind, with chemical genius behind the venom he has used since Batman #1 (1940). Fan sites print 140–160 with no issue cited.
Did the Joker take an IQ test, and where does a Joker IQ of 350 come from?
No comic, film or game we could read shows the Joker taking an IQ test. decortweaks.com says he scored 140 on a test at Arkham Asylum without naming one, and argues that with “super sanity” his IQ “could be as high as 350,” which it calls “wildly speculating.” Super sanity is a comics phrase for his shifting personality, not a score.
Joker IQ vs Batman: who is smarter?
Sources that rank them put Batman ahead, but none cites an issue. comicbasics.com says the Joker has “a high IQ, but nowhere near Batman’s,” and fictionhorizon.com concludes Batman “might just be a bit smarter.” This site estimates the Joker at 150–170 and Batman at 175–195; both are inferences from the stories, not test scores.
What is the Joker’s IQ in The Dark Knight and in the 2019 film?
Neither film gives a number that we could find. In The Dark Knight (2008) the plot shows him engineering a bank heist and a plan to corrupt Harvey Dent, and Wikipedia calls him an “anarchistic mastermind.” Joker (2019), with Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, is a separate version of the character that this site does not rate.
What is the Joker’s IQ in the Arkham games?
No Joker IQ appears in the pages we read about the Arkham games. In Batman: Arkham Asylum (August 25, 2009, written by Paul Dini, with Mark Hamill voicing the Joker) he lets himself be captured, takes over the asylum and secretly funds the Titan research; that planning is the evidence, not a number.
Is the Joker a genius?
In a narrow sense, yes: Wikipedia says the original, dominant image of the character is a villain with “genius-level intelligence,” and credits a chemical genius for his venom. But the DC page we read lists his power as unpredictability and never uses the word genius. He is written as a chemist and schemer, not as a scored genius.
How does the Joker’s estimated IQ compare with Hannibal Lecter’s?
This site estimates the Joker at 150–170 and Hannibal Lecter at 175–195, so Lecter sits higher. Lecter’s range rests on documented traits in Thomas Harris’s novels, such as a memory palace and several languages; the Joker’s rests on chemistry, engineered plots and a shifting personality, and DC’s page lists unpredictability as his power.
How does my IQ compare with Joker?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other fictional profiles, starting with Sherlock Holmes.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More fictional profiles — same field, same method
More fictional
Photograph of actor Christian Bale by Harald Krichel (Berlinale, February 11, 2019), CC BY-SA 4.0. Batman is a character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and published by DC Comics; this is a photograph of the actor who played the role in the 2005–2012 film trilogy, not of the character. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph of actor Anthony Hopkins by Omar David Sandoval Sida (Red Sea International Film Festival, December 2025), CC BY-SA 4.0. Hannibal Lecter is a character created by Thomas Harris, portrayed by Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and its sequels. Background removed for the portrait above. · Photograph of actor Henry Cavill by Gage Skidmore (San Diego Comic-Con, July 19, 2019), CC BY-SA 2.0. Superman is a character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics; this is a photograph of an actor who played the role in the 2013–2017 films, not of the character. Cropped and with background removed for the portrait above.
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