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Harley Quinn is not only DC's ever-yearning romantic Joker victim – a libidinous, self-centred coarse bumpkin in suspenders, who regularly gets thrashed without mercy – but also an eccentric clown and violent vaude-villain. We argue that the diversity of Harley Quinn's personality as portrayed by different writers and impersonated by cosplay fans is intrinsically connected to the complex and multi-dimensional humour that is associated with the character. Drawing on humour and clown theories, we unpack Harley Quinn's obvious but under-examined humour facets – including her humorous contradictions, meta-humour and clown iconography and routines – with the aim of better understanding her specific comics aesthetics and their humorous momentum both within her fictional worlds and beyond.
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Jürgens et al. (2024) studied this question.
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