Fanfiction Review: Joker Saves the Ponies

I-It's been three weeks without pony and...and I just need a shot, man. Just a shot...

Okay, in all seriousness, today's fic is...odd. It's a delectable little gem offered to us by Jabberspike that stars a pair of popular comic book characters. So let's take a look at Joker Saves the Ponies.

SYNOPSIS:

Batman discovers that Robin and several of his enemies, including the Joker, are fans of Friendship is Magic. The cuteness and adorableness of these ponies is anathema to the Dark Knight, who prizes only pain and psychological torment, and he decides to finally exterminate this show once and for all. Can he do it? Not if the Joker has anything to say about it...

REVIEW:

Let's clear the air first. This is, above all else, a crack crossover. It's not terribly written (although rather sparse on details and fairly flat at points), but it also doesn't take itself the least bit seriously. Still, it's fun to overanalyze things until they break, so we're going to do just that.

At its core, this is a story about a brony and an anti-brony going to war over the show; the only difference is that the Joker and Batman play the respective roles. Batman in this story is like an even more twisted version of the Frank Miller interpretation, who demands that only darkness and despair exist in his little world, is violent and abusive, and ultimately decides to commit genocide to wipe out cuteness forever. The story even opens with him complaining about the Penguin, since penguins are cute and cuddly and therefore the opposite of the dark and gritty world which he inhabits. He also exhibits the usual masculine compensation for his own inadequacies by smashing TVs the show is on and firing Robin when he told him to calm down.

On the flipside, we have the Joker, who...well, isn't very Joker-esque in this fic. Then again, this is kind of explained by the twist at the end, but still, it feels a little off at points. Still, he very much matches with the usual brony; he loves the show and wants to tell Batman how good it is, but only makes his hatred grow until he decides to exterminate the problem once and for all.

Equestria itself only shows up in the last half, with only Pinkie Pie making a real appearance (the others are probably just part of the group of ponies that surround them) and Batman officially crossing into full-on villainy. But the ending...is brilliant. I'm dead serious. Both the way Joker and Pinkie stop Batman and the final twist after it's all over are hilarious to behold.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This story is just insane, and how much you'll like it will depend a great deal on how much you like crack stories. The comedy leans heavily on the meta side of things, and is very silly to boot. So if you want a ridiculous comedy about Batman and the Joker fighting to determine the future of Equestria, this is the one for you.