What if he’s not only ex-military, but ex-military intelligence?

Specifically — interrogation?

He seems to be very good at the kind of mind-f***ery that sustained, professional interrogation requires. His boast about how “I know the squealers” when he sees one. The way he adjusts his personality and methods depending on who he’s talking to, and knowing EXACTLY the reaction he’ll get: mocking Gamble’s manhood; invoking terror to Brian, the “false” Batman; teasing the policeman’s sense of loyalty to his fallen, fellow cops; digging into Gordon’s isolation; appealing to Harvey Dent’s hunger for “fairness.”

He even conducts a “reverse interrogation” with Batman when he’s in the box at the police station — wanting to see how “far” Batman will go, trying to make him break his “one rule.” He constantly changes his backstory (and thus who he is). To Gamble and his henchmen, he’s an abused child (figuring that they were also the products of abuse and neglect). To Rachel, he’s a man mourning a tragic love — something she’s also wrestling with.

In the end, he ends up trying to mind-f*** an entire city — and the city calls his bluff. Or is that what he wanted all along? He plummets to his seeming death, laughing like a child. And when he’s rescued by Batman, the one individual he couldn’t manipulate or break, he’s blissful and relieved (and, visually, turned on his head). Even the language he uses when saying goodbye to Batman — describing their relationship as an “irresistible force meeting an immovable object” — is the kind of thing an interrogator would say, ruefully, about a fruitless session.

It didn’t matter how he got those scars, turns out.”

Whoa…

That’s a lot to take in. It also makes so much sense. The Joker is clearly a master at manipulation. Possibly even someone with a vast knowledge of psychology. Remember the last time a superhero film wasn’t about a blue laser beam shooting up into the sky at the end? That’s right, almost every superhero flick is plagued with such nonsense these days. But not The Dark Knight. The climax of the film is the Joker trying to get Gotham’s citizens to turn on each other and kill a few hundred people.

It wasn’t the end of the world; it wasn’t a nuclear bomb. It was psychological warfare that was meant to tear down Batman’s sense of morality. His belief in Gotham and humanity was his defining feature. Arguably one of the few things that made him so different from the Joker. If the Joker was an interrogator or former spook (CIA operative), he would know exactly what buttons to press to get a reaction. And boy, did Heath Ledger’s Joker get a reaction.

Patton Oswalt’s theory makes so much sense it’s scary. Not only that, it all but confirms the complex but unmistakable context at the center of the film. The Dark Knight hits its 10 year anniversary this Summer. Hopefully, more mysteries continue to reveal themselves as time goes on.

What do you make of Patton Oswalt’s theory?