It's Simple, We Kill The Batman

2008catchphraseclassic

Published September 1, 2026

The Joker's stammered line from Christopher Nolan's 2008 film The Dark Knight became one of the most quoted villain moments in comic book cinema. Delivered by Heath Ledger to a room of Gotham crime bosses, the phrase spread into image macros starting in 2011 and turned into shorthand for absurdly simple answers to complicated problems.

movie quote memescatchphrase memesvillain memessnowclone memesdc comics memes

Overview

The phrase works as a caption template for image macros that portray a subject as a scheming or ridiculous strategist5. Editors typically pair a still or photo with a bolded caption riffing on the Joker's cadence, often swapping "kill" for another verb to push the line into absurdist territory3. The most recognized variation is "it's simple, we eat the batman," but food, violence, and romance swaps are all common3.

Part of what makes the macro stick is that the original delivery already reads as bathos, with Heath Ledger stammering "we, uh, kill the Batman" after a menacing buildup to a room of hardened mobsters5. That mismatch between grand villain energy and a one-sentence dumb plan is the joke people keep reaching for.

Origin & Background

Platform
Film (The Dark Knight) / Tumblr and Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan; line delivered by Heath Ledger
Date
2008

The line comes from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, released in July 2008, during a scene in which the Joker (Heath Ledger) crashes a meeting of Gotham's crime bosses5. After a short monologue about Batman, one of the mobsters asks what he suggests they do, and Joker replies with the now-famous stammered proposal5. An Urban Dictionary entry by user Inco33 appeared just weeks after the film's theatrical run, on August 30, 2008, defining the phrase as "the solution to all of life's problems"6.

How It Spread

The catchphrase found its second life as an image macro in mid-2011. On June 19, 2011, an Imgur user uploaded a photo of socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein, nicknamed "Cat Woman" for her heavily altered face, with the caption "It's simple. Kill the Batman"4.

Four months later, on October 16, 2011, the Tumblr blog "money, guns, apples, dicks" posted a photo of a heavyset man in clown makeup captioned "it's simple, we eat the batman," and the post pulled about 28,000 notes over the following three months3. The same image hit /r/funny that same day under the title "It's simple, we eat the batman"2.

The subject of that photo, Josh Fonner, sat for a Washington Post interview on January 11, 2012, discussing his accidental fame as the face of both the "eat the batman" macro and the earlier "fat emo" image1. The interview cemented the macro's place in the early-2010s image-macro canon.

How to Use This Meme

The template pairs best with a photo of a subject who looks either menacing or ridiculous, captioned in the same rhythm as Ledger's line. A common convention is swapping "kill" for another verb ("eat", "feed", "date") to push the plan into absurdity, or splicing the phrase into an unrelated scheming context where the proposed solution is obviously stupid3.

Frequently Asked Questions

It's Simple, We Kill The Batman

2008catchphraseclassic

Published September 1, 2026

The Joker's stammered line from Christopher Nolan's 2008 film The Dark Knight became one of the most quoted villain moments in comic book cinema. Delivered by Heath Ledger to a room of Gotham crime bosses, the phrase spread into image macros starting in 2011 and turned into shorthand for absurdly simple answers to complicated problems.

movie quote memes catchphrase memes villain memes snowclone memes dc comics memes

Overview

The phrase works as a caption template for image macros that portray a subject as a scheming or ridiculous strategist5. Editors typically pair a still or photo with a bolded caption riffing on the Joker's cadence, often swapping "kill" for another verb to push the line into absurdist territory3. The most recognized variation is "it's simple, we eat the batman," but food, violence, and romance swaps are all common3.

Part of what makes the macro stick is that the original delivery already reads as bathos, with Heath Ledger stammering "we, uh, kill the Batman" after a menacing buildup to a room of hardened mobsters5. That mismatch between grand villain energy and a one-sentence dumb plan is the joke people keep reaching for.

Origin & Background

Platform
Film (The Dark Knight) / Tumblr and Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan; line delivered by Heath Ledger
Date
2008

The line comes from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, released in July 2008, during a scene in which the Joker (Heath Ledger) crashes a meeting of Gotham's crime bosses5. After a short monologue about Batman, one of the mobsters asks what he suggests they do, and Joker replies with the now-famous stammered proposal5. An Urban Dictionary entry by user Inco33 appeared just weeks after the film's theatrical run, on August 30, 2008, defining the phrase as "the solution to all of life's problems"6.

How It Spread

The catchphrase found its second life as an image macro in mid-2011. On June 19, 2011, an Imgur user uploaded a photo of socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein, nicknamed "Cat Woman" for her heavily altered face, with the caption "It's simple. Kill the Batman"4.

Four months later, on October 16, 2011, the Tumblr blog "money, guns, apples, dicks" posted a photo of a heavyset man in clown makeup captioned "it's simple, we eat the batman," and the post pulled about 28,000 notes over the following three months3. The same image hit /r/funny that same day under the title "It's simple, we eat the batman"2.

The subject of that photo, Josh Fonner, sat for a Washington Post interview on January 11, 2012, discussing his accidental fame as the face of both the "eat the batman" macro and the earlier "fat emo" image1. The interview cemented the macro's place in the early-2010s image-macro canon.

How to Use This Meme

The template pairs best with a photo of a subject who looks either menacing or ridiculous, captioned in the same rhythm as Ledger's line. A common convention is swapping "kill" for another verb ("eat", "feed", "date") to push the plan into absurdity, or splicing the phrase into an unrelated scheming context where the proposed solution is obviously stupid3.

Frequently Asked Questions