Our friend (until she left us for cooler friends) Edith Zimmerman draws our attention to this hilarious list from those hard-working students at College On the Record, deftly observing the dominant costume trend of the day: The 15 Worst Joker Costumes.

As we noted yesterday with news that the Googlegeist has Heath Ledger as the most-searched man of 2008, this Joker guy is tapping into some sort of deep-seated need millions of us harbor to be laughed at, pitied, feared and stared at in confusion. With those various reactions in mind, let’s see some bad Jokers:

The David Byrne Joker

Misconstrued by the folks at College on the Record, it’s not that this confused-looking causer of chaos grossly overestimated his shoulder width. Rather, he’s cutting the anarchic politics of The Dark Knight’s Joker with a healthy dose of David Byrne’s clever humanism. Note the similarities:

A joker of a gentler sort.

The Joker-Catwoman Alliance

A terrifying prospect for people in Batman costumes everywhere, this alliance between the caped crusader’s two greatest foes is all the more strong for using matching purples, and the fact that Catwoman might also be Princess Leia from Star Wars. Seriously, her resemblance to Carrie Fisher is uncanny.

The Office Joker

Fast displacing office clowns everywhere, the Office Joker is becoming documented sociological fact. They’ve been know to have their normal business cards printed onto the back of Joker cards, and to fashion ties from special colored papers when asked to do a trick. Mostly they’re creeping everybody else out, seriously, nobody leaves their cubicle anymore.

The Nurse-Backpacker Joker Duo

I wonder who had to convince the other to make this idea happen. At any rate the effect is a brilliant disaster, if only because the left-most Joker would be a great variation from the norm if not for her jaw-dropping companion.

The Robin Hood-Joker Hybrid

Brilliantly, this Joker combines the original’s predilection for chaos theory with the populist thieving of Robin Hood into a new hero for times of economic disaster, Jokebin, who steals money from billionaire CEOs and gives it to laid-off journalists. Hooray for Jokebin!

Strangely Absent: Cat Joker

The ultimate Batman baddie, this is the logical conclusion of the Catwoman-Joker alliance covered above: the complete fusion of cat and clown into a terrifying and deceptively cuddly beast of destruction. Tearing up furniture, peeing all over and scratching you when you don’t expect it, the Cat Joker will even lie on your desk while you’re trying to get some work done and just stare blankly with its big red grin while you get more and more frustrated. Damn you, Cat Joker!