the Joker is presented as a deranged serial killer, while other times he’s more of a practical joker. But the one thing the Joker is not is sane - at least, until he is.

The Joker is such an unpredictable character that there are moments in DC lore where he has actually regained his sanity (as if he ever had it to begin with). But, in all honesty, the Joker’s sanity is just an aspect of his insanity, as the Joker acting sane is more insane than his usual brand of insanity. And these moments are always interesting to see, especially when they're happening to versions of the Joker from entirely different realities within DC's vast multiverse. Here are the best 10 times the Joker somehow regained his sanity!

10 The Joker Becomes Sane After Taking a Dip in the Lazarus Pit

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #145 by Chuck Dixon and Jim Aparo

The Lazarus Pit is a mystical body of water Ra's al Ghul has been using for centuries due to the fact that it can make the old young again, and even bring people back from the dead. When one is on the brink of death, all they need to do is walk into the Lazarus Pit, and their body magically becomes decades younger. When they're dead, however, the Lazarus Pit has a much different effect. They come back to life, but they're violently insane with no guarantee their minds will ever heal from the experience.

Interestingly, when the Joker is killed and then placed in the Lazarus Pit, he has the opposite experience. Since the Joker is utterly insane, his dip in the mystical waters actually made him sane - which only goes to show how truly insane he was to begin with.

9 The Joker Becomes a Sane Politician Named Jack Napier

Batman: White Knight by Sean Murphy

When the Joker decides that he's going to beat Batman by 'becoming sane', he actually does. Joker takes a steady dose of anti-psychotic pills along with actual psychiatric treatment, and after some time and incredible progress, the Joker becomes a thing of the past, and the former Clown Prince of Crime becomes a perfectly sane man named Jack Napier. As Jack, the Joker lives up to his word and destroys Batman by portraying him as a violent and reckless criminal who does more harm to Gotham City than good.

Jack Napier even becomes a politician, using his proven intellect and knowledge of Gotham's criminal underworld to bring about genuine change in the city. He's so successful, in fact, that Jack Napier is dubbed Gotham's White Knight. Indeed, Jack Napier proves that the Joker is far more dangerous when he's sane.

8 A Future Version of the Joker is Actually Gotham City’s Chief of Police

Batman #59 by Bill Finger and Lew Sayre Schwartz

Way back during the height of the Silver Age of comics, Batman and Robin plan to time travel to the past in order to observe one of the Joker's ancestors. The Joker made a comment about how he inherited his madness, so by studying his ancestor, Batman and Robin could finally figure out how to beat him for good. However, there's a problem with the time travel method, and the Dynamic Duo travel to the future instead.

Batman and Robin find themselves in the 'distant' future of 2050, where space travel is as easy as driving down the road, and everyone is dressed in bizarre Sci-Fi outfits. But, the most alarming aspect of this future is that the Joker (technically a descendant of his) is not only a not a super-villain, but is actually the chief of police, and completely sane.

7 Martian Manhunter Manipulates the Joker’s Mind, Forcing Him to Become Sane

JLA #15 by Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, Gary Frank, and Greg Land

While the Joker usually flies solo, he isn't above working with other prominent super-villains to achieve a greater goal - that usually being utter chaos on a global and sometimes universal scale. That's why the Joker finds himself working with Lex Luthor and a number of other villains to obtain a cosmic artifact called the Philosopher's Stone, which has the power to bend the universe to its wielder's liking.

When the Joker gets hold of it while surrounded by the Justice League heroes, he nearly throws the cosmos into a state of hellish chaos. However, before he gets the chance, Martian Manhunter manipulates the Joker's mind, forcing him to become sane. With his newfound sanity, the Joker fixes everything the villains did with the Philosopher's Stone before handing it over to the JLA, effectively saving the universe.

6 One Joker Variant is His Universe’s Batman

Outsiders Vol. 5 #3 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Robert Carey

When Luke Fox (who is operating as a 'Batman') and Kate Kane's Batwoman travel to a multiversal pocket dimension only accessible to Bat-Heroes, they are faced with countless versions of Batman and Batwoman from across the multiverse. This pocket dimension - appropriately named Dimension Batman - is in the form of Wayne Manor, but with seemingly infinite staircases that represent the dimension's ties to every universe in existence, including one where the Joker is his world's Batman.

This isn't just the Joker dres as Batman, either, as only genuine Batmen are granted access to this world. That means this Joker isn't a villain, but an actual hero. While the sanity of this Joker is measured by the sanity of Batman (which, ittedly, is questionable), he's certainly saner than the deranged killer fans know and love.

5 The Joker Becomes a Community Leader in a Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland

Superman: Distant Fires by Howard Chaykin and Gil Kane

Even when the Joker was an utterly insane super-villain, it couldn't be argued that he was absolutely brilliant. And in the post-apocalyptic landscape of Superman: Distant Fires, the Joker is able to put his brilliant mind to good use for humanity - and all it took was nuclear holocaust for him to become sane. In this story, the Earth is plunged into nuclear war, effectively ending the world. Only small pockets of human (and alien) civilizations remain, and in one of them, the Joker is a community leader.

The radiation that riddled the world actually fixed the Joker's broken mind. No longer was he a deranged villain, but someone his people could count on, who even put his genius-level intellect to use by building devices that could restore power to his community.

4 The Joker Becomes Batman’s Robin in a Twisted Future

Batman: Last Knight on Earth by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo

In Batman: Last Knight on Earth, a younger clone of Bruce Wayne travels the wasteland with the severed head of the Joker, which is being kept alive in a containment jar. The two learn that the original Bruce Wayne is now a super-villain who means to control the world in the hopes of 'saving' it. However, Batman and Joker can't let the original Bruce go through with his plan, so the Joker gets a robotic body and takes on a new identity: Robin.

Joker's Robin is integral in taking down the villainous Batman, as the heroic clone would have been turned into one of the original's slaves if not for him. While his grip on his sanity is tenuous at best, this Joker is certainly sane enough to know when it's time to be a hero.

3 The Joker’s Mind is Allowed to Heal Once Batman is Dead

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #65 by J.M. DeMatteis and Joe Station

While trying to stop one of the Joker's dastardly schemes, Batman finds himself caught in the middle of an explosion, resulting in his mangled body lying at the Joker's feet. The Joker thinks that Batman is dead, and dumps his body in the river. Afterward, the Joker doesn't really know what to do with himself. Joker sees Batman as his 'audience', with the Caped Crusader being the sole reason the Joker is the way he is.

The Joker no longer has any reason to be his insane self with Batman gone, so he goes through reconstructive surgery to fix his face, and commits himself to a normal life. Without Batman, the Joker's mind is allowed to heal, and only upon the Caped Crusader's return did the Joker go back to being an insane villain.

2 DC Reveals the Joker was Just Alfred the Whole Time (& was Never Insane)

Batman #686 by Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert

In Batman #686, the Caped Crusader is dead, and everyone in his life shows up at his private wake to say a few words and mourn their loss together - including nearly all of Batman's villains. After a few people had a chance to speak, Alfred - the person Bruce Wayne was closest to - gets up in front of everyone and its something rather shocking: Batman's life was a lie. Every one of Batman's rogues were just Alfred's old acting friends, dres in costumes and pretending to be super-villains to make Bruce Wayne happy. And Alfred himself decided to take the starring role: the Joker.

In this story, the Joker was never insane - he wasn't even real. The Joker was merely a character Alfred was playing in order to make Bruce happy for the first time since his parents died.

1 Darkseid Turns the Joker into the Sanest Man on Earth

Action Comics #1062 by Jason Aaron and John Timms

Bizarro uses a spell to effectively make everyone in the world insane by turning them into 'bizarro humans'. However, just like when the Joker was resurrected via the Lazarus Pit, Bizarro's scheme had the opposite effect on him. The Joker actually becomes 'the sanest person on Earth' thanks to Bizarro's spell, and he even teams up with Superman to save the world.

It's interesting that the majority of the times the Joker has become sane is due to the fact that he's usually so insane, that any global catastrophe that would break any other person causes him to regain his sanity. It's also interesting that, once Joker is sane, he always steps up to be a hero, perhaps proving that he really is one deep down. Or, maybe the Joker is just insane, and trying to figure him out would be utterly fruitless. Either way, this instance is one of the 10 most interesting times the Joker regained his sanity.