The Guys Are Convinced Heath Ledger’s Joker Was Inspired By Tom Waits [FBHW]

Why were Free Beer and Hot Wings studying an old 1979 Australian TV interview with Tom Waits this morning? To determine whether or not Heath Ledger based his Oscar-winning performance as the Joker on it. Of course!

On paper, it sounds pretty far fetched. But after watching the video, it didn't take the guys long to instantly recognize the cadence and mannerisms that made Ledger's Joker so uniquely terrifying. "You add movie sound effects to Tom Waits talking and it's a deleted scene with the Joker," said Free Beer.

Free Beer then played different audio clips from Ledger and the movie, mixing them up with the Waits interview. At one point, Free Beer challenged Hot Wings to see if he could place which man delivered the line "let me get comfortable here." Hot Wings guessed that it was Ledger, when it turned out to be from the Waits interview.

The guys then took some calls, with one caller noting that Waits and Ledger both starred in Terry Gilliam's 2009 movie The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, implying that they might have had a friendship. If that is the case, than it would make sense that Ledger might have studied some archive footage of Waits at some point.

Check out the interview here: