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Hiya, Joker. If you're playing this tape, you probably figured out you've been had. Yeah, I left you some cash, but only 10 million, which, knowing you, you've already blown. All the other stuff: money, jewels and gold... it's all fake. See, I always hated your guts, and this was the perfect payback. By now, you're probably outta real money. The IRS is after you, and you can't admit I fooled you, or you'll be the laughingstock of the underworld. The joke's on you, sucker! I got the last laugh after all!
„
~ King Barlowe's final message to the Joker.
Edward "King" Barlowe is the overarching antagonist of The New Batman Adventures episode "Joker's Millions". He was a crime lord and a hated rival of the Joker, who he tricked into thinking he gave his fortune to.
Edward Barlowe was a powerful criminal gang lord who resided within Gotham, and had built himself a massive fortune of two-hundred and fifty million dollars. For unknown reasons, he had an intense rivalry with the psychopathic mastermind, Joker, and the two utterly despised each other. Barlowe was also terminally ill and apparently spent his last days in a hospital bed with his own oxygen tank and mask.
Eventually, Barlowe passed on. But in his will, much to everyone's surprise, he left the entirety of fortune to none other than Joker himself, who at the time was facing financial issues. With his newly acquired wealth, Joker wiped out his criminal record, then blissfully began spending his cash on a new mansion, a new hench-woman to replace Harley (much to her rage) and other frivolous pleasures. Furious at being left nothing from his old boss, Barlowe's old bodyguard attempted to kill Joker, but was stopped by Nightwing and Batgirl. The Batman was also enraged at the fact that his most hated enemy was allowed to walk free, but kept a close eye on him in the meantime.
However, Joker is soon informed by the IRS that he owes them more than half of his full fortune, and while gathering money to pay off his taxes to avoid being arrested, he suddenly finds that all the dollar bills have King Barlowe's face on them. His financial advisor also finds a video tape of King Barlowe himself, who reveals that only a very small percentage of the money he gave to Joker was real (which he perfectly calculated that Joker would have spent already) while the rest was completely fake. It was all part of his plan to utterly humiliate Joker from beyond the grave, and should he admit Barlowe swindled him (thus avoiding the tax liability), the vain Joker would be ridiculed throughout the criminal underworld, making the clown prince furious beyond words.
Desperate to maintain his lifestyle and not go back to poverty or prison, he has his financial advisor disguise as him while he tried to steal a literal boatload of money from the Gotham Mint. However, Batman caught up with his scheme and stopped him, putting him back in Arkham and leaving him broke once more.
Trivia[]
King Barlowe's original first name in the comic in which the episode was adapted for the series was William.
In real life, a plan like Barlowe's would fail. Part of the reason the IRS exists is to squash the very sort of scam he pulled, as their job is verify the inheritance and pre-emptively deduct back-taxes before the inheritor can claim it. If taxes/verification happened beforehand, Joker would not have received (and perhaps not even see) even a single cent of the counterfeit money; the only things he would receive would be note from the IRS telling him how much they deducted from the real cash as well as a warning that most of the alleged inheritance was fame, and the video will of an obviously botched gambit to laugh at.
Though it is possible that Barlowe paid off some tax officials in the IRS to make the scam possible with the actual money that was replaced with fake bills.
