Police Shoot Joker and Harley Quinn at a Cosplay Orgy in Australia

It sounds like a scene out of a comic book—but when police shot at the Joker and Harley Quinn mid-coitus in Melbourne, Australia, Commissioner Gordon had nothing to do with it.

Last Saturday, two cosplayers attended the nightclub Inflation for the "Saints & Sinner Ball," billed as "Australia's raunchiest party" and an "erotic fancy dress ball" for "broadminded adults." (Costumes were required to attend the orgy.) The couple dressed as the Clown Prince of Crime and Harleen Quinzel—but their costumes were so convincing that fellow swingers mistook them for actual villains and called the police, due to the Joker's plastic toy gun.

When 40 police officers arrived on the scene at 3:41 a.m., they mistook the Joker cosplayer's prop weapon for the real thing and proceeded to shoot him. According to the police, they opened fire because the Joker cosplayer removed the toy gun from the front of his pants and aimed it at them.

However, the club owner, Martha Tsamis, denied on Facebook that the Joker held a toy gun at the time of the police shooting, and instead was in the middle of a sex act:

"Venue staff have stated that the male victim was not holding anything in his hand. Rather he was in a compromising position with his female partner, which is a normal activity with the nature of this event."

A bullet grazed the Harley cosplayer's leg. The couple were rushed to the hospital, with the male cosplayer in critical condition. Doctors stabilized him, and the female cosplayer didn't sustain any serious injuries.

Fortunately, both the Joker and Harley cosplayers survived the night—and now they'll have a lifetime of asking friends, “You wanna know how I got these scars?"

A History Of Compromising Situations

Harley Quinn and the Joker have a long and complicated history together and it started nearly 30 years ago in an animated series rather than on the pages of comic books. Initially Harley wasn't even a character in DC Comics when she first appeared in Batman: Animated Series in the episode called "Joker's Favor" in 1992, and was never intended to be a recurring character, but her overwhelming popularity caused the DC executives to quickly add her story to the canon surrounding Batman and Gotham City. She became the sidekick and love interest of the proverbially twisted Clown Prince of Crime, The Joker.

Thanks to Batman: The Animates Series, and specifically two of the producers: Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, we fell in love with the character for many reasons, but part of the big draw was that her character grappled with the cycle of domestic violence (albeit in an over-the-top cartoon fashion). She brought an emotional depth to the series that may have gone over some of the younger audience, but others saw the cyclical tragic comedy that Harley was caught in, not sure whether to laugh of cry.

After her explosion in popularity, it was up to Timm and Dini to craft her a legitimate backstory. She was given the name Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel, M.D. and before donning the harlequin costume and joining Joker on his psychotic rampage, she was an interning psychiatrist for Arkham Asylum. It was here where she became fascinated by The Joker and volunteered to analyze him. During their solo sessions, the good doctor fell in love with him and helped The Joker escape from Arkham (multiple times actually). She is imprisoned for her efforts and during an earthquake, she escapes to join The Joker as she has finally lost her sanity and fully adopts the identity of Harley Quinn.

After her induction into the main continuity of DC comics, Harley enjoys mild success through The Batman Adventures, which was a comic series set in the universe of The Animated Series where she was created. The single issue created explaining her origins was a massive hit, winning an Eisner Award (the comic book equivalent to the Academy Awards). She was so well received through this iteration of the character, and everyone was looking forward to her future in DC's canon.

At some point in their tumultuous relationship, The Joker began to realize that he had deep feelings for his beautiful clown princess. So what does he do with this knowledge? — Yup, he sends her off in a rocket and she crash lands in Robinson Park in the center of Gotham only to be found by Poison Ivy. Ivy plans to kill her, but has a change of heart believing that the two women share some form of kinship. Ivy nurses her back to health and offers to help her exact revenge against both Batman and The Joker. It's at this point that Ivy injects Harley with a serum that grants her immunity to various toxins and poisons as well as augments her strength and speed dramatically. After going back and forth between loving and hating Mr. J., Harley joins forces with Catwoman and Poison Ivy. The trio shares several adventures before she betrays the women by breaking into Arkham intent on finally killing The Joker for all the abuse he had put her through over the years. But instead she actually helps him escape through a violent takeover of the facility.

Two years later, DC re-launches all their properties and we are given another new iteration of the clown princess, this time as a super criminal hired (read forced) into serving the government on a variety of high-risk black-ops missions. Harley is taken in a new direction in this iteration as she is still in love with The Joker, but believes him to be dead. She is a much more dangerous, and psychotic character through her time in the Suicide Squad evidenced by grinning while executing someone and giggling when even the other teammates are terrified.