Stop me if you've heard this one before.

All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. Me, I've had a bad day once. I'm not exactly sure what. Sometimes, I remember is one way. Sometimes, another. If I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice.

The first real memory I had was the day I lost myself. I'm not exactly sure what happened before the tragic event… at least, what I was doing. Suddenly, everything started to change and all at once, everybody went crazy.

The next thing I remember, the burlap bag was removed from my head. I stood in a row of other high school students on a metal scaffolding. Below us were jumbo-sized canisters of green, glowing chemicals. Standing above us were a strange variety of people. Age, race, sexuality. They all differ in those things. But the one thing they all had in common was the black-and-white bear masks they had over their head. Their leader, a big, burly man, stepped up to approach me.

"P-Please." I begged. "Let me go. I just wanna go home."

"Home?" the man repeated under his bear mask. "Home is where the heart is, and right now, all our hearts belong to despair. So in a way, despair is your home. If you need help to see that…"

The man grabbed my coat and lifted me from the ground. I struggled as he dragged me across the catwalk railing. He made me look down at a large vat of green chemicals. I begged again, but my pleas continued to fall on deaf ears.

In just a minute, I was launched over the railing and plummeted below. I kicked my feet up during the fall hoping to catch something even though I was several feet from salvation. Funny, isn't it?

My entire body made a big splash into the chemicals which burned the ropes that restrained me. I struggled to swim back up, but I kept being dragged down by the chemical's pressure. I gazed down at the bottom of the pool to see a drainage system I was being pulled into. I couldn't escape it. I flowed through the pipes of chemicals without being able to breathe. At the same time, I felt a strange sensation all over my skin, but it was too dark for me to see what. That's when I passed out.

When my eyes opened slowly, I took a minute to look at my surroundings. My vision returned revealing a shore I was getting up from. It was right next to a drainage pipe with green fluid spilling out. I then took a look around the city around me. I saw it as ugly on the outside as it was on the inside. The sky became red, buildings were being destroyed, and I could hear riots from afar.

That's when I looked down to a puddle… and began to chuckle. I saw what the chemicals did to me. My skin became white. My hair changed to green just like my eyes. Even my suit changed to a bright-purple hue. My new appearance was so surprising, it was very laughable. My giggle grew and grew until it became an ear-retching cackle of laughter that stretched out across the entire river.

When I stopped laughing, I grinned and locked my eyes to where the noise was coming from. I could still hear the chaos inviting me to the streets of the town.

"Let's go see what all the fuss is about."

Strolling through the littered and broken streets, I couldn't help but keep giggling at the mayhem around me. I looked on over and saw several other people in bear masks jumping another group of people in an alleyway. One man took off his mask revealing his scarred face as he repeatedly stabbed a Wall Street guy with his pocketknife. I involuntarily laughed at that too.

I climbed up to the top of a broken car and clapped my hands until I got their attention. They all stared at my white, clownlike face.

"Good evening, everybody!" I called out. "Quite a spectacle. I couldn't have chosen a better time to be born. But if you don't mind, I'd appreciate a little quid pro quo. What's with all the Purge stuff going on?"

The scar-faced man made a hand gesture inviting me on ground level with him. I was happy to oblige. I climbed on down to the street, and he proceeded to push me to the car grabbing my jacket.

"Watch it, pal." I growled. "This just got out of the wash."

"Sounds like you could use a makeover, clown!" the thug said as he held the knife to my face. "Any last words?"

"Actually, yes." I answered. "What do you do with my hands."

Before he had time to respond, I wrapped my fingers on his wrist and thrusted it backwards. The knife was driven into the other guy's face, right where his scar was. I pushed him off before forcing the knife out of his face while the other guys in the masks just stared. The man with the scar fell backwards and ended up dead before me.

Either I killed before or I'm a complete sociopath because I didn't regret what I did. In fact, I laughed again while pointing at the corpse. I waved the knife around left and right while dancing around chaotically. I climbed back on top of the car to continue my dance. I then proceeded to wipe my fingers on the knife until it was covered with blood, which I then used to paint a red, bloody smile over my lips.

The funny thing is, this world had its laws before I fell. But around the same time as my transformation, all that flew out the window. I can't remember who I was before all this, but I'm sure he wouldn't have approved of this world, which is why I'm glad I changed. A world full of hope and order dies and so do I. A more chaotic and despairing world prospers and I'm renewed into this. Just one bad day can turn a man into a monster, and just one bad day can destroy the world.

How's that for a punch-line?

"Now," I said addressing back to the crowd, "Who do I have to go thank for this utopia of discord?"

Author's Note: Inspired by the Joker movie. Now, I'm debating on having Joker be an ally or enemy of Junko. So I'll leave it to you, the readers, to decide. Should Joker be with Junko or against her? Any and all comments are welcome.