Heath Ledger spent about a month in a London hotel room before filming began. He kept a journal. In it: images of hyenas for the laugh, stills of Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange, the word "chaos" written in green. He was figuring out what would make the Joker funny, then building the laugh to match.
When they filmed the hospital explosion scene, a pyrotechnic delay caused the building to stop mid-detonation. Ledger stayed in character. He looked at the remote with confused mumbling, waited, then triggered the rest. That reaction was improvised. It's in the final film.
The Joker applauding sarcastically in the jail cell wasn't in the script either. Ledger did it. Nolan kept it.
People are adding this one to their Backlot lists. It plays differently when you know how much of it was built in a hotel room and improvised on set.
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