It’s still not official – but only a victim of the Joker’s idiot-gas would continue to claim the Heath Ledger Joker picture’s a fake.

Instead, it’s become clear that the shot is part of one of the most brilliant marketing campaigns we’ve seen in a long time.

Last night, the Joker image was taken down, replaced with a ‘Page not found’ error, which, usually, would be confirmation that the image wasn’t supposed to be there.

But closer inspection revealed that the page was covered in hidden ‘Ha Ha Has’ – with the phrase ‘I’ll see you in December,’ buried in the text.

That, and the fact that the domain name seeyouindecember was registered yesterday by a marketing company - 42 Entertainment - notorious for its edgy campaigns, seems to suggest that the page is part of the Dark Knight hype machine; which is already looking to eclipse Begins' low-key effort.

We take our Bat-hats off to 42 Entertainment - this stunt is so perfectly in-tune with the Joker’s character, it fooled even us. And hey, Joker’s tricked Bats himself on more than one occasion, so we don’t feel too bad.

Anyway, we don’t know about you, but we can’t wait for December, when we’ll surely get to see Heath Ledger’s Joker, for real, in what will be one of the most eagerly anticipated teaser trailers of the decade. It's rumoured to be attached to either The Golden Compass, or I Am Legend, both big Warner Brothers flicks out in December. Either way, we'll be first in the queue.