Game of Thrones’ Ramsay Bolton is the WORST. He makes Joffrey Baratheon (rest in turmoil, ya jerk!) look like a puppy. In fact, The New York Times gave him the “Most Hated Man on TV” title — which I’m assuming is kinda hard to get, especially when you’re up against Chad from The Bachelor and House of Card‘s Frank Underwood.

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What has Ramsay done in order to earn such collective disdain? Well, let’s see. He castrated and mind-destroyed Theon Greyjoy. He tortured and raped Sansa, his bride, on their wedding night (and then some). He killed his dad. He let his dogs EAT his mother-in-law and half-brother. Basically, he’s Satan in human form — and the actor who plays him (Iwan Rheon) agrees.

But while Rheon isn’t a fan either, he still has to play him every day for work. Which is probably hard, since he’s probably a sweet dude at heart who’s also in a folk band. But he has his methods — one in particular is channeling a very iconic DC villain: Heath Ledger’s The Joker, who was in Batman: The Dark Knight.

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In an interview with The Independent, Rheon states that he first used The Joker as inspiration, and then…Dennis the Menace. “Initially Heath Ledger’s Joker,” Rheon tells The Independent. “And then I kind of thought Dennis the Menace… it’s great to have that childlike glee in doing all these horrible things, and then Liam Gallagher’s attitude and walk. But you forget all that stuff after a while.”

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Rheon doesn’t elaborate on his inspirations, but we can see it. The Joker is also a psychopath who gets off on seeing people panic and freak out — he also likes playing games, which we know Ramsay is very, very fond of. Dennis the Menace, although a pretty dark choice, considering he’s a KID, is also an iconic trickster in film history.