Reddit pulls up Stephen A. Smith roasting Skip Bayless by comparing him to Heath Ledger's Joker - "He looks just like Skip"

Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless had a ton of iconic debates during their time as adversaries on ESPN’s "First Take," not all of which revolved around sport. This includes the time that Smith and Bayless debated whether “The Dark Knight” was an overrated or underrated movie shortly after its release.

With the film hitting 15 years old on Tuesday, Reddit pulled up a clip of the discussion.

Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless Once Debated If Batman Was Overrated by u/Jr9065 in nba

The debate famously concluded with Smith telling Bayless that he looked like Heath Ledger’s Joker:

“You look like the Joker, I keep telling you that,” Smith said before requesting a side-by-side comparison of Bayless and the Joker.

“Throw that split screen up. Look at that, he looks just like Skip. He looks just like Skip. The Joker, that’s you. Without the makeup, that’s you.”

Former ESPN First Take host Skip Bayless and Heath Ledger's Joker

Fans were quick to give their thoughts on the matter:

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Skip Bayless argued that The Dark Knight was overrated

Skipp Bayless didn’t hesitate to list all of the reasons that he felt that The Dark Knight was overrated. Bayless’ reasons included criticism of the size of Christian Bale’s role as Batman in the film.

The talk show personality was also underwhelmed by Heath Ledger’s portrayal of Joker. Bayless insisted that Jack Nicholson’s version of Joker from the 1989 film “Batman” was better:

“I didn’t like it that Batman had only the third-largest role in this movie. No. 2, I didn’t like it that the Joker was the superhero. He was indestructible, he never even bled once in this movie. I thought Jack Nicholson played a better Joker than Heath Ledger. God bless Heath Ledger, but I just did.”

Bayless added that he felt that the best performance in the movie came from Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face. He also said that Maggie Gyllenhaal’s portrayal of Batman’s love interest was underwhelming:

“I thought Aaron Eckhart deserves the Academy Award nomination because he delivered a better performance as the hero and the villain than Heath Ledger did as just the villain.

“And finally, I must say, Maggie Gyllenhaal was weak as the love interest because I didn’t buy her at all.”

As for Smith, he first agreed with Skip Bayless about Gyllenhaal’s performance being subpar:

“I would agree with you on that, I wasn’t feeling her at all,” Smith said.

However, Smith then vehemently disagreed with everything else Bayless said. Smith added that he thought that The Dark Knight was a great film because it taught a very important lesson about good and evil:

“Every other point you made I think is utterly ridiculous,” Smith said.

“This movie was an A movie, and I’m gonna tell you the biggest reason why. Yeah, granted Batman wasn’t even the star, it was really the Joker or what have you. But the bottom line is this, it was one of those rare movies … it made you think, it touched on your soul. In other words, how bad would you become?

“The Joker was trying to say everybody’s like the rest of us. Y’all are just like me, you are no better. Just let me put you in this situation and show you how evil you could be.”

Smith added that he felt that Ledger’s portrayal of Joker far exceeded Nicholson’s:

“And I never ever thought that I would see anybody that would outperform Jack Nicholson, but Heath Ledger did,” Smith said.

Heath Ledger would posthumously win the 2009 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the Joker. Today, his performance is still revered as one of the greatest acting performances of all time.

So, most would probably agree with Stephen A. Smith. However, Skip Bayless has never been one to shy away from a hot take regardless of how controversial it may be.