ASHLAND — While I acknowledge the late Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in the movie “The Dark Knight” is the definitive portrayal of that character, I have a soft spot in my heart for the way Jack Nicholson played Batman’s chief nemesis in the first of the modern Caped Crusader films.

My fondness stems in large part from the portion of the movie where Nicholson sneers what I regard as one of the many classic lines of his illustrious career, one that ranks right up there with “You can’t handle the truth!” and “Heeere’s Johnny!” although it isn’t quoted nearly as often.

And that line is: “This town needs an enema!”

While he obviously was referring to the fictitious Gotham City, there have been a number of times where I could’ve sworn ol’ Jack was referring to Ashland.

The evening of Friday, Sept. 7 was one of those times.

The city’s constipated colors showed when it squelched a performance that was to have taken place at the punk-rock clothing store Banshee’s during the monthly First Friday Artwalk at Downtown Live.

Joe Waugh, owner of the 16th Street shop, was told he might face legal consequences if Deadly Sins Burlesque, a troupe out of Lexington, performed in front of his business.

Why? Because apparently someone had watched a video of the act in which a performer was topless.

But here’s the rub — Waugh told local officials there would be no nudity in the troupe’s Ashland performance and even offered to have the group members wear long underwear if necessary. Still, the planned performance was deemed, in the words of Main Street Director Danny Craig, to be “just too risky” for Ashland, even with Waugh’s no-skin assurance.

In other words, you’re not doing anything illegal, but we don’t like it, so we’re going to shut you down, anyway.

Am I the only one who finds it ironic this rather crypto-fascist display occurred during an event intended to promote and celebrate art, which is supposed to be about free expression? And, while burlesque may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it most certainly is an art form.

Also, as a co-worker pointed out, burlesque was something that titillated our great-grandfathers. One would think we’d be well beyond being shocked by something so tame nearly 12 years into the 21st century.

Not in Ashland, evidently.

And please spare me the Helen Lovejoy-esque “Won’t someone PLEASE think of the children?” garbage. It isn’t the city’s job to serve as nanny to anyone’s kids. And, downtown is plenty big enough that youngsters could’ve been easily steered cleared of the area around Waugh’s shop.

For that matter, I would expect Waugh — a friendly, soft-spoken 38-year-old who just happens to enjoy being part of the punk-rock culture and catering to like-minded individuals — would have been happy to have posted someone to check IDs to make sure only those 18 and older were in the audience, or to have moved the performance inside his shop, had he been given either of those options.

It would seem to me this was definitely a situation where compromise, rather than heavy-handedness, was in order.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention I’ve heard reports of folks who were awaiting the show at Banshee’s hurling insults at the firefighters and police officers who were only their doing their jobs and had nothing to do with shutting the show down. That’s not acceptable behavior, and it certainly does nothing to help the cause of that particular group.

Overall, though, I think Ashland needs to wake up and realize people aren’t all the same and everyone should be made to feel welcome here.

Even the misfits.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.