Jokes on You… Joker

Today I (Ethan Stranger) will be doing a blog post review on the 2019 Joker Film, while many consider this film to be violent (even myself), but as an Asperger Person, I was able to find Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the “Clown Prince of Crime” extremely relatable (such his tragic origin, his mental illness, how society treated him & all of that anger that he kept trying to hold back).

When I 1st saw the teaser trailer for this movie all the way back in the spring of 2019, I thought it would’ve been impossible to do a “Joker-like Origin Movie”, for Joker has had a mysterious origin story throughout the comics (plus his real name was never revealed), plus can’t do a Joker film without “Harley Quinn & Batman” though I did enjoy listening to a darker version of “Jimmy Durante's Smile”), even so, I just had difficulty coping with “How this Joker Film was gonna fit into the DCEU” & how’s it really gonna pull it off. While other superhero films like “Deadpool & Venom” had worked (for those characters started off as villains within the comics before becoming more like Anti-Heroes), throughout my entire life, reading the comics, watching the cartoons & witnessing various Batman-related Media, I’ve never seen the Joker do any act of kindness (though to be honest, I did cite him as one of my many influences on comedy, even if he’s a dark/cold-hearted Clown Prince of Crime, you just gotta be one of those guys & gals who properly understands his style of humor, cause not everybody has the same type of humor).

It took a while before I eventually saw the movie, for when it came out, I was in Lima with my parents, I (alongside my Dad) wanted to go see it (couldn’t bring my Mom, for we both knew it was just gonna be too violent for her, it’s the Joker for Crying out Loud). Eventually, I finally watched it for myself through Amazon (with my Dad) & to be honest (like what a lot of reviewers were saying), it hardly feels like an actual comics movie, as Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of the “Clown Prince of Crime” was more grounded in real-life, as a tragic figure who suffers from a mental illness, with big dreams of being comedian, however, he’s ignored by society in general which leads him down a path to realizing the harsh life of reality itself, thus becomes the Joker (also I was impressed by the film’s reimagining on the killing of Bruce Wayne’s parents, for it was a supporter of Joker (not Joe Chill) who shot the Wayne Parents).

After watching the film, I was completely mind blown by how it was able to make this incarnation of the Joker more relatable than most other portrayals of the Clown Prince of Crime. While I (Ethan Stranger) had Aspergers/ADHD & the 2019s Joker suffered from Mental Illness, I was able to relate to certain parts of the film (Notably his fantasy with the talk show host, Murray Franklin).

When we see Arthur Fleck fantasize himself on the Murray Franklin show, it acts as his escape from the harsh reality he’s forced to put up with (as that’s not a reality for somebody with mental illness to live in), Arthur pictures Murray to be like a Mentor/Father figure (as he was a professional comedian, with Arthur struggling into being a comedian himself ). However, when Murray leaks a clip of Arthur doing terrible standup comedy, his happy smile turns into a grim sorrow frown (for he now sees the reality of who Murray is):

In today’s Society (even within the Aspergers Community as well) we can easily find ourselves attempting to escape the harsh reality that we have to live in (the situation gets even worse if we get the idea that others are having better/happier lives than us through social media - even though we know it is not necessarily true as most people don’t share negative things on these platforms). I mean, the COVID Pandemic (in general) is a perfect example, for us not wanting to escape reality (too bad this ain’t Ready Player One, where we slip on a pair of Visors & enter a Virtual Reality, we’re still years away from that kind of technology) besides I don’t even know if Arthur Fleck would wanna escape to a virtual reality, where he can be the comedian he always wanted to be, loved by millions & no longer has to deal with a society that abandoned him & treats him like trash.

Eventually, (back to the Whole Joker Story), it wasn’t long before Arthur Fleck became invited as a Guest-Star on Murray Franklin’s show.

Arthur Fleck (as Joker) goes on rambling about how broken the world around has become (on Live TV), for why others control about what’s funny or not, on how many awful people deserve to die (and it’s funny), his trouble with Thomas Wayne (especially on how he turns his back on people like Arthur & only care for 3 idiot young men who harassed him & a woman on the subway before actually knowing the whole story), before finally saying how awful Murray himself is (I felt like at the moment where Murray said “You don’t know the 1st thing about me, pal”, I felt like (right there) was Arthur’s cue to pull the trigger on Murray (for he finally got him to admit that he wasn’t truly the person that he had fantasied).

While Murray Franklin got what he deserved (guess Murray didn’t really understand Arthur’s joke as it truly blew up in his face). It’s important to say that in Today’s Society (even within the Aspergers Community), killing someone isn’t gonna prove anything or make anyone feel any better. What we (within the Aspergers Community) must do to really show society that we aren’t outcasts & that we do things differently from regular people (just like how Joker explains how society must decide on what is funny or not) we must remind people that even though we handle things differently we can also be helpful and productive.

Here are some inspiring quotes (picture, bottom) that I’ve found that maybe people should’ve told Arthur (instead of shunning him from society, which led him into becoming the Joker). It’s really sad to see people waste their real potential because they weren’t able to adapt to life in general: