It’s not even clear that we have a Batman or a Superman anymore—and still, somehow, we’re stuck with no fewer than two Joker movies on the horizon.
Let’s talk about the bad one first. It’s a spinoff about the Joker and Harley Quinn, which means it’s set in the DC Extended Universe, which has released exactly one good movie to date. This is an offshoot of the worst DC Extended Universe movie, Suicide Squad, with Jared Leto and Margot Robbie reprising their roles.
And what do we know about it? The screenwriters have described it as a cross between Bad Santa and This Is Us, and the opening scene will feature the Joker and Harley Quinn kidnapping Dr. Phil—yes, the actual Dr. Phil—to fix their relationship problems.
To that, I say: No thank you! I’m good!
Okay. Now let’s talk about the other bad one. I know what you’re thinking. That other Joker movie might be good! The one that’s set in the '80s, starring Joaquin Phoenix, by the guy who directed The Hangover and, uh, The Hangover Part II and The Hangover Part III!
People did seem kind of hyped after they saw these pictures of Phoenix in the full Joker getup:
X content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
Which, sure, that’s the Joker! Look at him, causing chaos and wearing a clown mask—and then lifting up the clown mask to reveal clown makeup! What a fresh and original take!
The Joaquin Phoenix Joker movie is reportedly inspired by Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy—a very good movie containing zero Jokers—which you can watch right now, so who needs a comic-book remake? Joker is also an origin story, drawing at least some inspiration from Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke, which is widely regarded as the closest thing the Joker has to a definitive origin story. And guess what? They already made a Killing Joke movie. It came out two years ago, and it covers the Joker’s comedian-turned-criminal origin in ample detail. It’s very, very bad, but if you really care about why a guy decided to dress up as a clown and fuck with people, you can watch it anytime.
I wasn’t always so sick of the Joker. In fact, there are old Jokers I still like just fine. I rewatched The Dark Knight a few months ago, and it’s still pretty great! I played a video game about the Joker, and I loved it! But my Joker tolerance has long since reached its capacity, because anything interesting you can say about the Joker has already been said. When you’ve turned the Joker into a twisted goofball with the word "Damaged" tattooed on his forehead, you have already gone off the rails. Put him on the shelf for a while. If you want to do another Batman movie, fine. Here are the villains on the table: literally anybody else.
Look: I understand why everyone thinks this is a good era to make a bunch of Joker movies. It’s an extremely weird and dark time to be alive, and there are plenty of reasons to feel despair. The Joker seems to speak to that. He’s a dude who was beaten down by an uncaring world, but he found the resilience to push back with a big ol’ smile on his face.
But honestly, the Joker’s whole thing is just kind of dumb and facile—the kind of armchair philosophizing that mistakes nihilism for depth. You can unpack everything that’s interesting about the Joker in about five minutes (or, if you must, within a single movie). If you play your cards right, attentive audience members will also understand that the Joker is laughable—and not in the way he intends—by the time the movie ends. Part of the reason that The Dark Knight is good is that the movie explicitly rejects the Joker’s ridiculous philosophy. When two boats full of people decide not to blow each other up, they prove the Joker’s grand unified thesis of the world to be completely wrong. And, most significantly of all, it’s the people themselves who decide that they won’t play the Joker’s game. Batman has literally nothing to do with it.
Here’s the truth: We’re probably stuck with Jokers forever. People love their court jesters and their evil clowns, and Hollywood loves to double down on whatever has consistently proven to be lucrative. At the very least, the Joker is a role that Serious Actors like Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix seem obsessed with tackling.
And why not? It’s a free pass to chew a bunch of scenery: putting on a goofy costume, dropping quips, blowing stuff up, and letting out constant, bug-eyed cackles. It’s also an excuse to let out your inner drama kid by going as big and theatrical as you want. And when you’re done, there will be legions of adoring comic-book fans to paint you next to Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger.
But I, for one, have had enough of that bullshit for one lifetime. No more Jokers, please. Thank you for reading my blog.