Memes / Joker (2019)

You're laughing. I'm in a TV Tropes page and you're laughing.

1989 Joker: Thrown into a vat of acid.
2019 Joker: Thrown into society.

— Oft-repeated joke in YouTube comments

Please add entries in the following format:Please add entries in the following format:

• The meme[[labelnote:Explanation]]The explanation behind the meme, if necessary[[/labelnote]]^ExplanationLike this
  • Further mutations and successor memes, if any.

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• Whether it's ironic or completely sincere, "We live in a society" jokes and memes (which predate this film, originally using Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight) surged again after the release of the first trailer.
  • After footage from Venice of Arthur ranting and shooting Franklin — with added Italian subtitles for non-anglophones in the crowd — leaked online, people started pairing his yelling face◊ with "SOCIETÀ".
  • The meme even garnered new heights when in the film, Arthur does end up saying "in a society", giving the meme ascended status! Helps that it was revealed that Joaquin Phoenix threw in the word "society" when the script originally had him say "in a system".
    • Even better, the trailer for Zack Snyder's Justice League had the Joker literally say the words "We live in a society" verbatim.
  • "Y'know, we're living in a SOCIETY!"^ExplanationMany have jokingly compared the movie's story and themes to the infamous scenes in Seinfeld where George Constanza dramatically shouts this over minor inconveniences like someone cutting in line for a payphone.
  • People are having a field day comparing the Joker to other fictional clown actors. Most notably Flappy Bob, due to similar designs.
• The line "I used to think my life was a tragedy. But now I realize... it's a fucking comedy" is used to overdramatically describe one's own Butt-Monkey status, jokingly indicate a Start of Darkness, or just captioning any picture of a character dressing up like a clown once or twice.
• Captioning any picture of a group of people with "X tickets for Joker please". Alternatively, editing other characters to be wearing this Joker's makeup^*Similar to people editing "DAMAGED" tattoos onto random characters.
• A scene of the Joker dancing on a staircase quickly became ripe for meme edits, a bizarre number of which also involved Bully Maguire.
  • After the popularity of the Bully Maguire addition, a meme bounced around various fandom subreddits adding in relevant characters dancing on the steps. When the movie came out, People starting shopping in Peter Parker and company into other scenes of movie, with captions of what "the boys" were doing after/before dancing.
  • Because of the scene, the stairs themselves (located in the Bronx in real life) have become a meme, with people referring to them as "Joker Stairs" and jokingly calling the location a religious destination. They even have their own Wikipedia article!
• Joker running from the police and then getting hit by a car, used as an object labeling template. Similarly the image of Joker walking down a hallway looking triumphant followed by the image of him getting hit by a car became another popular image labeling template.
  • The meme gets mutated with the addition of Dennis Reynolds as the driver of the car ([Laughter] "You dumb bitch.") and Will Smith as a passenger in the backseat happily watching the Joker roll over the roof. It has even gotten to the point where the footage is edited to have Harley Quinn be the driver, not giving one damn about having hit her traditional Domestic Abuser.
• The protester with the "WE ARE ALL CLOWNS" sign has been appropriated on Twitter as a meme to mock groups of people that are deemed doing something clownish.
• Arthur's laughing has been dubbed over with laughs of famous characters like Peter Griffin and SpongeBob.
• "YOU GET WHAT YOU FUCKIN' DESERVE!" ^Explanation Joker's Pre-Mortem One-Liner before shooting Murray Franklin that becomes a rally cry of the rioters; one of them shouting it before he kills the Waynes. This can be expanded with the preceding lines before: "What do you get, when you cross an A with a B that C and D!? I'll tell you what you get! You get an E!! (with a Precision F-Strike)"
• El Bromas ^Explanation A meme popular among Spanish-speaking countries that makes fun of Spain's translation of movie titles, a particularly baffling mistake since Spain didn't even translate the title of this one, it has now become a nickname for this particular Joker. "El Bromas" is a deliberate and grammatically incorrect mistranslation roughly meaning "The Jokes". The correct form of "joker" i.e. "one who jokes" would be "bromista" and "the jokes" should really be "las bromas". The comics version is sometimes called "[el] Guasón", a somewhat old-fashioned synonym of "Bromista".
• For those who didn't catch the reference ^Explanation A fan on Twitter took a shot from this movie with Joker in a police car and compared it to a similar scene in The Dark Knight where Joker was driving a police car. Due to the connection being flimsy at best, it has since been used as a template where the The Dark Knight one gets replaced with other, more humorous shots to mock the original post.
• Send in the clown. ^Explanation Frank Sinatra's "Send in the Clowns" is appropriated used in one of the trailers and playing over the credits, and in light of the movie being a massive hit (at least among audiences), this sentence is used as a very popular comeback response for DC to use, particularly against Avengers: Endgame.
• "Come on, start a mass shooting already!" ^ExplanationEarly screenings of the film were met with controversy from multiple mainstream media critics who voiced concerns that it could incite mass violence. After no such incidents occurred, many accused the media of wanting there to be a controversy simply to capitalise on the tragedy.
  • "Frozen II is more dangerous than Joker" ^ExplanationExtending from the above, this meme was born after a machete brawl broke out at a showing of Frozen II, and is often used to mock the MSM's hysteria over the prospective violence that Joker would have caused, which ultimately never happened.
• "the dance of freedom. the death bells. the rising of the joker. one of the most magnificent, sublime, monumental, extraordinary scenes in cinema history."^ExplanationAfter a fan tweeted these words alongside the clip of Joker dancing mentioned above, people immediately started quoting it ironically while posting other videos of people doing silly dances to mock just how over-the-top the fan went in describing the scene.
• "You wouldn't get it."^ExplanationArthur's answer to his therapist in the closing scene, usually used as response to "What's so funny about X?"
• Editing Joker into talk shows has become a popular thing thanks to the Signature Scene of Murray Franklin's show. A particular favorite seems to be The Eric Andre Show as the violent turn and Arthur's rant somehow wouldn't seem out of place.
  • Anytime Joaquin Phoenix shows up on a show to promote the film, those who have seen it are bound to comment "You just invited me on to mock me" or just express general discomfort and fear that Phoenix will shoot the host.
• Bathroom dance. ^explanationArthur dances in a restroom essentially to calm himself after killing the three Wall Street guys. The internet ran with it and it has since become a trend on the likes of Tik Tok to portray people going through a Despair Event Horizon as in their bathrooms dancing like Arthur.
• "I'm going to become the Joker." ^ExplanationA meme based around screengrabs of one of Arthur's therapy sessions. People who weren't on-board with the idea of giving the character an origin instead joked that Arthur becomes the Joker for incredibly petty reasons, such as having his Xbox taken away. It's expanded into something of a meta-meme, as people on various platforms have adopted the catchphrase "I'm gonna become the Joker" or "This made me into the Joker" in response to seeing something that annoys them, or something annoying happening to them.
• "You're laughing." ^ExplanationMurray's disgusted response to Arthur's laughter over the pain and death his actions have caused. Used to poke fun at people who get mad over very minor things, such as a Twitch streamer they donated to not paying attention to them.
• "WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO OUR CULTURE RIGHT NOW THAN THE JOKER?"^ExplanationA quote from an infamous video an Internet reviewer made following the film's loss of numerous awards at the 2020 Oscars (including Best Picture) to Parasite (2019). The sheer levels of vitriol he threw at Parasite combined with the sheer levels of adoration he had for Joker (in some cases praising Joker for discussing the same "haves vs. have-nots" issues explored overtly throughout Parasite) made for a watch that even the most hardcore Joker fans found to be cringeworthy at best and racist at worst. Naturally, it spread like wildfire on Twitter and Reddit, and was featured prominently on RedLetterMedia.
• "I do, and I'm tired of pretending it's not." ^ExplanationUsed by people talking about their unpopular opinions. It often starts with Murray asking "Let me get this straight, you think [X] is [good]?" to represent the popular opinions that say that [X] is bad.
• The scene of Arthur at the comedy club is often used as a reaction image on Twitter in response to a bad joke or pun, either through this still (used more in response to another user's bad joke) or a clip of him laughing uncontrollably (used more in response to a user's own bad joke).
• Comparing Joker to the first Fred movie briefly became a fad in late 2020. ^Explanation The joke came from the movies' surprisingly similar story structures, as both movies feature an unreliable and mentally unbalanced main character with a neglectful mother and a Disappeared Dad, all while having an imaginary relationship with a girl who barely knows them. Some even went as far as to claim that Joker (2019) was actually a Spiritual Successor to Fred, or even a Darker and Edgier Stealth Sequel that deconstructs the Fred persona.
• "This happened to my buddy Eric." ^ExplanationFrom a rather vague Letterboxd review on the movie where the poster claims that the events of the movie happened to his friend named Eric, implying he became the Joker as well. The review went viral, and people then made parodies of the review for other fitting films, such as The Thing (1982) and AKIRA.
• The news that Todd Phillips was actually working on a sequel resulted in a lot of jokes about how it would be the same kind of sequel as The Hangover got, i.e. the exact same movie except set in Thailand.
• In order to play the role of an insane and mentally depressed person, Joaquin Phoenix had to...^ExplanationA meme format that claims that Joaquin Phoenix did a certain supposedly madness-inducing thing as a form of Method Acting in order to get into the role of the mentally unstable Joker. Said activity will often be either working a certain soul-crushing job, or participating in a certain fandom, which can be either a Take That! or Self-Deprecation (e.g. "Joaquin Phoenix had to read TV Tropes for 2 days").
• Joker arc ^ExplanationA joke about going through Joker's Sanity Slippage, often due to minor inconveniences.

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Joker: How about another meme, Murray?
Murray: No, I think we've had enough of your memes.
Joker: What do you get—
Murray: I don't think so.
Joker: —when you cross a website about fictional tropes with a SOCIETY THAT PREFERS TO STAY AT HOME AND MAKE MEMES?!
Murray: Call the admins, Jeane! Call the admins!
Joker: I'll tell ya what you get: YOU GET A FUCKIN' RUINED LIFE! *BANG*