History Characters / Joker2019ArthurFleckJoker

!'''[[Administrivia/SpoilersOff All spoilers are unmarked]]. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''
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!!Arthur Fleck / [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker Joker]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fleck_2.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"When I was a little boy and told people I was gonna be a comedian, everyone laughed at me. Well, nobody's laughing now!"'']]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fleck2.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''"I killed those guys because they were awful. Everybody's awful these days. It's enough to make anyone crazy!"'']]
!!!'''Played by:''' Creator/JoaquinPhoenix
!!!'''Dubbed by:''' Creator/BorisRehlinger (European French), Mauricio Pérez (Latin American Spanish), Adriano Giannini (Italian), Creator/HiroakiHirata (Japanese)
!!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/{{Joker|2019}}'' | ''Series/{{Titans|2018}}'' (archive audio) | ''Joker: Folie à Deux''

->''"[[TheChewToy I used to think that my life was a tragedy]]. [[StrawNihilist But now I realize... it's a fucking comedy]]."''

Arthur Fleck is a mentally ill, impoverished clown-for-hire and aspiring stand-up comedian living in Gotham City in 1981. He means well with a wish to "bring laughter and joy to the world", but gets discarded, ridiculed and mocked by Gotham society; his wretched and increasingly chaotic environment battering him almost every step of the way. And as if this wasn't enough, he also has the burden of taking care of his delusional elderly mother, whose abuse and neglect of him throughout childhood contributed to him becoming the man he is.

On one particularly bad day, after being bullied and mocked too many times and losing both his job and his access to medication, he snaps, going down an increasingly dark path made of delusion, twisted self-discovery and myopic "justice". He ends up embracing a whole new persona in the process, and his life (and the world) will never be the same.

To return to the main character page, click [[Characters/Joker2019 here]].
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* AccidentalHero:
** Inverted (or played straight depending on perspective). He becomes an icon and inadvertently begins an EatTheRich movement in Gotham when news hits of a guy in clown getup murdering three Wayne Enterprises employees. Arthur killed them (mostly) in self-defense, and has no real personal investment in Gotham politics, but the notion of a clown murdering the powerful and the wealthy inspires others to don clown masks and makeup during protests against the ruthless elite (although the clown aspect is also due to [[AppropriatedAppelation Thomas Wayne insulting them by calling all the poor "clowns"]]). After his murder of Murray Franklin on live television, those same protesters incite riots in the streets wearing clown masks, and when they find him they hail him as the icon of their movement.
** However, it's played straight in that one of his laughing fits ends up saving a woman from being harassed on the subway by those men who turn their attention to him instead. Said woman even joins the clown mask rioters later.
* AdaptationDyeJob:
** His suit is red in this instead of purple, like Cesar Romero's.
** His makeup also sports more color than usual Joker's simple bleached faces and red lips, with this Joker being more clown-like with blue eye-shadow and a red nose.
* AdaptationNameChange:
** The Joker's real name is traditionally unknown. While some adaptations do give him a civilian name, no previous version of the Joker has ever been named Arthur Fleck. It's potentially downplayed by his adoption papers (which are ''possibly'' faked) stating that his birth name is unknown.
** As another downplayed example, the Joker is always referred to as just Joker -- never ''the'' Joker.
* AdaptationOriginConnection: His starting of numerous riots across Gotham leads to the death of the Waynes.
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: While not to the same degree as Creator/JaredLeto's rendition of the character in the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse, Arthur is one of the few Jokers to escape FacialHorror altogether; even Leto's Joker still had the famous bath in a vat of chemicals. Arthur doesn't even have a GlasgowGrin like Creator/HeathLedger's [[Film/TheDarkKnight Joker]].
* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: This version of the Joker takes some cues from ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke''.
** Here, the Joker wasn't a struggling comedian per sé, but a struggling clown and ''aspiring'' comedian. This version wasn't that great at it either.
** ''Killing Joke'' Joker also turned to crime and then went insane after losing his family. Arthur already had a long history of mental illness and had already killed several people before becoming the Joker. Though by this point, he had [[{{Matricide}} "lost"]] his mother and ''may'' have known that his girlfriend was an imagined or hallucinated relationship.
** There's nothing in this Joker's backstory about a chemical bath that bleached his face. He instead wears makeup for his clown face.
* AdaptationalDumbass: Even when Joker is genuinely insane in other stories, he is still cunning and a great chemist who comes up with death traps and cool machines. Arthur, [[DownplayedTrope while he shows a lot of cunning on the train whilst escaping the cops]], is no criminal mastermind: he doesn't have a great education (outside of what appears to be a taste for old movies), relies on luck more than anything, misspells a lot of words similar to real life mentally ill mass murderers, and may have suffered some brain damage as a kid from his mom's abusive boyfriend. While most Jokers have great plans for destroying Gotham, Arthur is a man who is lashing out at mistreatment with no real plan. Even the following he gets is entirely accidental on his part.
* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: Most Joker stories have him start his career after Batman starts his. Here, not only does he become Joker while Bruce Wayne is still a child, he indirectly causes the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, and, by extension, accidentally creates Batman (as opposed to the other way around).
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: With a good mix of AdaptationalHeroism. Arthur is ''not'' the monstrous, purely evil clown that most Joker incarnations make him out to be, or at least did not ''begin'' that way. He starts off a troubled, but highly well-meaning and imaginative man who just ended up in precisely the ''[[CrapsackWorld wrongest environment possible]]'', it being so damaging that it ends up having him sink into madness. Even after he does though, he still spares a scant few [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe because they were nice to him]], like Gary and Sophie for example; any other Joker would have shot them in the face ForTheEvulz.
* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Joker is often portrayed as a horrific {{Sadist}} and FauxAffablyEvil MonsterClown without any sympathetic qualities who kills and causes destruction simply for his own amusement. Here, he's portrayed as more of an angry, vengeful man who wants revenge on people who have mistreated him (which is the majority of Gotham).
* AdaptationalSympathy: The titular character is ''the'' MonsterClown, a self-described agent of chaos, and an unrepentant psychopath who's [[ComicBook/ADeathInTheFamily responsible for killing Jason Todd]], [[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke crippling Barbara Gordon]], [[ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs tricking Superman into killing his wife and unborn child while simultaneously reducing Metropolis to a nuclear wasteland]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the occasional bout of littering]]. This film goes out of its way to show Joker (here, named Arthur Fleck) was just a man who wanted to make people laugh, but was constantly put down by society (including his own mother and his possible father Thomas Wayne) for having a mental illness, was beaten within an inch of his life several times, and never once given a moment of happiness. As a result, he decides to make Gotham City smile...whether they want to or not.
* AdaptationalWimp: He's not yet the EvilGenius, ManipulativeBastard, brilliant engineer and chemist, or DiabolicalMastermind that most incarnations of the character are. One of his earliest scenes is getting robbed and beaten-up by a group of teenagers.
* AgeLift: He's usually a lot closer to Batman's age, albeit sometimes slightly older. Here, the age gap is much bigger as Arthur is already a grown man when Bruce is a kid, similar to the [[Film/Batman1989 Tim Burton film]].
* AllForNothing:
** At the end of the day, despite everything Arthur ends up accomplishing, and the mark he makes upon Gotham and its citizens, he is unable to get ''anybody'' to really care about him, the one thing he truly ever wanted. In the end, the rioters only see him as the Joker -- not as Arthur Fleck. It's implied that his realization of this is what finally drives him to give in to the Joker persona.
** Another aspect of Arthur's stated goal was to use his comedy to make Gotham a better place. After becoming Joker, he tries to accomplish this by giving those he believed to be at fault "what they deserve". Ultimately, both Murray and Wayne were just symptoms and figureheads of Gotham's corruption, not the source. Their deaths did nothing to cure the underlying disease within Gotham. In fact, Arthur has now come to embody it as the Joker.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Arthur only wants to be a comedian and make people laugh, but he constantly gets mistreated by others for no other reason than that he’s different. He eventually gets back at the society that abandoned him and treated him like trash.
* AlternateSelf: Has counterparts on [[Characters/Titans2018Villains Earth-9]], [[Characters/Batman1966RoguesGallery Earth-66]] and [[Characters/BatmanFilmSeriesTheJoker Earth-89]].
* TheAntiNihilist: A very dark version. Arthur experiences a crippling amount of trauma over the course of the film, and plans to kill himself on national television as a result. But when given the opportunity, he ends up choosing to shoot Murray, and after the fact he decides to fully embrace his new lease on life as Joker. Because if his life is just a comedy, it's better to just go along with the joke. Him WaxingLyrical with Frank Sinatra's "That's Life" at the end of the film cements this.
* AntiVillain: He's a SympatheticMurderer for two-thirds of the Wall Street Three kills. The first two were killed in self-defense, which was justified, and the third of which he killed to eliminate a witness, which is less so. Subverted as by the time he kills Penny, he's become a VillainProtagonist.
* AppropriatedAppellation: Arthur gets the idea for the name "Joker" from Murray making fun of him on his show, with him at one point saying, "Check out this joker."
* AtrociousAlias: Right before killing his mother, he lets her know that he absolutely resents the nickname that she gave him -- "Happy" -- since, in his mind, he's never been happy throughout his entire life.
* AxCrazy: After becoming the Joker, he transforms from a nice and gentle person into a dangerous and unstable madman who will brutally murder anyone who has wronged him. Though he has been shown to have signs bordering on this where he tends to bottle up his emotions and will act out in a rage but still would restrain himself from snapping on someone who bullies him.
* BadLiar: He tries to pass his gun as a prop for his clown act, which his boss and the cops don't buy.
* BastardBastard: [[AmbiguousSituation If he is indeed Thomas Wayne's bastard son]], then he unequivocally qualifies by the time he embraces his Joker persona.
* BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: Arthur starts off as just another nameless face in Gotham; a perpetually depressed, anxious, and above all else lonely individual, who can only truly ever be happy whenever he makes others laugh. Despite this, he's generally a NiceGuy, a hard worker, and somehow surprisingly optimistic, given his circumstances. As he becomes more detached from reality and suffers more abuse from the worst of Gotham's citizens, Arthur gives in to his darker urges and becomes a destructive sociopath who only finds pleasure in the suffering of those who wronged him... While at the same time becoming more self-confident, bombastic, and audacious. He even manages to gain recognition among the oppressed of Gotham, as a clown who stands up against the powerful and wealthy, even though Arthur personally has beef with pretty much society as a whole.
* BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil: The film is about how Arthur's misfortunes by others turned him into the Joker.
* BelievingTheirOwnLies: He spent so much time imagining he's in a relationship with Sophie that, until breaking into her apartment, he seemed convinced they really were dating. Her not knowing his name at first broke the illusion.
* BerserkButton:
** A trait shared with several previous Jokers, Arthur really does not like being laughed ''at'' or being made fun of by other people as he encourages them to laugh with him not at him.
** His mother being called "crazy" also sets him off, until he realizes that perhaps there's some truth to the claim.
** Being lectured on his crimes, least of all by people he sees as being little better. When Murray Franklin shoots down his rant about his life and the conditions in Gotham, Arthur responds with [[TranquilFury barely concealed rage]], pointing out how Murray, for all his pontificating, brought Arthur on solely to make fun of him and is no better than anyone else.
** Betrayal, real or perceived, is another major one for Arthur as evidenced by his brutal murder of Randall for getting him fired and Murray for mocking him after Arthur idolized him.
* BewareTheQuietOnes: His life of continuously being mistreated merely because he is odd leads to his eventual killing spree of people he doesn’t like.
* BigBadSlippage: The film details his arc from a nameless nobody with ideals of bringing laughter and joy to the man who will bring anarchy and death to Gotham as its most notorious criminal.
* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Arthur eventually comes to believe that everyone responsible for hurting him is completely deserving of death, regardless of their reasons or whether or not there was any malicious intent at all.
* BloodbathVillainOrigin: His StartOfDarkness involves him killing three [[AssholeVictim Wayne Enterprises employees]]. He kills the first two in self-defense, but deliberately pursues the last man and finishes him off. He later dons the clown makeup and suit after smothering his mother with a VorpalPillow and killing his FalseFriend ex-coworker, Randall. Finally, he accepts a new identity as "Joker" before proceeding to murder Murray Franklin on live television, and fully embraces this role after rioters ravage the streets in his name.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality:
** Arthur feels that society deciding what's to be considered good and evil is every bit as egregious as society deciding what's funny and not funny.
** He tries to justify his murders of the Wall Street Three by claiming they were awful. However, he also claims that ''everyone'' is awful, and his criteria for what makes someone "awful" becomes more distorted as the film goes on. He kills Randall for getting him fired from his job and kills Murray Franklin for mocking him on TV. He also expresses joy that he is somewhat responsible for the death of a random person on the subway. At the end of the film, it's implied he killed a random Arkham psychiatrist for no real reason, marking the point where he kills people just because he feels like it.
* BrightIsNotGood: This version is the most colourful version of the Joker yet, and by far one of the most mentally disturbed incarnations as well. In addition to the green hair, red smile and white face, he has blue paint around the eyes, red eyebrows, an orange and red suit, and a red nose.
* BodyHorror: Arthur's poor lifestyle made him a ''very'' skinny man, with his ribcage visible through his torso whenever his shirt is off. [[invoked]][[DyeingForYourArt Phoenix did not enjoy having to shed over fifty pounds for the role]].
* BrokenPedestal:
** He's a fan of Murray Franklin. Less so once he ends up becoming Murray's punchline one evening.
** He is also devoted to his mother, until he learns from her psychiatric files that she lied about his paternity and indirectly caused his laughing condition by facilitating his abuse as a child.
* BrokenSmile: Arthur's bloodied smile at the end of the movie is either one of sheer joy at finally being noticed, or one of supreme exhaustion and resignation to his new role as Joker.
* ButtMonkey: He's had it ''bad'', to say the least. Everyone around him pummels, insults, and manipulates him constantly without a second thought, even belittling his pseudobulbar condition regardless of whether or not they are aware of it. It turns out that he's had a rough childhood too if Penny and her boyfriend's actions are to signify anything. It's not even played for laughs.
* TheCameo: His voice is briefly heard in ''Series/Titans2018'' along with two other versions of himself.
* CainAndAbel: Maybe. If Penny is correct about Thomas Wayne being his father, then he is destined to become the homicidal Cain to Bruce Wayne's heroic Abel.
* CantTakeCriticism: Arthur's response to Murray insulting his comedy (admittedly in front of a live audience) is to murder him.
* CampStraight: Is attracted to his female next door neighbor but as Joker is [[SissyVillain flamboyant and elegant]] in his mannerisms.
* CardCarryingVillain: By the end, he's aware of all the death and suffering his actions have caused, and is openly proud of it.
* CerebusRetcon: His trademark laugh is the result of a neurological condition which compels him to laugh at inappropriate times, which causes him no end of grief by an unsympathetic populace. Though there's multiple possible explanations for Arthur's condition, ''none'' of which do him any favors.
* CheerfulChild: [[AvertedTrope He wasn't]], but his mentally-ill/lobotomized mother interpreted him as this after he started having his laughing fits (hence her [[AffectionateNickname pet name]] for him, "Happy")[[labelnote:*]]Which, according to an earlier draft of the script, was also a less-than-affectionate nickname given to him by school bullies for the same reason[[/labelnote]]. Note that this was because her boyfriends [[ChildhoodBrainDamage beat him into unconsciousness]] and she [[ParentalNeglect did absolutely nothing to stop it]].
* ChildhoodBrainDamage: It's implied his mother's abuse of him as a baby is largely responsible for his ''many'' mental instabilities, and when Arthur learns of this, he smothers his mother with a VorpalPillow, finally donning the clown getup and face paint soon after.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Except his eccentricities and unpredictable nature are taken into such extremely dark lengths due to his psychological trauma.
* CompositeCharacter:
** Incorporates elements of Oswald Cobblepot in ''Series/{{Gotham}}'', being another nebbish man who lives with his mother and becomes a proto-supervillain.
** Calling back to previous iterations of the character:
*** He has long hair and dons makeup and hair dye (instead of being chemically altered) like [[Film/TheDarkKnight the Nolanverse version]]. He even gives himself a smile in his own blood which heavily resembles Ledger's Glasgow grin, save for the facial mutilation. Intially, his mouth's appears to be a cross between John Wayne Gacey's makeup and that of Cesar Romero.
*** He wears a reddish suit instead of the classic purple like [[Series/Batman1966 Cesar Romero]] (with orange and green on the inside like ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' Joker).
*** He goes to a talk show and kills the host unexpectedly like the ''[[ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns Dark Knight Returns]]'' Joker.
*** He is in some way responsible for the deaths or Bruce Wayne's parents like [[Film/Batman1989 Tim Burton's version]].
*** Attributes like being a nobody, failed comedian who had "a bad day" and being an Unreliable Narrator when it comes to telling his story bring to mind [[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke Alan Moore's Joker]].
*** Additionally, ''Film/{{Suicide Squad|2016}}'''s Joker exhibits attributes that stem from punch-drunk syndrome, a damaged brain condition. Arthur is also clearly brain-damaged.
*** The ManChild with some LonersAreFreaks tendencies but relatively well adjusted that appreciates old comedy and uses it as a rejection of Gotham’s ugly reality that we saw in the first part of the movie reminds about the Joseph Kerr persona the Joker develops after he believes (wrongly) that he at last had killed Batman in the comic ''Going Sane''.
*** Arthur's gradual transition from well-meaning if not volatile mentally ill person to a homicidal rampaging murderer brings to mind his incarnation from ''VideoGame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries'', John Doe.
** Arthur surprisingly shares a lot with [[ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} Selina Kyle]] in ''Film/BatmanReturns'', both being mentally ill outcasts tormented by those around them, having grown up with traumatic childhoods, having mommy issues, who experience one bad day too many and respond by wearing a costume and wreaking havoc against those they claim to have wrong them, one of which is a corrupt wealthy man involved in politics who've helped created them.
** As a possible older brother to Bruce Wayne who was sent to an asylum, Arthur has some parallels with Thomas Willowood aka the Boomerang Killer
* CreateYourOwnHero: Although indirectly, his actions caused one of the clown rioters to shoot and kill the parents of a boy who in a few years will be Gotham's hope and his eternal nemesis, Batman.
* CrowdPleaser: While he starts out as just another one of Gotham's stragglers, he dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian who can make others happy with his jokes while soaking up their laughter and appreciation in return, and in his fantasies, he's often surrounded by an adoring, sympathetic audience. He finally gets a receptive crowd to please after he's rescued from the police by clown rioters, but he has to fully become the Joker to do it.
* CryLaughing: Arthur is visibly frustrated at himself whenever his condition causes him to laugh involuntarily in public, and it eventually gets to the point where you can't tell whether he's laughing or sobbing.
* CultOfPersonality: Arthur's time as Joker clearly has a lasting effect on certain members of society as a whole, to the point where some of the protesters railing against Thomas Wayne are shown wearing clown masks. In fact, one of those people wearing clown masks is inspired by Arthur to shoot Thomas Wayne.
* DanceOfDespair: Arthur does multiple slow dances by himself throughout the movie, and most of them are performed in his moments of sadness. His dances get noticeably more upbeat and lively scored when he embraces his Joker persona.
* DarkMessiah: Following his first murders, Arthur indirectly started a movement of the poor to fight against the rich. After admitting to his crimes on TV, an all-out riot occurs throughout the city and the people even save him from the police. Foreshadowed with his dance moves, where he often spreads his arms out and keeps his legs together similar to a crucifix pose.
* DeadpanSnarker: Is occasionally prone to this, such as when he exclaims "''[gasp]'' Oh, no! I forgot to punch out!" before punching a clock off a wall, then crossing out "Forget To" from the sign saying "Don't Forget To Smile." Then there's "You know who's not a good dancer? Him!" and of course "They couldn't hold a tune to save their lives."
* DeathGlare: He gives one to Murray while calling him out for making fun of his Pogo's video while on the air.
* DeathSeeker:
** At one point, he tries to lock himself in his refrigerator until he suffocates before backing out of it.
** He initially plans on killing himself live on air after being invited on Murray's show, but ultimately changes his mind and kills Murray instead.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype:
** Arthur deconstructs [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker the Joker]] and PracticallyJoker. In contrast to a charismatic, larger than life {{Supervillain}}, this movie realistically shows what would happen in real life if a mentally unhinged man dressed up as a clown and committed crimes and it would be nothing like how we see in the comics or most movies and be more akin to a real life shooter tragedy. The movie shows how horrible and miserable one's life would have to be for them to become The Joker; lacking the resources, intelligence, or skills to be a supervillain level threat. Their poor mental health meant rather than be an EvilGenius they were limited to impulsively lashing out at those they think wronged him, not even because [[ForTheEvulz he feels like it]], only achieving supervillain level influence because of what society saw him as and enabled as opposed to anything he had agency over. This Joker is portrayed more as a sad tragic man who just simply needed proper care and treatment.
** Arthur is easily one of the crudest, bitterest deconstructions ever portrayed of what it means to be the ButtMonkey and TheChewToy. From the aggressors' perspective, it can be very funny, but seeing the context from the opposing side can be quite a [[invoked]] TearJerker perspective. Bullies generally believe they get away with humiliating and mistreating more vulnerable, passive, and shy people than themselves. The point is, this is not the case. Arthur demonstrates that dealing with physical and psychological abuse on a regular and consistent basis will bring inevitable and negative repercussions.
** Arthur is also a deconstruction of InsaneEqualsViolent. Insane people fall to violence not because they are inherently evil, but because their mental illness is compelling them to perform impulsive actions. When the society alienates, mocks, and starts abusing Arthur's physically, Arthur impulsively reacts against the violence he received with violence, causing the public to perceive him as an insane and violent man, perpetuating the violence even more.
* DespairEventHorizon: The point where Arthur spirals out of control is when he finds his medical files, which tell him that he was not Thomas Wayne's son (as he'd been led to believe by his mother) and was abused for years (which he had no memory of due to the severity of the abuse he faced). At that point, he spirals down into increasingly violent behavior and actively commits murder, before planning to kill himself live on television. It's only after killing Murray Franklin instead that he has a new lease on life -- as the Joker. It's best exemplified in what Arthur says right before he decides to kill Franklin:
-->'''Arthur:''' I've got nothing left to lose. Nothing can hurt me anymore. My life is nothing but a comedy.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: It's heavily implied that his shooting of Murray Franklin at the end of the film was a result of his RageBreakingPoint clouding his judgment. Arthur actually physically rears back after having shot the closest thing he had to a father-figure, and his eyes are noticeably watery with horror at what he'd just done... [[IveComeTooFar but he ends up laughing it off]], and [[ForTheEvulz fires another round into the man's corpse]].
* DisabledInTheAdaptation: DependingOnTheWriter, the Joker in the comics is really just ObfuscatingInsanity to get out of more fitting punishments for his crimes. Here, Arthur is shown with legitimate issues, including pseudobulbar affect, and has hallucinations. However, while he does suffer from brain damage and depression, it is debatable if he really suffers from PBA, some other condition or he was really lying to himself about having a dark sense of humor for most of the movie.
* DisproportionateRetribution: His grudge toward Murray is that he made fun of his botched stand up (in the same way the comedians of ''Series/WorldsDumbest'' would if they kept to more tame jibes) and plans to get back at him by committing suicide on his show; he later decides to kill him instead.
* DrivenToVillainy: Played with. Arthur repeatedly frames his transformation into Joker as this. While there are multiple reasons as to why Arthur falls into villainy, it should never be forgotten Arthur is personally responsible for a number of choices that compel him to further give in to his darker traits. He pursues the last Wayne employee on the subway and brutally guns him down when he ''should'' have let him go. He indulges his ego when protestors use his clown schtick as a symbol of rebellion against the upper class. The atrocities he commits in the latter half of the film are under the influence of ''no one'' and he revels in the damage he causes because it just feels so ''good'' to get back at the society that hurt him.
* TheDogBitesBack: Gets beaten by the Wall Street Three and responds by killing all of them.
* EatTheRich: Arthur comes into conflict with multiple wealthy and powerful people throughout the film, but his enmity is focused moreso on [[WretchedHive the whole of Gotham]], and perhaps society, itself. Nonetheless, the poor and oppressed of Gotham come to view Arthur as an icon, and tout him as such especially after he murders Murray Franklin.
* ElementalMotifs: Fire. As Joker he dresses in red and orange-yellow (with a small bit of greenish blue), constantly smokes and his actions lead to Gotham being set on fire, both figuratively and in a lot of locations literally. Very fitting element for a character known for spreading uncontrollable chaos and destruction.
* EndearinglyDorky: In the beginning, he's an endearing {{Manchild}} who just wants to entertain people and make a name for himself. Too bad it won't last.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Subverted. Arthur clearly loves his mother and defends her even as Alfred and Thomas both separately insult her. That changes, however, when he realizes that she lied to him about everything and let him get abused, and he kills her for it.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Unlike most versions of The Joker, Arthur doesn't kill random people for kicks. He only targets the people who have hurt him in some fashion. However, while it's played straight at first, this later on becomes subverted since many of his victims, except for the three rich subway guys, had minor sympathetic qualities. For example, Penny was clearly mentally ill and senile, making it possible she had no idea Arthur was abused although she very well could have. Randall, as much of a dick he was for getting Arthur fired, ''did not'' deserve such a brutal death, and did give Arthur the gun for protection, only lying (or telling partial truths) to save his own job when things went bad. Murray, aside from mocking Arthur a couple of times, seemed like a genuinely nice person who treated Arthur with nothing but respect when they actually met, and was disgusted by Arthur's behavior on the show (bragging about his crime), and his actions that led to so much chaos. Arthur also ends up getting a man killed by the subway riot he started, getting two detectives gravely injured in the process, and possibly murdering his therapist at the end of the film.
** Despite cruelly killing Randall, Arthur doesn't kill Gary since he was the only one at his job who didn't betray or mock him, plus despite laughing at a joke about Gary's height, the expression Arthur has on his face suggests that he only laughed to fit in or due to his condition. He also spares Sophie as well. So it's still played straight at points.
** Arthur is nothing but kind to children in this film, while other Jokers would've maimed, killed, or kidnapped them.
** Arthur is initially shocked when he kills Murray, but he breaks into laughter, either out of joy or because he realized he screwed up, but doesn't care, and then proceeds to shoot Murray again for fun. However, he stops himself from shooting Murray a third time, expressing some shame or feeling he's done enough.
* EvilFeelsGood:
** When Murray scolds him for his murders and the chaos he caused, his response is to laugh and reply with a sinister and satisfied ''"I know."''
** When he's being taken away by the police, he calls the riot he inadvertently instigated in downtown Gotham beautiful.
* EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor: On his big appearance with Murray Franklin, Joker makes several uncomfortable and misanthropic jokes that leave the audience confused before things take a turn for the worse. His "subjectivity of comedy" speech carries the heavy implication that he never had Pseudobulbar Affect at all, just a twisted sense of humor that the rest of society doesn't understand or appreciate.
* EvilLaugh: Comes with the character, though most of his laughing fits are due to his condition. By the time he confesses to murdering the three men on the subway, his laughter becomes a lot more malicious. However, it's stated by the people involved that the purest example of this comes at the very end, after he becomes the Joker, when he absolutely '''cackles''' at the thought of delivering the perfect punchline to tell the now-orphaned Bruce Wayne.
* {{Expy}}: Arthur Fleck is basically [[Film/TheKingOfComedy Rupert Pupkin]] transplanted to Gotham City with a dash of [[Film/TaxiDriver Travis Bickle]].
* FanDisservice: Arthur has quite a number of shirtless scenes through the movie, but they lack any appeal or fanservice since he is horribly malnourished and near skeletal. While he dons a nice suit as Joker, he also puts on his clown makeup that makes him look like the MonsterClown he has become, and it only worsens when he paints the sides of his mouth with his own blood.
* FingerForcedSmile: His first scene in the movie has him doing it to himself, in a clear display of the sadness he tries to hide. He repeats this gesture throughout the movie and also does the same to a young Bruce Wayne when he visits the manor.
* ForHappiness: Aside from money to support himself and his mother, Arthur's motivation to enter the comedy business is that he always wanted to make people laugh and be happy. He genuinely enjoyed his clown job and had high hopes to do stand-up comedy.
* ForTheEvulz: By the end of the film, he's completely abandoned any sense of morality and now commits murder and carnage solely for his own enjoyment.
* ForcefulKiss: To display his newfound confidence, Arthur catches Dr. Ruth off-guard by kissing her in the mouth when appearing on Murray Franklin's show. It's a noticeably uncomfortable moment for the doctor, with Franklin concerned if she's okay. While perhaps not forceful but rather sudden and unexpected, he does it to Sophie in one of his hallucinations about their relationship.
* FriendToAllChildren: Throughout the film, it's clear that Arthur has a soft spot for children, to making funny faces for an infant to entertaining sick kids in the hospital. He doesn't even hold anything against the teenagers that stole his sign and beat him up, simply stating that they were just kids. It makes the fact that he's indirectly responsible for the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne more ironic.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Arthur Fleck -- the ButtMonkey, TheChewToy, the CosmicPlaything, the NoRespectGuy -- winds up becoming the most dangerous and feared man in all of Gotham, as well as one of the greatest arch-enemies for the Dark Knight, if not ''the absolute'' greatest.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:G-L]]
* GiftedlyBad: He's a good clown if his act at the children hospital is anything to go by, but he fancies himself a rising star stand-up comedian. His first real stint at the Pogo's club is a disaster; his unfunny material would have sunk it in the first place, but Arthur's failure is largely due to his uncontrollable laughing fits, and utter failure to say ''anything'' after that. People end up laughing at his stand-up, but for the wrong reasons...
* GlasgowGrin: Not surprising since it's the Joker but, in this version, he doesn't get his mouth sliced. Rather, he uses his own blood from the police car crash at the end to paint the sides of his mouth and make it look like a grin.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Learning the truth about Penny is the final straw to complete his SanitySlippage.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: As both timid, innocent Arthur Fleck and as the malevolent Joker, he smokes like if a chimney and Ayn Rand had a baby[[note]]which might explain the great mystery of his parenthood[[/note]].
* GrewASpine: A very dark example. By the end of the movie, Arthur is done getting screwed over by circumstances and he takes matters into his own hands.
* HappyDance: After embracing his new identity of Joker, Arthur's dances become more upbeat and lively, making it clear that they come from a feeling of confidence and happiness. Of particular note, he performs some moves to mock detectives Garrity and Burke as they are being beaten by the clown rioters.
* HelplessWithLaughter: Afflicted with a disorder that causes random laughing fits and he is helpless to stop them until, they pass on their own.
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Granted, "hero" is stretching it, but his murder of the Wall Street three was done mostly out of self-defense than any political motive and also, his action ended up saving a woman that was being harassed by the trio. Yet this doesn't stop the media from portraying it as an act of rebellion against the rich done by a clown-themed spree killer. Unfortunately, Arthur ends up embracing the image of himself that has been created in the city, thus becoming the very thing he was portrayed as.
* HighHopesZeroTalent: He aspires to be a stand-up comedian, but his one performance at a local comedy club is absolutely terrible - people laugh at ''him'', not at his ''material''. Lampshaded by his mother:
-->'''Penny:''' Don't you have to be funny to be a comedian?
* HiddenDepths: Arthur is quite taken with dancing, as seen with his various moves and performances on the movie. Also, he wishes to be appreciated for his dancing as much as for his job a clown, as suggested when he dances by himself in his living room: he imagines a partner who compliments him by saying he dances well.
* TheHyena: A deconstructed example. The Joker's LaughingMad tendencies have been reinvented as a neurological condition that forces him to burst into laughter at random, often inopportune times. Then Penny's file reveals that he doesn't have the pseudobulbar affect condition at all, and it was the result of the repeated abuse at the hands of her ex-boyfriends giving him brain damage.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Arthur launches a massive MotiveRant late in the film, openly rebuking the citizens of Gotham for their mistreatment of him, as well as their inability to know what it's like "to be the other guy." At this point, however, Arthur has become largely unsympathetic to anyone other than himself, and is driven by an unhealthy desire to get back at everyone who wronged him, consequences be damned.
* IAmWhatIAm: Gives one during his appearance on Murray Franklin's show, revealing he had killed the three guys in the subway, leading to him embracing what he was becoming.
* IJustWantToBeLoved: Arthur desperately wants to find love and validation from others, which is why he's so quick to smile when he's around Sophie. Or rather, his hallucinations of her.
* IJustWantToBeSpecial: PlayedForDrama. Arthur is in truth a modest man who isn't concerned with upping his standing in society. He really does just want to become a comedian, and make people laugh. But when his efforts are disregarded and people just keep heaping abuse upon him, he clings to whatever form of validation is available... namely that of violent protestors who ape the clown gimmick and seek a massive upheaval throughout Gotham's society.
-->'''Arthur:''' For my whole life, I didn’t know if I even really existed. But ''I do'', and people are starting to notice.
* IconOfRebellion: His murder of the Wall Street three is what kickstarts the city wide protests throughout the movie, and the rioters all wear clown masks explicitly because of the clown makeup Arthur was wearing when he committed that crime (and also for having been called "clowns" by Thomas Wayne). At the end of the movie, Arthur is broken out out the police car he was held up in and praised by a crowd of such rioters.
* ImpliedDeathThreat: After admitting that he killed The Wall Street Three for being "awful," he later remarks, "You're awful, Murray," with the obvious implication that Murray is the kind of person he'd be willing to kill. Before long, he kills Murray, too.
* InsaneEqualsViolent:
** A subversion. Arthur is a peaceful man who is trying to do good and only wants to make people happy. However, he is also living with mental illness, which is only exacerbated by the casual mistreatment and abuse he takes from random people in his daily life; [[TruthInTelevision this is actually true of most insane people in real life, who are often more susceptible to being physically harmed by others]]. The constant abuse is what pushes Arthur towards violence, not his mental problems.
** It's also shown that Arthur has been actively seeking help for his psychiatric problems, taking medication regularly and seeing a psychiatrist for weekly counseling. However, as those familiar with the source material realize, Arkham doesn't have the best track record in treating the mental health of its patients, and this version is no exception. His psychiatrist also tells him that their current session shown will be their last due to the city cutting funding for therapy and medicine to those in need. It's likely that the lack of resources and access to help -- and the frustration towards this -- only worsens Arthur's state of mind and pushes him more and more towards antisocial behavior.
* IronicName: Arthur's name brings to mind the legend of King Arthur, who was a royal bastard who eventually came to rule Britain. Arthur later discovers he may be the bastard child of Thomas Wayne and Penny, but it is later established that Penny was/is ''very'' delusional and imagined the whole affair in her head. [[AmbiguousSituation Probably]]. Arthur does become a kingly figure by the end of the film, however, lording over a whole mob of rioters who see him as a symbol of their suffering at the hands of the upper-class. His name can also be labelled as "A. Fleck", referencing how he was once a fleck to Gotham's civilization before his uprising.
* {{Irony}}: Ironically, Arthur's jokes are made of this.
* ItGetsEasier: Arthur's first murders were an accident and arguably self-defense, but as his insanity worsens, he has no problem killing others as well.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Arthur becomes increasingly self-absorbed throughout the course of the film, and comes to use his personal suffering as a means to ignore or even justify the terrible things he does to others. In the end, violent protesters cause massive riots all over Gotham in Arthur's name, and Arthur couldn't give less of a crap about any innocents, nor does he care about the grievances of the protesters -- he's just happy that, for once in his life, his actions have an effect on those around him.
-->'''Cop:''' Stop laughing. The whole fucking city's on fire because of what you did.\\
'''Joker:''' I know. Isn't it beautiful?
* IveComeTooFar:
** Earlier, after killing two of the three yuppies who were beating him on the subway, he eventually decides to chase down the fleeing survivor before he can get help and shoot him dead while he's helpless, which sets him on the path to becoming the Joker.
** Shooting Murray Franklin causes a brief flash of horror and sadness upon Arthur's face, as it's heavily implied he shot him in the heat of the moment. But by this point he really doesn't have anything else to lose, and after Arthur lets out a genuine laugh at just everything that's happened, he shoots Murray's corpse ''again'' and embraces the fact that [[ThatManIsDead the person he used to be is no more]].
* JokerImmunity: Being the TropeNamer himself, the Joker survives a rather gruesome car accident when a member of the angry mob drives an ambulance into the police cruiser he is riding in. The driver doesn't survive, but the Joker, despite his injuries, is still capable of standing.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Starts off the film as a down-on-his-luck regular schmo who wants to make people laugh, and his first murders are only [[AssholeVictim people who kind of had it coming]], but eventually as he's beaten down, he turns into an AxCrazy spree killer who isn't afraid to kill people who have just slighted him, [[AmbiguousSituation or possibly even]] not at all, and openly revels in the chaos that he has ignited around the city.
* KickTheDog: Downplayed since he doesn't mean any real harm nor are these actions truly that cruel, but kissing Dr. Ruth and making her uncomfortable was a rather pointless move. Arthur did it as a display of his newfound confidence as Joker but it doesn't earn him sympathy. Also, after his incredibly brutal murder of Randall, which shocks Gary, Arthur takes the time to do a JumpScare on the already frightened dwarf for no other reason other than he found it funny. Still, he lets Gary go and even kisses him in the forehead in a sincere display of gratitude.
* KillingInSelfDefense: Subverted. Arthur's first of three kills of the Wall Street Three would definitely qualify, as they were assaulting him without provocation. The second is ambiguous, as the guy seems to have stopped attacking, yet Arthur shoots him anyway. By the time of the third, however, Arthur is tracking the guy down and unleashes the rest of his gun into the guy as he weakly attempts to escape. Every other kill Arthur commits from that point on is cold-blooded murder.
* KingOfTheHomeless: Arthur's actions as Joker turn him into an icon representing the suffering endured by the lower/middle class of Gotham. Though Arthur personally cares little for Gotham politics, he embraces the role because it's the only way for people to truly notice him.
* LackOfEmpathy: He tells a clerk at Arkham State Hospital that he did something -- killing three men on the subway -- that he thought would bother him, but it didn't. Later, he boasts about it on live television.
* LargeHam: Thanks to his mental illnesses, Arthur can't help but stand out in a crowd, even when he's trying not to draw attention to himself. When he fully becomes Joker, though, he pretty much ''embraces'' and ''embodies'' the ham.
* LaughThemselvesSick: Aside from being involuntary, Arthur's laughing fits bring no benefits to himself and actually nauseates him more than once. He is shown sometimes to try to catch his breath after an episode.
* LaughingAtYourOwnJokes: What kills his attempt at stand-up comedy are his uncontrollable laughing fits even before he tells his joke. As the movie progresses, Arthur starts laughing at his own morbid comments, and it's clear that only he finds any humor in them.
* LaughingMad: As he experiences more trauma, Arthur comes to use his laughing fits as a means of getting all his stress out. The last scene of the film show him cackling like a loon, totally consumed by his insanity.
* LeanAndMean: He is uncomfortably gaunt due to his rough life. As far as the "mean" part, he comes around to this by the end of the film.
* LonersAreFreaks: Arthur describes himself as a mentally ill loner which is justified because he never really had any friends or even loved ones. Even his own mother no longer means anything to him after finding that he was the adopted son that she neglected to take care of him.
* LoserProtagonist: Arthur is constantly beaten, lied to, ignored, mocked or thrown under the bus by pretty much every single person in his life.
* LossOfIdentity: Arthur has a case of this after learning the AwfulTruth about his adoptive mother abusing him, leading to him deciding that he needs to go by a different name. To him, "Joker" is as good a name as any.
* LovingAShadow: What he falls victim to. In the end, the Gotham rioters don't admire Arthur, they love Joker, and what he represents.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:M-R]]
* MadeOfIron: After experiencing heavy physical abuse virtually his entire life, Arthur's body has become incredibly resilient in spite of what his wiry frame would suggest, and he bounces back from physical trauma very quickly. While running from a couple of detectives, he's hit hard enough by a taxi to smash the windshield yet gets right back up and keeps on running, and later in the same day he's in a major wreck when a police cruiser he's riding in is t-boned by a speeding ambulance, ''on the side of the car that Arthur is riding in,'' only to be knocked unconscious and wake up a minute later fully able to stand and move around, only coughing up a little blood to show for it. He also frequently rams his head into things with serious force and doesn't even seem fazed, which connects to the fact that the most severe trauma he experienced as a child was head trauma.
* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: A series of several bad days, coupled with Arthur no longer being able to afford his medication, result in an insane lunatic who thinks that everybody is awful and deserving of death.
* {{Manchild}}: Arthur doesn't start off necessarily immature but does have an overly optimistic and childlike view of his possible future as a comedian, and frequently imagines or fantasizes about gaining the recognition or love of others (mainly his unwitting father figure Murray Franklin, and his neighbor Sophie). Over time, he ''does'' become more immature and self-centered and comes to justify a lot of his later actions as his victims pretty much [[PayEvilUntoEvil getting what they deserved]], leading to his becoming a PsychopathicManchild.
* {{Matricide}}: Once he learns his mother was abusive, he gives her the VorpalPillow medical treatment.
* MeaningfulName: Arthur Fleck, or rather, A. Fleck. Which is to say that the character who will become the Joker is just "a fleck" to a society that's rejected and shunned him, [[FromNobodyToNightmare until he learns of]] [[MonsterClown the healing power of laughter]], and it becomes an IronicName. Arthur mentions that he always hated the name.
* MeaningfulRename: He requests that Murray Franklin address him as "Joker" before his appearance on the talk show begins, signifying his transformation into that persona. The name comes Franklin calling him such whilst making fun of him.
* TheMentallyIll: [[CaptainObvious But of course]]. What separates Arthur from other incarnations of the character, however, lies in how the film [[DeconstructedTrope frames his mental illnesses and disorders]]. He's cripplingly socially awkward, perpetually depressed and anxious, and desperate for human contact. Most importantly, he is far more likely to become the ''victim'' of violence and abuse from others, rather than being a perpetrator, which is very TruthInTelevision.
* MessyHair: Arthur sports an untamed head of lank hair, which gets even messier when it rains in some key and significant scenes. However, he does try to tidy it up for his imaginary dates with Sophie.
* MommasBoy: Arthur is a man in his late thirties or early forties who takes care of his ailing mother, going so far as to give her baths, and even dances with her in an over the top, weirdly intimate way just to make her laugh. Not surprising, given that she's likely one of the only people who has actually treated him with decency. Subverted when he realizes that she's not his real mother, but that she adopted him, and has been abusing him for years, at which point he decides to smother her to death.
* MonsterClown: Par for the course for anything having to do with the Joker, although he actually starts as a NonIronicClown and SadClown in contrast to other versions of the character.
* MotiveDecay: For the first half of the film, Arthur's main motivation is to bring laughter and joy unto others, but as the TraumaCongaLine he goes through goes FromBadToWorse, he ends up wanting to just be noticed by ''somebody'', while ruthlessly seeking vengeance on the people who wronged him. To this end he even plans to shoot himself on ''Live! With Murray Franklin'' out of spite, but in his RageBreakingPoint he instead kills Murray Franklin himself with a BoomHeadshot.
* MusclesAreMeaningless: Despite looking skeletally thin, Arthur is capable of overpowering no less than three individuals who are all obviously bigger and healthier than him (Alfred, The Hospital Clerk and Randal); although somewhat downplayed as all three times Arthur caught them completely off guard with a surprise burst of manic energy.
* MultipleChoicePast: ''Very'' downplayed when compared to the comic Joker, but still present. He is either an unnamed abandoned baby adopted by Penny Fleck, or he is the offspring of Thomas Wayne born after an affair which he covered up by fabricating documents of both Penny and Arthur.
* MyBelovedSmother: Downplayed. He still lives with his mother but they have a rather harmonic relationship.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Immediately after murdering two of the Wall Street employees, Arthur for just an instant puts the gun to his own head from the stress of it all and performs a DanceOfDespair after killing the third man. Later on, his murder of Murray Franklin has Arthur actually rearing back in shock at what he'd just done, but by that point he's [[SanitySlippage too far gone]] for it to even matter.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: The Joker does not have a canonical name in the comic books, although multiple aliases -- such as Melvin White, Jack Napier, and Joseph Kerr -- have appeared. Here, his real name is Arthur Fleck, though as is revealed later on, that was the name his adopted mother gave him. His birth name remains unknown.
* NiceGuy: Starts off as this. Despite his issues, Arthur seems to genuinely enjoy his job as a clown, especially when entertaining children. He is emotionally mature enough to recognize that the teenagers who assaulted him were simply acting out of adolescent mischief, not true malice or evil. He does his very best to support his mother in spite of all his disabilities and remains optimistic that things could start looking up for him any day now. However, being wronged one too many times along with a lack of medical treatment slowly begins his transformation into the terrifying Joker.
* NightmareFace: He inflicts one upon himself, using his own blood, in front of his crowd of followers, completing his transformation into the Joker.
* NonIronicClown: Starts off as this before going off the deep end. Unlike his fellow clowns that he works with, he seems to genuinely enjoy the work.
* NoMedicationForMe: At the beginning of the film, it's stated that's he taking ''seven'' different medications for his mental illness, which only seem to make him depressed, but once Gotham's social work funding is cut, he is forced off his meds. He tells his former coworker Randall that he feels better than ever now that he's not taking any more pills... right before Arthur brutally murders him with a pair of scissors.
* NoSenseOfHumor: Implied to be the case. He only actually laughs ([[SanitySlippage until the end]]) due to his condition or when other people are laughing because he thinks it's the appropriate reaction. He's shown writing down the performing comedian's material during the aforementioned scene, and when he tries to write his own jokes for his stand-up routine using his notes, none of them are actually funny to anyone else. Though Murray's ribbing of Arthur's first stand-up was pretty mean-spirited, on the whole he wasn't malicious at all, and could easily have been seen as trying to ''promote'' Arthur through inviting him on the show. His stint on Murray's talkshow doesn't actually have him making any funny remarks, just talking about tragic and heinous things that he alone finds hilarious.
* NoSocialSkills: An isolated lifestyle, coupled with several mental disorders and illnesses, prevent Arthur from properly relating to other people.
* NothingButSkinAndBones: Without his shirt, he looks horribly malnourished. Ironically this is how the Joker was when he was first introduced in the comics. He's come full circle!
* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Arthur wouldn’t be as harmful as he can be if people just stopped underestimating him; they only think of him as nothing more than a mentally ill loner not worth worrying about. The wall-street-three thinks he is just a nut that they can punch for fun... until Arthur suddenly shoots them all dead. Even after he admits the murders at The Murray Show, Franklin continues the interview, not worried in the slightest that Arthur will do him any harm. Then Arthur pulls out his gun and blows Murray’s brains out.
* ObliviousAdoption: He only finds out that Penny is not his biological mother until late into the movie -- presuming that those documents weren't faked.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The first sign that shit's about to hit the fan with Murray is when he doesn't accentuate the last syllable of his name in a hushed but genuinely angry tone.
-->'''Joker:''' ...You're awful, Murray.
* OutsideContextProblem: Arthur, despite being an AdaptationalWimp in comparison to his comics counterpart as well as other live-action renditions of the character, remains a grave threat to Gotham because his actions contrast so strongly with the dour and depressing state of the city. A clown killing three Wall Street employees in the dead of night sounds so ''ridiculous'' that it helps kickstart an EatTheRich movement among the lower class. That same clown admitting to those crimes on ''live TV'', before blowing the host's brains out in front of a studio audience, shocks those same protestors into ravaging the streets in an overblown riot. If some nobody could cause such massive upheaval in the city, with just ''a gun and some makeup'', why couldn't they?
* PayEvilUntoEvil: Deconstructed gradually throughout the film, as Arthur begins falling back on this trope as a rationalization for the terrible things he does. For starters, he, to some degree, believes killing the three Wayne employees was righteous. His hallucinations of Sophie even applaud the clown-killer as a hero, when in reality he was only justified in killing the first two since he did so in self-defense. He doggedly pursued the last man and willingly shot him up multiple times instead of letting him go (not that he didn't deserve it). By the end of the film, he ends up proclaiming that much of his actions are pretty much what you get when you cross "a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash." Murray Franklin later admonishes Arthur for trying to excuse and justify his crimes, but Arthur quickly dismisses his protests because he's come to believe ''Murray himself'' is [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity just as bad as the others who abused him]], [[DisproportionateRetribution all for making fun of him on his show]].
* PetTheDog: Despite being driven completely insane, Arthur lets Gary go after killing Randall in cold-blood [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe because Gary was the only person who was nice to him back in his old workplace.]]
* PragmaticAdaptation:
** Arthur's Joker isn't a diabolical criminal mastermind who causes mass destruction on a regular basis; he's a spree killer whose effect on Gotham society is more accidental than anything else.
** This version of Joker never takes a dip in an Ace Chemicals vat, so his MonsterClown look is merely makeup from his clown career. Given the film's gritty, realistic take on the traditional comic book lore, this is a good example of Administrivia/TropesAreTools.
** Design-wise, Joker's suit is not a stylish, groomed PurpleIsPowerful outfit with long coattails, but instead resembles a typical formal suit in vibrant colors. In fact, it seems to be more of an accumulation of various outfits Arthur wears in and out of the film: the yellow waistcoat and makeup are inherited from his old 'Carnival' persona, with the latter being slightly updated and the wig replaced with his own hair dyed green. The red suit he wore before in an unfortunately unreleased DeletedScene, although right before killing Penny he is shown to wear a different red shirt.
** This incarnation of the Joker also has no novelty gag-themed weapons, so he does not have the acid posy, ElectricJoybuzzer or his deadly Joker Venom, exchanging them for a simple handgun (''not'' a BangFlagGun mind you), and a deranged journal/"joke book". However, he does wield entertainment items in several scenes, such as a clown horn and a magic wand, and his trademark "Joker card" is instead a card explaining his pseudobulbar condition.
* PrecisionFStrike: Arthur doesn't typically swear, but when he does, it's a clear sign that things have gotten way out of control.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: The story is all about Arthur's slow descent into madness and violence.
* PsychopathicManchild: Degrades into this over the course of the movie. All his innocence gets worn and torn apart by the abuses dealt out onto him by others, and his MotiveRant at the end notably comes off as more self-pitying than anything triumphant or badass.
* PsychoticSmirk: As he becomes more and more unhinged and embracing of his Joker persona, Arthur still smiles, but this time with a clear intent on doing harm to others. At the same time, these are his most genuine expressions throughout the movie, as he finally finds happiness in the evil he becomes.
* PutTheLaughterInSlaughter: Upon becoming Joker, he repeatedly busts his guts out laughing at generally morbid, horrible things that only bring discomfort to others.
* RageBreakingPoint: His last "joke" to Murray. It's clear that he's letting out ALL of the pent up aggression and sorrow from the whole film.
-->''"What do you get when you crossed a mentally ill loner with a '''SOCIETY, THAT ABANDONS HIM AND TREATS HIM LIKE TRASH!?''' (voice crack) I'll tell you what you get, '''YOU GET WHAT YOU FUCKIN' DESERVE!'''"''
* RecklessGunUsage: Due to Arthur having absolutely no idea how to handle a gun properly. After accepting Randall's gun, Arthur has a moment where he's all by himself in his living room and starts dancing while waving it around, and accidentally fires a shot in the wall while miming shooting someone. He also doesn't plan on how to securely conceal it on his person, leading him to unintentionally drop the gun in the middle of a children's hospital.
* RefugeInAudacity: Crosses over with OutsideContextProblem above. Arthur's actions while wearing clown gear inadvertently inspires citizens dissatisfied with the current system to wear clown masks during protests and riots against wealthy politicians like Thomas Wayne. The riots reach their peak when Arthur [[BoomHeadshot blows Murray Franklin's brains out]] on ''national television''. The rioters are so roused by his actions that, when they find him, they regale him as a DarkMessiah IconOfRebellion.
* RelatedInTheAdaptation: ''Possibly'' to Bruce Wayne. The movie has enough clues for it to go either way, but it's entirely possible for this version of the Joker to be Bruce's half-brother whom he abandons and whose existence he covers up. [[WordOfSaintPaul Thomas's actor]] believes this to be the case, but nothing from WordOfGod.
* RuleOfSymbolism: Arthur has to slowly and wearily walk up a dark set of stairs to get home, as if he's being weighed down by the harsh realities of life. When he finally becomes the Joker, he happily ''dances down'' those same stairs in the daytime, as if he's gleefully descending into madness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:S-Y]]
* SadClown: He starts off as a somewhat optimistic but down-on-his-luck comedian and clown-for-hire, until getting attacked by a bunch of kids then by three yuppies (both times for no reason) and then getting humiliated on TV eventually drives him over the edge. Deep down, he's a StepfordSmiler who's never been truly happy in his entire life, and his uncontrollable laugh [[CryLaughing comes off as more of a cry from the inside]]. This is even reflected in his Joker makeup, where the blue diamond over his left eye is is running slightly, resembling a teardrop.
* {{Sadist}}: He finds death and destruction hilariously funny, especially if he's the one who does it. This is more of a tragic example as others use this as an excuse to be mean and abuse towards him, and now he gets the chance to exact his vengeance by cackling at the utter annihilation being caused around him and inflicting massive suffering (and death) to those who wronged him.
-->'''Murray:''' So let me get this straight, you think killing those guys is ''funny''?\\
'''Joker:''' [[BluntYes I do.]] And I'm tired of pretending it's not.
* SanitySlippage: Arthur was mentally ill enough to begin with, but the series of terrible events that happen to him throughout the movie definitely doesn't help in any way. But then again it's thanks to this that he became the Joker we all know and feared by all of Gotham (well, almost all).
* SecondaryColorNemesis: In the later part, we see him wear his iconic outfit consisting of a green shirt, an orange waistcoat and a purplish jacket.
* SelfDeprecation: He makes several jabs at himself during his stand-up attempt, such as saying he chose to become a comedian to avoid having to work for a living, and that no one's laughing at him now that he is a comedian (a joke taken directly from Creator/BobMonkhouse). Murray plays these moments on his show and repeats the same punchlines, making the audience go from laughing ''with'' Arthur to ''at'' him, and emotionally scarring him.
* ShadowArchetype: To Batman. Bruce Wayne is implied to be Arthur's half-brother, but while Bruce was raised in wealth and comfort with parents and a valet who cared for him, Arthur grew up in poverty with a negligent mother, her abusive boyfriend and a network of people who treated him like crap. After one day of trauma, Bruce would resolve to bring justice to Gotham, while a lifetime of misery for Arthur would compel him to take revenge on Gotham. Most iterations of Batman refuse to kill no matter how justified because they fear it becoming an addiction. Arthur's first few kills were justified as he acted in self-defense, but any subsequent murder is done for increasingly petty reasons until by the end of the film his last kill was completely unprovoked.
* ASinisterClue: Arthur is right-handed, but he starts to switch more to his left hand (and left foot) when his Joker persona begins to emerge. For example he exclusively wields the gun with his left hand.
* SlasherSmile: A more tragic example where he starts to shows off his unstable nature the more his sanity slips. Especially at the end where he shapes his own blood into a psychotic grin on his face after embracing the path of the Joker.
* SmokingIsCool: Certainly seems to think so as he suavely smokes a cigarette while dancing on the steps, as well as during his UnflinchingWalk on the subway station amongst all the chaos.
* SocietyIsToBlame: Arthur is absolutely the ''victim'' of abuse, neglect, and harassment, and he quite understandably develops an intense hatred of the society that abandoned him. As such, when he fights back against the system that's kicked him down all his life, he holds no pity or remorse for the terror he unleashes in his wake.
* TheSociopath: What he's become by the final act of the movie. His capacity for empathy has drained away completely; he not only feels no remorse for any of his murders but actually seems to take pride in them and revels in destruction and chaos. He most likely kills his therapist, the only victim of his who's never wronged him.
* SpellMyNameWithAThe: Averted. Arthur calls himself and is only referred to as "Joker", never "''The'' Joker".
* SpreeKiller: Not yet a supervillain criminal mastermind (if he's even destined to become one in this continuity), this Joker is a simple spree killer. He does have followers but these are merely random rioters adopting his image and admiring him for being the movement's sparkle rather than members of any organization he runs. By the end of the film, he has personally killed six to seven people: the three [=WayneTech=] employees, Penny, Randall, and Murray for sure; plus his psychologist.
* StalkerWithACrush: Follows Sophie around town when he becomes interested in her.
* StepfordSmiler: Claims to have never truly ever been happy for even a single minute in his ''entire life'', but throughout the film keeps up a half-smile that gets more and more psychotic as time passes.
* StrawNihilist: Becomes a violent sociopath who believes HumansAreBastards, and is so hollowed out from merely existing that he eventually plans on killing himself on live television.
* StrongerThanTheyLook: Despite his wire-frame physique, Arthur is surprisingly strong, nearly choking Alfred to death, only letting go of the butler's neck after noticing that Bruce was watching. Although perhaps not too surprising, since he is shown making that same squeezing motion on his clown shoes in the locker room multiple times.
* SureLetsGoWithThat: A PlayedForDrama example. Arthur had absolutely no political intention behind his murder of the Wall Street three and was simply acting out of self-defense against a trio who was beating him up. Yet, he is willing to embrace the reputation that has been built around him of a revolutionary who acts against the corrupt elite of Gotham so it will finally bring him the attention and love he craves.
* SympatheticMurderer: At first. He killed two of the three Wall Street goons that attacked him purely in self-defense and wounded the other one, but the third was wounded and got away, meaning that when he killed him, it wasn't in self-defense, but out of a sense of self-preservation. Nonetheless, after he realizes that ItGetsEasier, Arthur becomes less sympathetic with everyone else that he murders.
* ThatManIsDead: After discovering his mother's deception and the abuse he suffered as a child, Arthur kills both her and one of his former co-workers (though sparing Sophie and Gary) to burn any bridges to his past life as Arthur Fleck. Before he appears on ''Live! With Murray Franklin'', he renames himself "Joker" and requests he be called that from that moment on. He embraces his new self ''very'' quickly.
* ThenLetMeBeEvil: The constant abuse he had on a daily basis ends up turning him into Gotham's most dangerous criminal. But by the end of the film, it's made perfectly clear that nobody really cares about Arthur, just the Joker. It's likely Arthur's awareness of this fact that compels him to fully and truly become the MonsterClown he was destined to be. This is cemented during the climax of the film. After a tearful outburst, Arthur shoots Murray in the head in cold blood, looking momentarily stunned by his own actions, which quickly changes to a content smile as he accepts that he enjoyed what he did.
* TookALevelInBadass: Look at how shy, uncomfortable and introverted he is as Arthur, in stark contrast with how suave, charismatic and confident he is as the Joker.
* TookALevelInJerkass: He goes from a somewhat immature but hopeful man to a nihilistic, bitter, and sadistic madman who thinks death and violence are funny.
* TragicDream: Before becoming Joker, Arthur wanted to be a stand-up comedian. His instability makes this impossible.
* TragicVillain: At the end of it all, Arthur Fleck is just somebody who wants to bring joy to the world, to be noticed, and live a life that ''matters'' to somebody. The real tragedy is that, by the end of the story, it's clear that ''nobody'' cares about Arthur Fleck... just the sick persona that he created.
* TranquilFury: Enters a chilling example of this prior to killing Murray:
-->'''Murray:''' Not everybody, and I'll tell you this, not everybody is awful.\\
'''Joker:''' ...''You're'' awful, Murray.\\
'''Murray:''' Me? ''I'm'' awful? Oh, yeah, how am ''I'' awful?\\
'''Joker:''' Playing my video. Inviting me on the show. You just wanted to make fun of me. ''You're just like the rest of them.''
* TraumaInducedAmnesia: While Arthur being amnesiac is not explicitly confirmed in the film, there is nothing that indicates that Arthur remembered his childhood abuse until he read about it in a file extensively detailing it, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation which marks the point where he goes off the deep end]]. Since he was said to be brain-damaged, it's entirely possible that Arthur's amnesia was a mental form of self-defense that was keeping Arthur relatively sane.
* UnreliableNarrator: Partway through the movie, it becomes clear that Arthur's grasp on reality has become so tenuous that it may be confusing which parts of the movie are and aren't taking place in his head.
* TheUnsmile: In particularly strenuous situations, Arthur's stepford smiles grow more twisted and gnarled. The first scene in the film depicts him forcing his lips into a smile, with a single tear drooping down his eye.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: His actions in the subway unintentionally serve as the catalyst for a city-wide protest movement, a full-blown riot, and the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne.
* VillainHasAPoint: Arthur becomes an irredeemable villain by the end of the film, and he justifies his transformation as a result of society's abandonment of him. The worst part is that ''he's right''. Gotham is a WretchedHive, filled with apathetic citizens, ruthless criminals, or condescending elites who have no clue what life is like for ordinary citizens, and ultimately none of those people really ''care'' about people like Arthur, or the suffering they go through every day. Arthur likely would never have descended into the pit of madness that he did, had he never been disregarded or ignored for so long. Him proclaiming that Joker is what Gotham deserves isn't out of left field at all.
** Arthur's response to Murray that, for all his pontification, he brought Arthur on solely to make fun of him and invite others to do the same and is nowhere near as righteous as he'd like to imagine is also not untrue. And while it doesn't justify murder, he's still absolutely correct that he was dealt a bad hand and to be resentful about it as well as to point out that people like Murray and Thomas Wayne dismiss the suffering of the poor when they have no idea what their lives are like.
* VillainProtagonist: Unsurprising given [[Characters/BatmanTheJoker the Joker the inspiration]], Arthur kills six people on screen over the course of the film, including [[spoiler:his own mother]], only two of whom could be considered anything but murder, is suggested to have killed at least one other, and is certainly responsible for many more deaths of which he's unrepentant.
* VillainSong: When Arthur is incarcerated at the end, he eerily sings a bit of Music/FrankSinatra's "That's Life", the song that closes the film. The lyrics sum up pretty much everything about his character.
-->'''Arthur:''' ''That's life, as funny as it may seem. Some people get their kicks stomping on a dream. But I don't let it, let it get me down. 'Cause this fine old world...''
* VillainousBreakdown: Has one while being on Murray’s show when he can no longer hold back his anger and sadness at being torn apart by the man who used to be his idol; it ends with him killing Murray Franklin on live television, causing a city-wide riot to erupt.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Throughout the movie, Arthur goes through this trope and its opposite. The clown rioters still celebrate him as an icon of protest against the corrupt elites who fights for change and improvement of the lower classes even after he, as Joker, has become a sociopathic murderer who kills people for purely personal reasons. Arthur is willing to play the part of a rebel even though he doesn't believe in the cause and only wants to be noticed and loved.
* WeaponBasedCharacterization: The only weapon he uses is Smith & Wesson Model 36, a tiny snubnosed revolver chambered in .38 Special. In the film's timeframe it was common as a civilian self-defense weapon and a holdout gun for plainclothes detectives. It emphasizes that Arthur is a small man unused to violence. Notably, other cinematic Jokers famously used [[{{BFG}} big, powerful weapons]] in their own outings, more fitting for an experienced criminal/terrorist.
* WellDoneSonGuy: It is shown that Arthur is looking for a father figure in his life for some sort of approval. He imagines a pat on the back from Murray that he is the son he always wanted. He confronts Thomas Wayne, believing him to be his father, and tearfully asks that he acknowledge him, stating that he doesn't want any money from him. He is met with cold rebuttal from both, beginning his descent to evil.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: InUniverse. The state of Gotham is wrapped up in local politics and totally ignorant of the suffering faced by the lower-middle class. When Arthur kills the three Wayne employees in the subway, the dregs of the city treat it as a sign of a coming uprising, while the upper class see it as merely the work of a coward who wants to trigger a movement. Arthur doesn't care about the politics of it all but is willing to play the part because it's how people will notice him.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: A darker version of this. Arthur Fleck is a good man who works hard, loves his mother, is understanding of those around him, and tries to make the best of his life despite all his disabilities. Arthur's virtues are never acknowledged or even noticed by society because of his poverty and mental illness, all while the privileged elites like Thomas Wayne are lauded as saviors of Gotham. It didn't matter how good of a man Arthur was to the world since no one noticed or cared.
* WhenHeSmiles: PlayedWith. Arthur smiles as much as he can, but it becomes especially clear later on that almost ''none'' of his smiles are really genuine. The only times he does genuinely smile, are when he's hallucinating with Sophie, when he's having fun with his mother, or, when he decides to finally become Joker.
* WhosLaughingNow: Once Arthur fully transitions into the Joker, the ButtMonkey trope gets flipped on its head. And has its neck snapped in the process. It helps that he ''is'' laughing maniacally at the end of the film.
* WillNotBeAVictim: The impetus for Arthur's transformation into the Joker is his refusal to continue letting society step all over him. By the end, however, it's clear he's taken things ''way'' too far.
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: At his core, Arthur is a troubled man who craves meaningful relationships with others, is desperate for validation, and ultimately just wants to spread happiness to the world and make people laugh. His poor standing in a harsh society is worsened by his degrading mental state, and by the end of all the trauma he endures, he becomes a soulless shell of his former self, who only finds joy and humor in nihilistic destruction.
* WouldntHurtAChild: Arthur may have grown into one of the most notorious villains in Gotham, but he [[FriendToAllChildren has a soft spot for children]] and avoids hurting them personally, before and after his SanitySlippage. In the opening, he avoids fighting back against a group of kids who assault him, and later spares Sophie and her young daughter, despite the fact he could have gotten away with killing them at the time. When he visits Wayne Manor, he nearly kills the adult Alfred, but leaves young Bruce Wayne unharmed. He may not have a problem with, say, orphaning them, but it seems Arthur thinks actually hurting children is going too far.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Arthur is implied to be somewhere in his 30s (the script says he is, and it's mentioned that Penny worked for Thomas Wayne "over 30 years ago"). Yet Joaquin Phoenix was around 45 at the time the movie was filmed, and looked even older for that role.
[[/folder]]
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->''"You wouldn't get it."''

** Arthur deconstructs ComicBook/TheJoker and PracticallyJoker. In contrast to a charismatic, larger than life {{Supervillain}}, this movie realistically shows what would happen in real life if a mentally unhinged man dressed up as a clown and committed crimes and it would be nothing like how we see in the comics or most movies and be more akin to a real life shooter tragedy. The movie shows how horrible and miserable one's life would have to be for them to become The Joker; lacking the resources, intelligence, or skills to be a supervillain level threat. Their poor mental health meant rather than be an EvilGenius they were limited to impulsively lashing out at those they think wronged him, not even because [[ForTheEvulz he feels like it]], only achieving supervillain level influence because of what society saw him as and enabled as opposed to anything he had agency over. This Joker is portrayed more as a sad tragic man who just simply needed proper care and treatment.

* VillainProtagonist: Unsurprising given [[ComicBook/TheJoker the inspiration]], Arthur kills six people on screen over the course of the film, including [[spoiler:his own mother]], only two of whom could be considered anything but murder, is suggested to have killed at least one other, and is certainly responsible for many more deaths of which he's unrepentant.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Except his eccentricities and unpredictable nature [[NightmareFuelStationAttendant are taken into such extremely dark lengths due to his psychological trauma]].

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Except his eccentricities and unpredictable nature are taken into such extremely dark lengths due to his psychological trauma.

!!!'''Dubbed by:''' Creator/BorisRehlinger (European French), Mauricio Pérez (Latin American Spanish), Creator/HiroakiHirata (Japanese)

* AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Joker is often portrayed as a horrific {{Sadist}} and {{Jerkass}} without any sympathetic qualities who kills and causes destruction simply for his own amusement. Here, he's portrayed as more of an angry, vengeful man who wants revenge on people who have mistreated him (which is the majority of Gotham).

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On [[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke one particularly bad day,]] after being bullied and mocked too many times and losing both his job and his access to medication, he snaps, going down an increasingly dark path made of delusion, twisted self-discovery and myopic "justice". He ends up embracing a whole new persona in the process, and his life (and the world) will never be the same.

Arthur Fleck is a mentally ill, impoverished clown-for-hire and aspiring stand-up comedian living in Gotham City in 1981. He means well with a wish to "bring laughter and joy to the world", but gets discarded, ridiculed and mocked by the society of his wretched and increasingly chaotic environment almost every step of the way. And as if this wasn't enough, he also has the burden of taking care of his delusional elderly mother, whose abuse and neglect in him throughout childhood contributed to shape the man he is.

On [[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke one particularly bad day,]] after being bullied and mocked too many times and losing both his job and his access to medication, he snaps, going down an increasingly dark path made of delusion, twisted self-discovery and blind self-justice. He ends up embracing a whole new persona in the process, and his life (and the world) will never be the same.

* TheHyena: A deconstructed example. The Joker's LaughingMad tendencies have been reinvented as a neurological condition that forces him to burst into laughter at random, often inopportune times. Then Penny's file reveals that he doesn't have the pseudobulbar affect condition at all, and he considers his laughing fits as just his strange sense of humor rearing its head.

!!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/{{Joker|2019}}'' | ''Joker: Folie à Deux''

Arthur Fleck is a mentally ill, impoverished clown-for-hire and aspiring stand-up comedian living in Gotham City in 1981. He means well, wanting to "bring laughter and joy to the world", but gets disregarded or mocked by the society of his wretched and increasingly chaotic environment. And if this wasn't enough, he also has the burden of taking care of his deeply deluded single mother, whose abuse and neglect in his childhood contributed to shape the man he is.

One day, after being bullied and mocked too many times and losing both his job and his medication, he snaps, going down an increasingly dark path made of delusion, twisted self-discovery and blind self-justice. He ends up embracing a whole new persona in the process, and his life (and the world) will never be the same.

** He tries to justify his murders of the Wall Street Three by claiming they were awful. However, he also claims that ''everyone'' is awful, and his criteria for what makes someone "awful" becomes more petty and self-centered with each kill. He kills Randall for getting him fired from his job and kills Murray Franklin for mocking him on TV. At the end of the film, it's implied he killed a random Arkham psychiatrist for no real reason, marking the point where he kills people just because he feels like it.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: Arthur feels that society deciding what's to be considered good and evil is every bit as egregious as society deciding what's funny and not funny.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Heavily implied due to the numerous pornographic pictures in his journal plus a scene where he has his hand down his pants, though he could've been scratching himself.