My Life's a Comedy: Why Joker resonates so deeply.

We're now heading towards the end of a somewhat tumultuous 2019 and I felt the need to express my feelings on a film that has certainly reached an audience that I'm sure not many of the Hollywood brass thought it would.

As you can tell from the title of this piece I' talking of course about Joker.

It could easily be said that while a film exploring the origins of one of comic book history's most iconic villains was always going to draw a crowd I don't think many expected it to have the blunt force impact that it inevitably did. It is my intention to explore this impact and just how Joker so successfully accomplished this.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

When the announcement was made back in 2017 that a Joker film was in the works, there was an audible groan from yours truly. Yet again Hollywood was throwing out another comic book movie and in the wake of such notable DC failures as Batman vs Superman and Justice League, it appeared as if DC was just doing a knee jerk reaction to prove that they were still a player in tinsel town.

Yet as details began to emerge over the next two years as to just what sort of film we were going to be watching, it became all too clear to me that Joker was going to be a break from the established Hollywood format. Indeed, it was going to break away from tradition and completely overturn our collective heads in the most virulent of ways.

As a lifelong comic book fan I am aware that one of the most sacrosanct elements of the Joker character is that his origins are a mystery. Whether by intention or design, Bob Kane (Batman's creator) seemed to neglect an origin for Batman's ultimate nemesis. Whatever the reasons were, the fact that the Joker was a mystery, over the course of many years, only seemed to add to the mystique of the character.

That is not to say that origin stories have not been touched upon. Alan Moore penned what is considered by most as the definitive look at the Joker's possible origin, but even Moore did not go as far as Phillips did, nor was his take quite as elegant. This is of course not the first time an origin was done on screen. Tim Burton's 1990 Batman told a very different story but kept much of Moore's elements such as falling into the chemical vat that bleached his skin.

It was here that a bold new angle was being taken on by the film's writer and Director Todd Phillips. In an interview with the New York Times, he divulged that he had decided to take a different direction altogether, that he was drawing inspiration from such character studies in cinema as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and King of Comedy. The core of the story would of course be rooted in Alan Moore's classic graphic novel The Killing Joke but only in terms of anchoring the plot to the universe that it was set in.

This departure from the source material was so radical that it could ultimately have backfired and isolated the very audience DC was seeking to generate. The film is by no means family friendly. In fact, there is very little in the plot that could be deemed relevant to anyone under the age of 25. It is an adult story, dealing with adult themes in a way that, all at once, adhere's to modern day societies lust for nostalgia while feeling more current than the entire Marvel franchise.

If I may digress for a moment. A mainstay of Comic Book films for the last decade, at least, has been major studios desire to draw in as big an audience as possible. This is only good business as more tickets sold equals to more overall profit but has lead to a watering down of source material which has lead to stale franchises churning out the same tired old formula again and again. If you want the kids to see a film then you can't let the Joker of his leash.

So why did an R rated movie in America generate $39.9 million dollars profit on its opening day and go on to gross over $1 billion dollars worldwide.

No stronger statement could be made for just how the tone of the film was going to be set than by the opening image of Joaquin Phoenix's character, Arthur Fleck, sat crying in a make up chair as he applies make up.

We live in a day and age where the issue of mental illness is now a forefront topic for most people in our daily lives. One in four people in Britain are currently on medication for mental illness while a far higher number of us recognise and acknowledge that they are living with some form of depression. Throw in the fact that the average person can safely say that they hate the job's they do for a living and it's not hard to immediately feel empathy with Arthur as he struggles to find the strength to go about his day.

These are simple, believable and all too realistic factors that plague the average person on the street. Instantly, the audience can now recognise themselves in Arthur, can see just how he struggles to apply the mask of normality while inside he is falling to pieces. The opening salvo has been fired and things can only fall further from here.

From here we are shown how Arthur does his level best to do his job. He entertains on the street as a sign guy advertising for a local store, dressed head to toe in clown attire, masterfully juggling his sign with the perception of delight and happiness. A stark contrast to what we have seen and what is to come.

Within moments we're shown the other side of a life that is all too common in rougher neighborhoods around the world. His sign is stolen and as he gives chase is set upon by the same hoodlums who stole from him and is promptly beaten and humiliated by them.

In a world that has never been more prosperous yet ordinary, working class people, have never worked harder for so little due to government policies and the enlightened self interest of modern capitalism this kind of scene is eerily reminiscent. Poverty has always been a factor of modern living but it is only in the last decade or so have we truly begun to understand how this affects our mental health. Lack of education, opportunities, health care etc all add to the stress of modern living and ultimately there's only so much the human mind can endure. Once again, all relateable factors we can identify with.

From here we're shown his home life as he takes the long trudge back to his frail and mentally ill mother who he cares for. His only outlet is through the television screen where he enjoys watching talk show host Murray Franklin (played by Robert De Niro) with whom Arthur seems to share, at least in his mind, an odd kind of kinship. It is through these nightly viewings that he envisions a different kind of life for himself, a better life where he is celebrated, adored and, most of all, loved. It is a fiction he has concocted for himself simply so he can endure the agony of his existence and the tragedy of his life.

Like so many of us who struggle to simply make ends meet, Arthur wants more but he is also crippled by the circumstances of the nation he was born into. America has for so long extolled the virtues of the "American Dream", that through hard work and perseverance anyone can become a success, can become famous and simply be a somebody.

The strange thing about this particular analogy is that Arthur does inevitably achieve all of these things, just not in the way most would believe.

It's not until we see his first attempts at stand up comedy do we truly see the cracks begin to form. Arthur's unfortunate medical disorder, a tick which causes him to spontaneously burst into fits of laughter, comes to the furor as he takes the stage. Unable to perform he is booed offstage and leaves feeling humiliated.

All of us, without exception, have had to endure moments of intense embarrassment. Moments so devastating to our psyches that we are left forever scarred and forever changed by what has happened. Be it childhood humiliations in the school playground or bad dates that happened in our formative years, we have all known what it is like to have been publicly ridiculed be it by strangers or our peers. Arthur's humiliation is as understandable as it is hard to watch and his anger afterwards is entirely understandable.

The theme of class and poverty are further compounded when the first step into madness begins for him. Having just been fired from his job he makes his way home on the subway where he is accosted by three wall street types who seek to abuse someone they perceive to be lower than them. He has just had one of his laughing fits and has misplaced the card he shows people to explain his condition. As they assault him, Arthur finally feels the rage beneath the laughter, the anger beneath the sadness and reaches for a gun given to him by one of his colleagues and unloads on all three.

Once more, the mastery of Phillips's writing is on display as this is an entirely believable moment that is more than relevant in the times we live in. Those with wealth and power seek to subjugate those beneath them for their own delight. These reflections show elements of real life incidents at work. Such public scandals like the Weinstein and Epstein scandals are given a metaphorical spin here and the resulting public backlash is made manifest by Arthur's fighting back.

It's here that the madness really starts to shine. For the first time in his life, Arthur is not a victim, he is not a footstool, he is not the other, he is not the freak. He has taken the power back for himself and enforced it with unbridled/uncontrolled rage. This, in turn, results in a truly unexpected turn as he finds not only a sense of freedom but delight in what he has done. While most rational, clear thinking people, would be reviled at their own actions (no matter how repugnant the victims were) Arthur embraces the feeling, the feeling of freedom.

Now before I hear the cries that I'm condoning violent action I'd just like to say that I, no way, condone violence. What I am saying is that by Arthur's lashing out at those who have wronged him he feels a sense of relief that would not have come had he not felt so victimised for much of his life. He is as much a product of his upbringing and societal circumstances as the rest of us and while most of us may be more fortunate than Arthur, he clearly does not possess the mental faculties with which to deal with these circumstances. All he knows is that he no longer feels like a victim and that is something that feels good.

Arthur does have a chance to pull himself back from the edge here. If he had been left alone or his actions been left un-commented upon as so many violent acts are then perhaps he could have been saved. Yet, when the press report, rather naively on the virtues of the victims without the full facts of the story, he is left feeling further humiliated.

But then something happens to turn the tide and, ultimately, seal his descent into oblivion. The public celebrate the actions of the clown who struck out at those who have wronged, not only him, but society at large.

The underclass of Gotham find in Arthur a folk hero who has stood up against their subjugation. As misguided and unjustified as his actions were, they gave voice to a forgotten element of society who had been downtrodden for far too long and the public celebrate this singular act of revolution. He now feels justified in what he has done, both validated and vindicated by the public while at the same time achieving the very fame and notoriety he was craving all along.

His validation gives rise to a need to further destroy those who have wronged him. From the Mother who bore him to the idol who rejected him, they all fall under Arthur's knife and he is only further encouraged by the public's idolization of him. But it's in the films most iconic scene, as Arthur dances down the same stairs he trudged upwards on his way back to his lonely existence, that the metaphor for his fall into lunacy is most firmly solidified.

Within days of its release social media was abuzz with positive response to the genius of the film. Stories of how much a good portion of the audience felt they could relate to Arthur and his struggle would emerge in great numbers. As is common with most films that find instant success so too did numerous inspirational memes became a norm. Fan made merchandise began to emerge with Arthur's now infamous line becoming a rallying cry for those who shared in the emotional pain and torment of existence and felt an empathy with his plight.

That's not to say that Joker did not enjoy its fair share of detraction.

An outspoken backlash from a portion of the audience was inevitable given the subject matter. People who either did not understand or felt uncomfortable with the message of the film called for "Trigger Warnings" to be placed on promotional material for Joker. Others called for the film to be withdrawn immediately for much the same reasons while others made the case that it was glorifying "Incel" culture and feared the film could inspire real life incidents of mass murder and shootings to take place.

It's unfortunate that such a reaction took place but it was not unjustified. The 2012 Aurora Movie theatre shooting, orchestrated and enacted by James Eagan Holmes, itself took place at a midnight screening of Chris Nolan's The Dark night Rises and he himself was a fan of Batman. So clear it was that he drew inspiration from the Joker that real concerns were batted around was simply people feeling the need for caution and not without reason.

Yet those same voices seemed eerily silent on the matter of public violence. It's not hard to imagine that should we remove the Joker element and transport the audience to Tottenham back in 2011, to a city in the grip of rioting crowds after the shooting of Mark Duggan that such a small element could spark a similar response. Indeed, it would not be without merit to compare the films rioting sequence at its conclusion to the 1991 LA Riots in the wake of the Rodney King beating. These were elements that felt all too real, these were incidents that had actually happened and if cinema and the arts in general is to considered a mirror to society then Joker's reflection was all too real.

Whatever the case may be, Joker had solidified itself as a new benchmark for comic book movies, one where the hero is the villain and insanity is freedom.

It would be unfair to dismiss Joker as a lucky fluke. It would also be unfair to say that it was glorifying the very behaviour that Arthur enacts. It would however be fair to say that the current state of society has lead more people to empathise with a realistic and, altogether, human villain than it is with the source materials hero. Indeed, most hero's these days do not truly represent the people whom they are supposed to be defending and are instead extolled as some kind of virtuous godlike figure that shares more in common with fascistic visions of a master race than it does with the reality of what it means to be human.

A heroes struggle is ultimately one of the greater good but not the endurance of real life. Their struggles are not human enough to be considered something an audience can identify with but Arthur's is which is precisely why Joker was a success. Not the darkness, not the violence, not the glorification of Incel culture but the reality of what we all face and our struggles to find some measure of acceptance and normality.

The struggle for acceptance is a common one as is the need to simply endure the harsh reality of modern living. Ultimately Arthur failed to achieve this in but it was that failure that made us empathise with him far more than his own future nemesis and ultimately lead to Joker's success.