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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2277 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 4, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I'm impressed by them trying to make a sequel at all. The first movie didn't need one, it was an exploration of a loser's life: stupid, awkward, ugly, poor, mentally ill Arthur Fleck is not the usual charismatic megalomaniac madman that draws people in like a maelstrom. The clown posse overtaking Gotham didn't worship the real Joker/Fleck, they worshipped a meme, like QAnon. He has his 15 minutes of fame and is then arrested and institutionalized.

How exactly do you make a sequel to this story? The old Fleck is gone, his story has been told. The only pitch I can come up with is the QAnon/book ending of Fight Club/The Huduscker Proxy one: while Fleck is being intimately acquainted with haloperydol, the group that worships the Joker grows. They break him out of Arkham asylum and start asking him for guidance. His simple ideas are amplified by the group effort and result in his growing notoriety.

I feel like they could have gone a different route with the talk show character Murray. They made him too much like Johnny Carson. A show and character resembling Dick Cavett would have been able to navigate the complex emotional aspects of what Arthur did on the subway. I thought that was the weakest point of the film. Murray didn't give Arthur what he wanted, IMO, which was understanding. Instead he got ridicule.

Joker (the film) always reminds me of Christine (2016), about the on-air suicide of Christine Chubbuck, and anecdotally, I heard that she is somewhat of a martyr for the incel community, as well. I sympathize with her more than I do Arthur from Joker because she wrestled with her interpersonal and intrapersonal struggles for as long as she could before they became too burdensome.

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