The People’s Joker

An unfunny clown grapples with her gender identity, all while trying to break into the government-controlled comedy scene in Gotham, eventually forming an illegal anti-comedy troupe, which catches the attention of a fascist caped crusader.

I'm a well-known Joker hater.

Obviously, I'm a comic book fan, so yes, there are definitely some good Batman and Joker stories that I love, and I won't deny that he was one of my favorite parts of the Harley Quinn cartoon, and I'm interested in seeing where Absolute Batman takes him, but otherwise, as a general rule, I pretty much try avoid Joker stories.

Technically Batman's 3rd or 4th villain, depending on whether or not you count Joe Chill, the Joker is Batman's first real villain.

While the credit for his creation is debated, with Bill Finger claiming to have shown Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson a picture of the actor Conrad Veidt from the 1928 movie The Man Who Laughs for the inspiration, while Jerry Robinson claims that it was his sketch of a Joker playing card that was the inspiration, and Bob Kane is just generally trying to hog all the credit like always, the Joker is generally considered to be the result of all three of their efforts. First appearing in the debut issue of the comic book titled Batman in April 1940, he was originally intended to be killed off, but was spared at the eleventh hour by editorial intervention, and has since gone on to be Batman's main nemesis. Originally portrayed as a murderous psychopath with a sadistic sense of humor, he became a comical prankster due to the 1950s Comic Code Authority regulation. This lasted until the 1970s, when he was returned to his roots, and soon after, murdered Jason Todd (the second Robin) and paralyzed and sexually assaulted Barbara Gordon (Batgirl), amongst other crimes. And while the Joker doesn't really have a definitive origin, depending on the era, there's multiple possible versions. The most common version is that he fell into a tank of chemical waste that then bleached his skin white, turned his hair green, and his lips red, and left him with a big creepy smile, which when he saw this, drove him insane. But we all know this. We saw the movie.

Because like Batman, everyone knows the Joker.

And much like Batman, at this point, it's just hard to do something new and interesting with the character. This is a big part of why I generally tend to avoid Joker stories, and Batman stories too, especially in the main continuity. When it's "Joker time" once again in the comics, I usually wait to see if there's something new going on, which usually ends up meaning that I never pick them up. I'm telling you all of this to explain that I don't hate the character of the Joker.

However, I do hate the Joker mega-fans.

Joker mega-fans are the worst. Besides the fact that the Venn Diagram between Joker mega-fans and the kind of people who love that whole Heavy Metal/Scary Clown/Knot's "Scary" Farms kind of thing is a full circle, as a general rule, if you want to find the worst douchebags in fandom, Joker fandom is where you look. For some reason, the biggest assholes in fandom seem to gravitate to the Joker.

To be fair, the whole "I hate the Heavy Metal/Scary Clown/Knot's 'Scary' Farms" thing is mostly due to the fact that I hate interactive theatre. I believe there's a line at the edge of the stage, and the actors should stay up there, while I will stay down here in the audience. They don't come down here. I don't go up there. When this rule is violated... Fuck you.

I hate that.

But also, the whole "scary" clown fandom is just so stupid, and it gives off big time carny-trash vibes. I just can't abide some 6'5'' 95lb uber nerd acting like his "scary" face make-up is actually scary. Just calm the fuck down, Brian, no one is scared of you. I hate the whole scene. And I especially hate the whole "clown-themed" Heavy Metal scene. It's the definition of shit music. Okay, sure, it's not as bad as modern day Top 40 Country Pop Music, but it's a close second. Although, that said, Insane Clown Posse and their people, while it's true that they are into some of the shit that I think is dumb, they're generally cool and accepting and have shown themselves to be allies in these dark times, so whoop-whoop. But otherwise... I hate that clown shit. And a lot of what I hate about it crosses over to Joker fandom.

This is all a big part of why I hate Joker mega-fans.

And let me just pause here... if you happen to like the Joker, and now you're all mad at me because you think I might be talking about you, even though you don’t dress up as a “psycho clown” multiple times a year to go to cons, or as a job, or for no real reason, and you haven’t perfected your “crazy” look, or your “psycho giggle” and you don’t even know, let alone listen to multiple circus-metal bands, and you also do not refer to your being in clown make-up as your “clownsona” then just calm the fuck down, pal, don't email me, no one here is talking about you.

Moving on...

So, a lot of this was really first crystallized for me by Jared Leto’s version of the Joker in the first and very terrible Suicide Squad film, released in 2016 (not to be confused with the really great, soft reboot 2021 film, THE Suicide Squad) but to be fair, this was mostly due to how much Jared Leto sucks. But then in 2019, The Joker came out, a film by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix, that was the story of an aggreived white guy named Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill party clown and an aspiring stand-up comedian, whose crash-out ends up inspiring a violent revolt against the wealthy of Gotham City. I wasn't interested because the Joker without Batman is like Megatron without Optimus Prime, Cobra without G.I. Joe, Dr. Claw without Inspector Gadget, Mumm-ra without Lion-o, Skeletor without He-Man, or Gargamel without the Smurfs, there's just no point. While the latter can obviously still exist without the former, the former cannot exist without the latter, it needs the latter to definie its existence. So what would be the point of a Joker movie that doesn't have Batman in it? When I finally watched it, I'll admit it , I was expecting something truly evil and ugly, with something truly terrible to say, all of which was intended for the entertainment of an audience of truly terrible people... but that's not what I found. What I found was even worse.

It was suprisingly dull.

It was obvious, and slow, and too cowardly to commit to its own bit. It relied so much on the visions of a much better filmmaker that it flew past homage into rip-off fanfic hack. It was the most bland, the most mediocre “hot take” of a movie I’ve ever seen. I absolutely detest it.

It made a billion god damn dollars worldwide.

So frustrating...

And yes, I'll admit it, I have somewhat wandered a bit far afield, but this is all important context so that you understand that when I first heard about this film, when I first heard that some unlicensed Joker film called The People's Joker was getting hit with a cease and desist up at The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) from the owners of the Joker IP, Warner Brothers, I was like: "Good, you dummy, what did you think would happen?" I felt contempt for them, contempt for the kind of asshole who'd be so stupid as to try something like this, but this was because I assumed that this film would be about all of the bullshit that I've just gone on about at great length, all the boring shit that I hate.

But I was wrong.

And I'm glad I was. I'm glad I watched this. The People's Joker is the real deal. It was a surprisingly good film, a piece of art with something to say, all of which was tied into some really fun Batman/Joker references. Plus, the whole thing seems to have come about due to a similar contempt that I feel for the 2019 Joker movie!

I love that.

So, according to the lore...

In late 2019, in the wake of the cinematic travesty that was The Joker, one night, the eventual co-writer of The People's Joker, Bri LeRose encouraged The People's Joker's eventual director, co-writer, and star, Vera Drew, to re-edit the film Joker, as a big fuck you to all of its dumb bullshit. But while working on the re-edit, Drew was inspired to do something else, stating:

"I knew I needed to do some sort of big creative project around gender, comedy, and mom issues.” 

The eventual result was The People's Joker. Made during the pandemic, this is a crowd-sourced funded, low-budget, DIY , trans-femme coming-of-age story about a trans woman who is trying to be a comedian in a city where comedy is outlawed, blending live-action and animation to tell a story about gender identity, while also using the Joker mythos, and the Batman universe in general, as a framework for an anti-comedy troupe's rebellion against the fascist forces of The Batman.

And all while also shitting on SNL too, which I heartily approve of.

The People's Joker premiered at TIFF in 2022, and immediately ran into the whole rights issues things. It was years before it was finally released.

So...

In a dystopian world that is under the constant watchful eye of the Batman, a young child growing up in Smallville, Kansas, idolizes a famous sketch comedy tv show known as UCB Live.

When the child asks their mother, "Was I born in the wrong body?" their mother responds by immediately booking a session with Dr. Crane of Arkham Asylum. He prescribes Smylex, a drug that forces its users to put on a happy face, even if they are suffering from depression, anxiety, or gender dysphoria.

Fifteen years pass...

Now grown up, the protagonist decides to move to Gotham City so that they can join the cast of UCB Live. In the show, there are two roles. Jokermen, who get to have their own individual identities in the cast, and be stars, and the Harlequins, which is what the otherwise nameless group of female backup dancers are called.

Our protagonist is designated as a "Jokeman" by the show's computer.

The process to become on-air talent includes a fee of $15,000 and taking the required improv comedy classes taught by the world-famous UCB cast member, Ra's al Ghul. The protagonist can not find their groove, but along the way, they do become friends with a fellow struggling hopeful, Oswald Cobblepot.

Unable to afford the UCB fees, and also not doing well in the improv classes, the duo decide to create their own comedy troupe. To avoid getting arrested in a city where unapproved comedy is outlawed, they decide that their act will be billed as "anti-comedy." So they set up at shop in a dilapidated waterfront carnival, and are quickly joined by a number of law-breaking comedians, The Riddler, Bane, Poison Ivy, The Mad Hatter, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Catwoman, Clayface, and Bob the Goon, each of them bringing with them their own unique, deliberately unfunny, and very uncomfortable acts.

And then there's Jason Todd.

Preferring to be know as Mr. J, they dress as a Leto-Joker and their set is a lot of Marxist observational humor. Mr. J and our hero feel an immediate attraction and soon enough, go on a date.

During the date, Mr. J confesses that he is a transgender man, and has previously escaped an abusive relationship. This helps encourage our hero articulate that she is a transgender woman. The two plan to have our hero dive into a vat of estrogen, in order to complete her gender transition.

But then a retired Batman appears to stop them, and it leaves Mr. J shaken.

Later, Mr. J reveals that his ex is Batman, who adopted Mr. J (who was originally born as Carrie Kelly), trained him to be his sidekick Robin, and later assisted with a gender transition to their identity as Jason Todd, but their relationship became sexual, and also very toxic and abusive.

The protagonist takes the name of Joker the Harlequin, as a refutation of the UCB process. She will be a woman with a comedic identity of her own. But while at first she is happy, she soon realizes that she is stuck in the abusive and self-sabotaging patterns of Mr. J. On top of that, her mother visits, saying that she is there to patch up their estranged relationship, but it is not going well. Finally emboldened, Joker the Harlequin breaks up with Mr. J, and then hacks into a broadcast of UCB Live, daring producer Lorne Michaels to let her host the show instead of Batman.

The moment is a viral hit, so Michaels agrees.

In order to host, Joker has to go through a rapid-fire comedy training course with Ra's al Ghul, who teaches her that she is destined to be the People's Joker, the one who is prophecized to make comedy legal again. But on the night of the big show, Michaels pumps Smylex into the crowd to ensure that they laugh no matter what Joker the Harlequin says and when she realizes this, she also finally realizes what she needs to be happy, and that this must come from within herself, as she will not find it in the approval of others.

This cause her to materialize in the Fifth Dimension alongside the powerful Mx. Mxyzptlk, who offers to rearrange the time stream for Joker the Harlequin. But she only asks that her friend Oswald be given the power and fame of Batman, and for herself, one happy memory from childhood. She then has a vision of 1992, riding in the car with mom, as they sing along together to the song "The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band and laugh.

After the credits, the audience are told that Joker the Harlequin will return in The People's Nightmare: Freddy vs Joker, and the famous knife-tipped-glove of Freddy Krueger appears on screen.

I took awhile to get to this, it's been languishing in my queue forever, but when I heard that Vera Drew's next movie was going to be a found-footage cosmic-horror-comedy titled Trandemic, I knew I had to sit down and watch The People's Joker, or I'd be too far behind when her next film came out and then it would be too hard to catch up and blah, blah, blah.

Not exactly inspiring, I know, but as I already say, I'm glad I did. For all its low budget DIYness, this is an impressively-made, well-written story, one that uses a lot of classic characters and their familiar stories, to tell a fun, funny, and touching tale of a journey to self-acceptance. And all while being deliberately outrageous as it critiques institutions that the filmmaker clearly once held dear. The People's Joker is obviously a film that is intended to burn some shit down... but it's just as obvious that it's being done from a place of love too. In short, this is the kind of film you watch movies for, a unique voice and vision unexpectedly creating an incredible piece of art with something to say.

Good stuff all around.

And the big stuff aside, I also enjoyed the little clever and funny bits throughout. Like the way the film bleeps out Joker the Harlequin’s dead name throughout the film, until the moment where it has the most impact, or the running gag of all the characters, all huge comedy nerds, repeatedly excusing their admiration for some of the “problematic” comedy greats of the past, by first pausing to acknowledge the issue, and then going on to explain that their admiration stems from well before the unfortunateness that happened later, all in a rote tone of voice, while everyone else is hurriedly agreeing.

And like I said, I also appreciate the obvious disdain for SNL, that once supposedly revolutionary center of comedy, now a bastion of the mostly unfunny centrism in the country. The SNL show is called UBC here, which is also an obvious reference to the Upright Citizen's Brigade, a comdey troupe founded by Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh in 1996, that has since gone on to become a bit of an institution itself, a factory of sorts for SNL talent, that also very famously costs an arm and a leg to take part in. I can only assume that all of this stems not just from real life experience on the filmmakers' part with both of these places, but their problematic public history as well, something that is highlighted in the film when the UBC announces that its special guest host that week will be a red-tie-clad Lex Luthor, who we later learn has shit himself to death inside a Russian piss bar. But most of all, I really loved how the film gave voice to the core problem with Saturday Night Live...

“And you know, another thing, I’m sure this show was really funny at one point—I don’t really remember it ever being funny, maybe back in the 70s, (audience laughs)—all I remember it doing is convincing us that politicians are comedians, and comedians are moral arbiters of truth that we should turn to for answers, and what could be more irresponsible than that?”

I also really liked that the film's final middle finger, it's very last credit, was Vera Drew thanking Warner Bros Discovery for giving them and their film all of the free publicity. That's so good.

It really is impressive that the film even got released at all.

According to Vera Drew, just before the TIFF premiere, she was sent an angry letter (that was misreported as a 'cease and desist') pressuring her to not screen the film. She didn't listen. But the next day, all subsequent screenings of the film were canceled. TIFF's website stated: "The filmmaker has withdrawn this film due to rights issues." That's when the lawyers showed up apparently. The film was then pulled from the other festivals where it was supposed to show. And for awhile, it was a limbo, not where to go, no where to show, but Drew was still looking for a distribution comedy who would back the release, believing that the subject of the film was all fair use, and protected by the First Amendment. Finally, in mid-2024 The People's Joker was picked up by the distributor Altered Innocence, and soon after it was released streaming platforms, including AppleTV and Amazon. This is not usually how these fights go, usually the little guy is squashed by the big guy, so it's cool to see that this time was different.

Honestly, that alone makes The People's Joker worth watching, but luckily, it's also a great film, so you should definitely check it out.