Have you seen the Joker movie yet? I haven’t, because even before it premiered, I was already sick of it. Somehow this comic-book movie has become an emblem of everything the chattering classes hate and fear: “What does Joker tell us about Trump’s America? Is Joker beaming out kill orders to incels? Shouldn’t Joker director Todd Phillips and star Joaquin Phoenix be forced to answer for all the bad things white males have done throughout history? Is it even possible to count all the ways Joker is bad?” They sure are expecting a lot from a movie about a clown who fights Batman.
There haven’t been any shootings at showings of Joker, or any other violence, as predicted by our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters in the press. The only sign of chaos so far is a couple of guys in Chicago smoking cigarettes and “causing a ruckus” in the theater. Normally a lack of violence would be a good thing, but not when it means so many people were wrong about something. Their social status is at stake, so now they need to find reasons they were actually right all along. Once they decide on a premise — “The clown movie will destroy us all” — it’s just a matter of digging up any possible evidence whatsoever.
Which explains important news stories like this one from CNN’s Leah Asmelash:
The controversy keeps building for Warner Bros.’ “Joker” movie.
The film, which has already received criticism that it glorifies violence and evokes empathy for a killer, is now facing backlash for its use of a song by convicted child sex offender Gary Glitter.
The song, “Rock and Roll Part 2,” plays for about two minutes as star Joaquin Phoenix, who plays the Joker, dances down a flight of stairs…
Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, is probably making money off the song’s use in the movie, too.
Oh no! What is this evil, child-molesting song? It’s “Rock and Roll Part 2,” popularly known as “The Hey Song.” Anybody who’s watched a sporting event in the last 30 years has heard it:
That’s it. That’s the controversy. The movie uses a song by a convicted pedophile, which was recorded and popularized decades before anybody knew he was a pedophile. I’m sure the crowds will stop flocking to movie theaters now. Good work, CNN!
P.S. With all this media-created “controversy” surrounding Joker, nobody’s talking about the real issue here: This movie should be called The Joker. That’s his name, the Joker. Not just Joker. Similarly, Batman is called Batman, not the Batman. It’s “Batman and the Joker,” not “the Batman and Joker.” If you say it the wrong way, you’re wrong.
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