Joker: Folie à Deux continues the story of mad, murderous Arthur Fleck. And although response has been underwhelming, the film contains plenty of Easter eggs and hidden references for fans of the genre and of films in general to ferret out.
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00:00Joker Foliadu continues the story of mad, murderous Arthur Fleck, and although response
00:05has been underwhelming, the film contains plenty of Easter eggs and hidden references
00:09for fans of the genre, and of films in general, to ferret out.
00:13Joker Foliadu establishes early on that Arthur still experiences breaks from reality, as
00:18he's escorted by four Arkham guards with black umbrellas.
00:21When Arthur looks up, the umbrellas are red, orange, blue, and yellow.
00:25He experiences similar fanciful delusions throughout the film, including various musical
00:29numbers with Harleen Lee Quinzel, played by Lady Gaga.
00:32The colorful umbrellas are a direct nod to the 1964 French film musical, The Umbrellas
00:37of Cherbourg.
00:38That movie, which is entirely sung, has inspired many modern films, including La La Land and
00:43Barbie.
00:44Now, Joker 2 can be added to that list, and it's not just about the umbrellas.
00:47The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a tale of first love, but the lovers are torn apart by circumstance
00:52as the man is drafted into the Algerian War.
00:55Joker 2 is also a love story.
00:56Joker falls for Lee, but their relationship deteriorates, not from war, but from Arthur's
01:00admission that he killed Robert De Niro's Murray Franklin, not the Joker, who never
01:05actually existed.
01:07The history of Harley Quinn and Joker's relationship is that she's his psychiatrist who falls in
01:10love with him.
01:11Joker 2 breaks from traditional canon, making Lee a fellow patient, although we later learn
01:16she voluntarily commits herself because she's basically a huge Joker fangirl, and wanted
01:20to meet him.
01:21When Lee initially gets his attention outside the music room, she puts her hand in the shape
01:25of a gun to her temple.
01:26That's what Sophie does in the elevator, and Arthur repeats in their building's hallway
01:29in the first film.
01:30The gesture resonates later, after Arthur admits
01:37the Joker was never real.
01:39Lee then puts an actual gun to her temple, but she later sees Arthur on the steps where
01:43he danced in Joker, so she must not have pulled the trigger.
01:46Even if Arthur doesn't have a split personality, he's clearly deranged, likely due to his childhood
01:51trauma.
01:52Joker 2 compares Arthur to another deranged movie character, Psycho's Norman Bates.
01:56Early in the film, Arthur attends an interview to strengthen the case that he has dissociative
02:00identity disorder, or DID.
02:03While speaking with the doctor, he mimics his mother's voice.
02:05Norman Bates legitimately has DID, and an alternate personality based on his mother,
02:10Norma.
02:11When this personality takes over, Norman sounds like an older woman.
02:14Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?"
02:19During the trial in Joker 2, Sophie takes the stand and mentions having conversations
02:22with Penny Fleck, Arthur's mother.
02:24She talks about how Penny would say Arthur wouldn't hurt a fly.
02:27This is a nod to Psycho's iconic final line.
02:29They'll see and they'll know, and they'll say, why she wouldn't even harm a fly."
02:37The irony is naturally how both characters' quote-unquote weaker personas disguise their
02:41actual murderous tendencies.
02:43One of the more delightful aspects of Joker folia do is how it opens with a Looney Tunes
02:48style short.
02:49In it, Arthur enters to host a late-night talk show, but his literal shadow has other
02:53ideas, tossing him aside and taking his place.
02:55The cartoon plays into the film's central idea that there could be two personalities
02:59within Arthur Fleck, Arthur himself and the persona of the Joker.
03:03Arthur's shadow, his Joker identity, is by far the more charismatic of the two, causing
03:07Arthur to have to push back against it.
03:09It's also interesting to consider the name of the short, Me and My Shadow.
03:12This is the name of a 1927 song co-written by Al Jolson that's been covered by everyone
03:18from Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. to Judy Garland, given the many musical influences
03:22of Joker 2.
03:23It seems appropriate for the opening cartoon to have some musical allusions.
03:27However, the idea of a shadow could have a different connotation.
03:30While Batman doesn't show up in the film, the shadow could refer to him, considering
03:34how an early inspiration for the character was the pulp hero, the Shadow.
03:38The Shadow!
03:40After him!
03:42Batman overtook the character in terms of popularity, but he may not have existed in
03:45the first place if it wasn't for the Shadow paving the way.
03:49References to Looney Tunes appear throughout Joker folie-a-do, not just in the opening
03:53sequence.
03:54During his trial, Arthur has a line that's a nod to Porky Pig's famous catchphrase.
03:57And there are a couple of scenes where the Arkham inmates are watching Pepe Le Pew cartoons
04:04on TV.
04:05Pepe was cut from Space Jam and New Legacy for being problematic, but his inclusion in
04:09Joker 2 makes a great deal of sense.
04:11"...Permit me to introduce you myself.
04:14I am Pepe Le Pew, your lover!"
04:19Pepe Le Pew's whole deal is that he's constantly pursuing true love, even though everyone runs
04:24away from him because he smells like the skunk he is.
04:26His behavior borders on stalking, and worse.
04:29Arthur Fleck is also desperate for love, and when Lee shows him genuine affection, he falls
04:33madly in love with her, invoking romantic musical sequences and even a wedding.
04:38"...I want to see the real you."
04:46But once Arthur denounces the Joker persona, Lee exits the courtroom with disdain in her
04:50eyes.
04:51She tries to get her back, but she's no longer interested, just like poor, stinky Pepe Le
04:56Pew.
04:57Hollywood trailers don't always accurately reflect the finished product.
04:59For example, many iconic lines from trailers don't make it to the screen, which can make
05:03an audience feel deceived.
05:05For Joker, Folia Do, a major set piece from the trailers is nowhere to be found in the
05:09theatrical release.
05:10"...I've got the sweetest suspicion that we're not giving the people what they want."
05:15One of the most iconic moments from 2019's Joker is Arthur's dance down the staircase,
05:19and the Joker 2 trailers include a scene where Arthur, in full Joker regalia, and Lee, in
05:24a blue dress, dance down the courthouse steps while onlookers line both sides.
05:28It seems as though this would be part of a fantastical musical sequence, but it appears
05:32to have been left on the cutting room floor, which has led many on social media to demand
05:35Warner Bros. to release the Gaga Cut.
05:38On X, one user posted several Lady Gaga stills that don't appear in the movie, writing,
05:42"...Joker, Folia Do would have been a 10 out of 10 had these scenes been kept."
05:46Lee has less of a presence in the film than one expects from the promotional materials,
05:50which essentially put her character on equal footing with Arthur.
05:53More was clearly filmed with her that didn't survive the edit, and hopefully we'll get
05:56to see those scenes in a future release.
05:59Once Arthur decides to represent himself in court, he dons the spiffy red suit he wore
06:03on Live! with Murray Franklin.
06:05However, he's soon seen in another getup that comic book fans will recognize.
06:09During a fantastical musical sequence in which Arthur marries Lee, he wears a slick, white
06:13suit, very similar to the one Joker wears in the animated film The Dark Knight Returns
06:17Part II.
06:18"...Joker, you've asked for a chance to share your side of things.
06:21I'm told you've killed about 600 people.
06:24How exactly does your side of that go?"
06:26In that story, Joker goes on a talk show where he murders everyone in attendance using his
06:30toxin.
06:31But although Arthur murders Murray Franklin on live television in Joker, this version
06:35of the Joker isn't together enough to develop any sort of toxin.
06:38"...You can do anything you want.
06:42You're Joker."
06:44It's possible the white suit foreshadows what's to come.
06:47In The Dark Knight Returns, Joker breaks his own neck after Batman refuses to kill him
06:51yet again during their big confrontation.
06:53"...See you in hell."
06:57And Arthur meets a similar violent end at the hands of another inmate by the end of
07:00Joker foley ado.
07:02In either case, it's a bad idea to invite Joker on a talk show.
07:05About halfway through the movie, Arthur fires Mayan Stewart as his legal counsel and decides
07:10to represent himself.
07:11It seems like a move designed to allow Arthur to let his Joker persona shine, a move that
07:15may have been inspired by a real-life prolific killer.
07:18"...Arthur, don't do this to yourself.
07:20It isn't you."
07:21"...It isn't me.
07:22So you don't think this is me?"
07:24Ted Bundy also represented himself in court because he believed his counsel wasn't able
07:28to mount a good enough defense.
07:30Of course, Bundy's move didn't work.
07:32He was still found guilty, given multiple death sentences, and executed.
07:36Joker foley ado draws several parallels between Arthur and Bundy.
07:39A big deal is made early in the film about the fact that Arthur's trial will be the first
07:43ever to be televised.
07:44In real life, Ted Bundy's trial was the first to be televised nationally.
07:48Whereas Bundy serves as the primary serial killer inspiration for Joker foley ado, the
07:52first Joker took more inspiration from John Wayne Gacy.
07:55Joker's makeup seems inspired by the makeup Gacy would wear as a party clown.
07:59Additionally, the comedy club where Arthur performs in that film is called Pogos, and
08:03the name Gacy went by as an entertainer was Pogo the Clown.
08:07If Harvey Dent is going to show up in a project, it's a safe bet he's going to lose half of
08:10his face at some point to signal his transition to the iconic Two-Face.
08:14In Joker foley ado, Dent serves as an antagonist to Arthur as the district attorney representing
08:19the state of New York in his trial.
08:21At the climax of the film, there's a devastating explosion in the courtroom.
08:24In the aftermath, we get a brief glimpse of Dent on the floor, and while it's hard to
08:28make out, it does seem as though half of his face took some damage.
08:31Much like the way Bruce Wayne's parents are killed at the end of 2019's Joker, we get
08:35another key moment from an iconic character within the Batman iconography.
08:39However, Dent's face definitely isn't as damaged as it's been portrayed in other iterations
08:43of Two-Face, which aligns with the more grounded, realistic depiction of Gotham in the Joker
08:48movies.
08:49"...watching smiles, another day of wine and roses, or, in your case, beer and pizza, ha!"
08:53Besides, it's unlikely we'll get a Joker 3 in which we see this new version of Two-Face
08:57come to life.
08:58Todd Phillips has said that if another sequel does somehow happen, he won't be behind it,
09:01and a threequel would be tough to pull off regardless, considering the ending of Joker
09:05foley ado.
09:07Joker 2 ends with Arthur being told he has a visitor, but we'll never know who it is.
09:11As he heads to the visiting room, Arthur's stopped in the walkway by another Arkham inmate,
09:15who tells him a joke about a psychopath meeting a clown in a bar.
09:18The joke concludes with the man shanking Arthur repeatedly in the stomach, and the movie ends
09:22with Arthur dying on the floor.
09:24While he dies in the foreground, we can make out the other nameless man laughing maniacally
09:28in the background as he takes his shiv and carves a smile into his own face, similar
09:32to the scars Heath Ledger's Joker wore in The Dark Knight.
09:35So Joker 2 ends with Arthur's death, seemingly closing the book on the Joker, or at least
09:39one iteration.
09:40The Joker killer appears destined to become the more comic book-accurate interpretation
09:44of the villain, which is actually something Todd Phillips has hinted about ever since
09:48the first Joker movie came out.
09:49When speaking about that film's ending to the Los Angeles Times, Phillips explained,
09:53"...maybe Joaquin's character inspired the Joker.
09:56You don't really know.
09:57His last line in the movie is, you wouldn't get it."
09:59The ending is similar to that of The Killing Joke from Alan Moore and Brian Bolland.
10:03That story ends with Joker telling Batman a joke, and it's long been a fan theory that
10:06Batman kills Joker afterward as they both laugh.
10:09There's little ambiguity for the ending of Jokerfolia 2, and it definitely makes the
10:13prospect of Joker 3 all the more unlikely, unless we're now going to follow the new guy.