Joker: Folie À Deux director Todd Phillips offered up a little holiday gift to everyone earlier this week in the form of two new photos from his Joker sequel, and while it’s nice(?) to see ol’ Arthur Fleck again through a little window, Phillips’ second photo seems like an even nicer gift—if only for its meme potential.
See, do you ever find yourself completely obsessed with something that will inevitably turn you into a total stupid fool? Like, you know, a clown? Maybe it’s a crush, maybe it’s a perpetually unlucky sports team, maybe it’s a Taylor Swift conspiracy theory, but you just can’t help but gaze lovingly at it despite yourself, maybe perversely wishing to become a clown as it quickly consumes your life? And then you want to post about that feeling on social media, but you don’t have the perfect photo to capture that feeling that you’re trying to convey?
Thank Todd Phillips for his odd, hopefully ironic admiration for Arthur Fleck in his Joker form, because the other photo he shared on Instagram just features Lady Gaga (presumably playing some version of Harley Quinn) gazing lovingly at the Joker. Also, crucially, Joker is both out of focus and looking away from Gaga, suggesting that he is both unobtainable and disinterested in the subject of the photo.
Imagine putting text on this photo that says “Me” over Lady Gaga and “Reputation (TV) comes out this week” above the Joker, or “Ferrari F1 fans” over Lady Gaga and “Fighting for third place” over the Joker. or—if you want to get direct with it—“DC fans” over Gaga and “Joker Folie À Deux trailer” over the Joker. There’s a lot of fun to be had here while we wait for Joker Folie À Deux to come out in October of 2024… but also it’s December 26, what else are you going to do? Go back to work, even though that seems absurd on the day after Christmas?