Every teaser that’s come out from Joker Folie à Deux has made me want to see this sequel more and more. From Joker 2’s first look of Arthur Fleck getting a shave to its latest trailer of stars Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga’s musical numbers, it looks like we’re going to get a Joker movie that’s never been done before. Director Todd Phillips just released his own tagline for the upcoming movie and I think I like his a lot more than Joker Folie à Deux’s actual tagline.
The official tagline for Joker Folie à Deux is “The world is a stage.” I can understand a tagline fitting for this movie considering all of the song and dance numbers from the trailers give us insight into how Arthur Fleck and Harley Quinn view the world. However, its director Todd Phillips came up with a tagline of his own when promoting Joker 2 on Instagram and I’ve gotta say that I like his better:
“Let’s give the people what they want” comes from what Harley Quinn says to Arthur Fleck in the official trailer after he says “I got this sneaking suspicion we’re not giving the people what they want.” Todd Phillips’ tagline seems to be a double entendre to Joker and Harley Quinn wanting to serve their audience and Phillips himself wanting to give his audience what they want too. After the first Joker movie exceeded expectations crossing the $1 billion mark and landed Joaquin Phoenix his first Oscar, you better believe audiences want to see the twisted antagonist’s story continue.
“The world is a stage” comes from Shakespeare’s As You Like It meaning we all have a part to play in life and how we play it is our decision. While that tagline fits Joker 2’s theme of the two DC villains shamelessly giving a wild performance of chaos and violence, I like “let’s give the people what they want” better to truly describe the mental state of the Joker.
The first movie presented the argument that society is drawn to violence whether it be sensational news stories or violent entertainment. Even when Warner Bros. responded to concerns of violence in Joker, they defended that the origin story film “provokes difficult conversations around complex issues.” By Harley Quinn saying to give people “what they want,” they are feeding into society’s hidden desire for violence.
Todd Phillips’ tagline also describes Joker’s life mission to create anarchy. In the subway scene of Joker, Arthur Fleck, donning his clown look, kills three Wall Street men who assault him. This act of violence led to a following of others wearing the same clown look in Arthur’s image. Then when he killed Murray Franklin live on his talk show in retaliation for the times the host condemned him, we see different news stations covering the shocking act of violence. By the end of the movie, rioters wearing clown masks see the film’s antagonist as a cult figure giving them what they want- rebellion and destroying societal norms.
Joker 2’s official tagline of “The world is a stage” may be a good way to describe Arthur Fleck and Harley Quinn committing violent actions shamelessly, but I like Todd Phillips’ tagline better illustrating the two characters giving “the people what they want.” This quote from the trailer demonstrates the main objective of the two characters feeding into the violent hidden desires of society and causing disorder within the status quo.
Audiences will get what they want seeing the 2024 movie release of Joker Folie à Deux in theaters on October 4th. In the meantime, you can revisit the first Joker movie available on your Max subscription.
