Falling for the Joker: The Trickster Supervillain as Cultural Icon (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781476658544)

In 2019, Santiago, Chile was shaken by a social outburst that soon spread across the country. That same year, anti-government protests erupted in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Paris, and Baghdad. One striking constant emerged: the Joker walked among the protesters, perfectly at ease. This was not the first time the Joker's smile had been used as a symbol. Since 2008, Heath Ledger's Glasgow smile had already been co-opted to "Jokerize" the powerful, from Obama to Trump. But something had changed: protesters no longer accused politicians of being the Joker--they now defiantly proclaimed, "WE ARE THE JOKER!" How did this happen? How did the Joker--the arch-enemy of Batman, the quintessential villain--become a positive emblem of anti-system revolt, perhaps even a hero?

Through an unprecedented cultural analysis of the Joker, this book seeks to answer that question. Tracing the character's history, from his countless comic and cinematic iterations to the archetypes that inspired him, it reveals a deeper connection between the Joker and humanity itself. This connection, often suppressed, emerges in our uneasy relationship with humor and laughter, in our fascination with chaos and madness, and in the ways our identity is challenged by absurdity. Faced with an unstable world and a society growing more insane and hostile, the only response might be to turn to the Joker, making him the only possible "hero" of the 21st century. As the Clown Prince of Crime reminded us nearly half a century ago: "In a world as psychotic as this... any other response would be crazy!"