The new Joker film from director Todd Phillips is definitely one of those movies that comes home with you after watching it, thanks in part to the phenomenal portrayal of Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role. At times sympathetic but nevertheless a dangerous lunatic, you’ll likely be thinking about Arthur Fleck and his troubling story long after the movie is over. Let’s take a moment to reflect on some of Arthur’s most disturbing quotes from the film, with each one providing a small glimpse into the mind of a total psychopath.
Oh, and because we’ll be providing some context behind the quotes, know that MAJOR SPOILERS are ahead.
1“I hope my death makes more cents than my life.”
To cope with the struggles of his mental illness, Arthur Fleck is told by his therapist to start writing down his dark thoughts in a journal for them to discuss during their sessions. Focusing on his aspirations to become a successful stand-up comedian, Arthur also uses the journal as a joke book, adding material he plans to use in his routine.
However, it appears most of Arthur’s material is much more depressing than it is funny, as we can see from some of the troubled man’s musings in the journal. There’s one particular quote Arthur keeps going back to: “I hope my death makes more cents than my life.” While also serving as a play on words, the one-liner shows just how dead Arthur already feels on the inside.
2“The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t.”
The jokes in Arthur’s routine aren’t exactly funny, but the internal thoughts the future Clown Prince of Crime has written in his journal are even more unsettling. His peculiar medical condition and the way it’s led others to treat him throughout his entire life have likely left him with a strong desire to just be “normal.” Given the nature of his mental illness, however, Arthur can’t even pretend and is constantly having negative interactions with those around him.
“The worst part of having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don’t,” Arthur writes in the journal. Writing this to himself seems to have been a quiet cry for help, one of the last to come from Arthur before his full transition into Gotham City’s most dangerous criminal.
3“All I have are negative thoughts.”
While Arthur clearly feels most people don’t notice him (or, if they do, it’s in a negative way), not everyone turns their nose up to him. Helping the man work through the issues brought about by his mental illness is Arthur’s social worker, who suggested he start keeping a journal in the first place. Unfortunately, her time working with Arthur comes to an abrupt end after the state cut its funding for her services, leaving Arthur with no place else to turn. This leaves Arthur to suggest she was never of any real help to him after all.
“You don’t listen, do you? I don’t think you ever really listened to me. You just ask the same questions every week. ‘How’s your job? Are you having any negative thoughts?’ All I have are negative thoughts,” Arthur tells her. He also eerily adds: “But you don’t listen. Anyway, I said, for my whole life, I didn’t know if I even really existed. But I do, and people are starting to notice.”
4“I used to think my life was a tragedy, but now I realize, it’s a f—ing comedy.”
One of the saddest aspects of the Arthur Fleck story is that you really get the sense that all he ever wanted to do was make people laugh. He took a job as a clown for hire in Gotham City and boasts big dreams of making it as a successful stand-up comedian. Still, despite his best efforts, Arthur was destined for failure, ultimately losing his gig as a clown and even facing harsh ridicule on television for his work as a comic. After his mind snaps, however, Arthur apparently adopts a new outlook on his miserable life, eventually coming to see some humor in it.
After fully embracing himself as the Joker and the murderous traits embodied by the persona, Arthur utters something most disturbing as he goes in for another kill. “I used to think my life was a tragedy, but now I realize, it’s a f—ing comedy,” he says, simultaneously murdering someone near and dear to him. The line suggests Arthur is now starting to find death and misery amusing, equating abuse and murder with the jokes of a clown.
5“You wouldn’t get it.”
Because of his horrific crimes, Arthur “Joker” Fleck winds up in Arkham Asylum, now working with a new psychiatrist as she attempts to dig into what makes him the way he is. Picturing a young Bruce Wayne standing before his slain parents, Arthur simply cannot contain his laughter. When asked by the psychiatrist if he wants to share the joke he’s thinking of, Arthur merely responds, “You wouldn’t get it.“ Moments later, it is suggested Arthur has somehow escaped from his restraints and murdered the doctor, dancing his way through the halls of Arkham Asylum with a trail of bloody footprints behind him.
What’s most eerie about this particular quote is that it’s uttered at the only time in the film Arthur feels any degree of actual joy. As explained by director Todd Phillips in The LA Times, the laugh heard by Arthur in this scene is literally the only real laugh we hear from the character. This further reiterates the message that the suffering of others is the only thing that makes him happy.
“There is the laugh from Arthur’s affliction and then there is his fake laugh when he’s trying to be ‘one of the people,’ which is my favorite laugh,” Phillips explains. “But at the end, when he’s in the room at Arkham State Hospital, that’s his only genuine laugh in the movie.”
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