‘Everything Must Go’: Joker as a Banner for Postmodernism

Joker, the commercially successful comic book movie that broke all records (Forbes, 2019), is set to release a sequel on October 4, 2024. Its profitability speaks to its popularity and unique ability to resonate with a broad audience, including the academic community. In a fictional Gotham, where Arthur Fleck works as a clown, Joker demonstrates the slow descent into madness of a man neglected by society. Arthur’s mental condition, his social awkwardness, and his ineptitude in dealing with many problems in his personal life placed him on the outskirts of society, physically and emotionally. This article argues that, as depicted in the film, Arthur's journey aligns with the postmodernist philosophy developed by the French thinkers Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida.