We Live in a Society

2019

Date: October 2019 · Place: Twitter · Reddit r/JokerFans and r/dankmemes · adjacent to Joker theatrical release 4 October 2019 · Figures: Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck · Todd Phillips, director · the assembled posters of the Joker meme cycle · Tags: Film Tie-In, Ironic, Doomer Adjacent 01. Society Todd Phillips' Joker opens on 4 October 2019. Within a week the line 'we live in a society' is everywhere, attributed to the Joker, although the phrase does not appear in the film. It originates from a 2016 4chan post mocking edgelord Batman villain monologues. The 2019 movie supplies the visual: Joaquin Phoenix dancing on the stairs, full clown makeup. The meme is the older phrase laid over the new image, weaponized against itself. 02. Gentlemen The format spreads in two directions. The sincere version: 'gentlemen, we live in a society,' deployed as cope for any cultural complaint. The ironic version: the same phrase deployed against people deploying it sincerely. By November the meme is consuming itself. Concurrent with this, the Joker stair-dance becomes a stand-alone format. The film grosses one billion dollars worldwide. Phillips disowns the meme cycle in interviews. It does not slow down. "We live in a society where honour is a distant memory." — Original 4chan post, 2016, predating the film by three years Sources • Brian Feldman, 'The Joker is the most-memed movie of the year,' New York Magazine Intelligencer, 7 October 2019 • Aja Romano, 'How Joker became the most-discussed movie of 2019,' Vox, 7 October 2019 • Know Your Meme, 'We Live in a Society'