Joker: Film, Working Class and Post-Truth 
Yıldırım Uysal, Bursa Uludağ University, yildirimuysal@gmail.com 
 

Abstract 
The film Joker (2019) garnered huge interest from audiences worldwide and honored at the box office with an 
amount exceeding one billion dollars. Indeed, Joker has a class and political reflection on society. This article 
claims that the film Joker is a manifesto against the political forces that prioritize populist, authoritarian, and 
ruthless capitalist policies all over the world. The aim of our study is to analyze how the class movement is 
shown and examined in Joker. Joker's anti-system and anti-capitalist stance needs a sociological analysis; this 
analysis examines how Joker reflects people's subconscious and inspires class resistance. Another important 
point is to analyze the movie scenes with a descriptive analysis that will help us understand the transformation 
of the social movement. How the characters are assigned semiotically in the script is another requirement in 
terms of emphasizing what the film tells implicitly. It is important both to understand the chaos of the working 
class, which has not yet positioned itself in the production relations of the postmodern period after, and to see 
the film's recipe for why the working class should not incline towards right-wing populist politics. 
Understanding these two points will be the most important result and achievement of our study. 
Keywords: Cinema; Working Class; Post Truth; Joker Film; Class Consciousness 

 

 
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Joker: Film, Working Class and Post-Truth 

Yıldırım Uysal 

 

Introduction 

The favor that the Joker film got from the moment it was released, was perhaps something 

that no one who was involved in the production of the film had expected. It can be thought that the 

interest which has been presented to Joker is due to its ability to analyze the position of the working 

class who have been affected by the changing production relations, as well as to carry a latent 

inspiration and leadership role for working class on the class consciousness issue. The deep and 

unending bond between the art of cinema and society, played a fundamental role in both making 

and acclaiming Joker film. The main reason that prompted us to write this article is the link 

between the Joker movie and the lower class, which has been indirectly placed at the center of the 

movie. 

The aim of this article is to analyze the class phenomenon and class resistance in the Joker 

film. Since the article argues that the Joker film calls on the working class of today to resist the 

system, the aim of analyzing a class opposition can be an expected goal. The article is most 

important in terms of determining the stance of the working class, which has lost its class position 

and can’t determine a new social / class position in the economic structure that has evolved from 

industrial production relations to cognitive production relations. This large mass of workers, who 

became unemployed when their profession lost its place in production relations, turned to populism 

when their economic future was in danger. The article aims to examine this situation of the labour 

class in relation to the concept of post-truth, because there is a very close relationship between the 

labour class and the concept of post-truth in post-modern times. 



 

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As the article progresses towards its goal, the article will receive support from the 

descriptive analysis that examines the scenes of the film, from the semiotic analysis that shows 

that each character in the film represents a different class / meaning, and from the sociological 

analysis that will examine the relationship of the film with the existing social structure. 

At this point, we should take a closer look at the method of semiotic analysis that will be 

employed in our article. Semiotics is a science that tries to find the answer to the question 'how 

meaning is formed' and aims to analyze structures containing meaning (Uzdu Yıldız, 2011, 5). 

Another perspective sees semiotics as a field that essentially examines what is intended to be 

shown because semiotics recognizes that what is seen is not the reality itself (Çiçek, 2016, 27). 

Umberto Eco, while using terms such as 'codes', 'sub-codes', 'plain meaning', 'connotation' in his 

semiotic terminology, argues that the main subject of analysis in semiotics is the concept of 

'substitution' (Çağlar, 2012, 26). 

Cinema semiotics has been formed as a sub-field within the field of semiotics in the time. 

We can find the definition of the function of semiotics in cinema in the following sentence: “The 

theory that analyzes the indirect (implicit) meanings imposed on the visual materials used in 

cinema which establishes its narrative especially on visuals” (Ulusal, 2019, 187). Christian Metz, 

who was inspired by Roland Barthes' views in the field of semiotics, followed the path and 

principles of structuralist linguistics. Metz is a leading name when the issue would be the fields of 

'cinema' and 'semiotics' . Metz tried to prove that cinema has a language in order to express his 

point, even though it is an art which is based on visual and auditory (Çiçek, 2016, 35). Another 

important name of semiotics, Juri Lotman, emphasises the relationship between 'signifier' and 

'signified' and underlines the concept of 'iconic signs'. He claims that all signs have a text of their 



 

 

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own content, the reason behind this is that the cinematic text is encrypted through signs and 

transferred to the audience in this way (Topal – Topal, 2022, 47). 

The Conversion in Relations of Production 

I think the point where we need to start to understand the Joker's point is, the conversion 

in relations of production. The end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century have 

witnessed the transition of relations of production from industrial capitalism to cognitive 

capitalism. The relations of production of postmodern era which is based on information 

technology and internet prevailed over the industrial and factory-centered production type of 

modern era. 

The new production phase can be recognized and summarized with three terms: cognitive 

capitalism / intangible labor / informatics society. Mete Ogün considers ‘the work itself’, ‘the 

subject of the work’ and ‘the means of the work’ concepts as the three basic factors of labor 

process. He also thinks that technological production and innovation have become evident as new 

causes of efficiency and development in new relations of production. This situation has emerged 

with the transition from industrial society to informatics society (Ogün, 2020, 131). Labor is cheap, 

flexible, and unorganized in cognitive capitalism (Ogün, 2020, 132). Labor has experienced a 

transformation process as both space and form, and still experiences (Ogün, 2020, 133). 

A significant part of the working class could not find a place for itself in the new economic 

life produced by the new relations of production. As a result, the lower income group has evolved 

to move away from rationality, concrete social conditions and life and to get closer to their 

emotions, their instincts and to ignore the facts which are determined by science and to follow the 

lies which are told to them. It is an expected final that the working class will lose its connection 



 

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with concrete conditions and establish a fabrication world that does not consist of facts; otherwise, 

it cannot resist life psychologically. 

Another consequence of losing its place in the relations of production is losing the prestige 

and social status in the society. Depending on this situation, the working class is looking for a 

representative to represent itself before the society and choosing this representative from the upper 

class, which the working class thinks this representative is respected in the social stratification. 

The most important characteristic of this agent is that he tells the lower class what they want to 

hear but not the truth and does not spoil the imaginary world that the lower class has produced for 

itself; on the contrary, it strengthens it. This representative, as though, acts as the protector of the 

lower class against the upper and middle classes. 

 

Modern to Postmodern, and Post-Truth 

It is the modern period when science has replaced religion as the source of knowledge. In 

the postmodern period that came after the modern period, science has lost its importance and place 

as a source of information (Oruç, 2020, 156). It can be claimed that the transition from the modern 

period to the postmodern period has changed the basic notions of social structure. It means that 

many things, from methodological approaches in social sciences to the practices of daily life, 

undergo a sharp change. Terry Eagleton counts classical reality, mind, identity, objectivity, 

universal progress, salvation, singular framework, grand narrative or ultimate ground, as the terms 

of the modern period, while describing the differentiation of the concepts and ways used to reach 

knowledge in the postmodern period, from the modern period (Eagleton, 1997). 

 



 

 

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Slavoj Žižek bases the most classical definition of ideology on the words of Marx, and this 

view defines ‘ideology’ in modernity: ”The most elementary definition of ideology is probably the 

well-known phrase from Marx's Capital: 'sie wissen das nicht, aber sie tun es' - 'they do not know 

it but they are doing it' ” (Žižek, 2008, 24). According to Daniel Tkatch, people have entered a 

'post-knowledge' era. About this era, Žižek's definition is closest to his perspective about the 

relationship that the average person establishes between the action and the knowledge that guides 

action: “We know very well what we are doing, but still, we keep doing it” (Tkatch, 2016). 

“The very concept of ideology implies a kind of basic, constitutive naivete: the 

misrecognition of its own presuppositions, of its own effective conditions, a distance, a divergence 

between so-called social reality and our distorted representation, our false consciousness of it. That 

is why such a 'naive consciousness' can be submitted to a critical-ideological procedure. The aim 

of this procedure is to lead the naive ideological consciousness to a point at which it can recognize 

its own effective conditions, the social reality that it is distorting, and through this very act dissolve 

itself” (Žižek, 2008, 24). I think the most important phrase in Žižek's sentences is "a divergence 

between so-called social reality and our distorted representation". It is, as important to see that 

social reality is a 'constructed' reality as, to see our representation in society as a 'constructed' 

representation away from ‘the real we’. Apart from this, the disintegration of the great narratives 

of modernity means the disintegration of the mental world of individuals who have established a 

relationship with modernity through these narratives. In the postmodern period, the individual, 

especially the lower class individual, could not re-establish the intellectual bond which he has in 

the modern period between him and the system. The disappearance of the mental bond resulted in 

the formation of a subclass which can not make sense of itself within the system and has been 

feeling itself out of the system. 



 

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Today, world societies live in a political and social atmosphere based on populism and 

authoritarianism, which many political scientists describe with the term 'post-truth'. Sean Illing is 

realizing one of the definitions of ‘post-truth’ by saying: “.. a ‘post-truth’ world — a place where 

shared, objective standards for truth have disappeared” (Illing, 2018). 

The definition of the post truth in the Oxford dictionary, one of today's most important 

dictionaries, is as follows: “relating to circumstances in which people respond more to feelings 

and beliefs than to facts” (oxfordlearnersdictionaries). Steve Fuller even considers this definition 

itself a post-truth definition, with its incomplete sentence structure, incomprehensibility, and lack 

of subject (Altun, 2022, 251). 

In today's communication and media world, the marketing of the news is more important 

than the presentation of the truth. The economic criteria of the internet, which is the most important 

way of having the news today, are more 'clicks' and to reach more 'consumers' (Oruç, 2020, 154). 

It can be easily claimed that fake news that attracts more attention and is clicked more, is more 

precious than true news which gains less attention for media. 

Although science is the only source of knowledge in the modern era, there are many sources 

of knowledge other than science in the postmodern era. Because the postmodern period multiplied 

the ways of acquiring knowledge, post-truth logic can find a place easier. A lot of people don’t 

need to criticize the information through rational criteria or don’t care about scientists who ground 

on rational information sources. Thus, the production of reality can also be based on irrationality 

and there is no problem with that. 

As a second point, it can be said that everyone's own truth is formed, or rather, everyone 

'forms' his own truth. I think this point stems from people's desire to produce their own truth and 

world. The media and the internet, who are aware of this desire, offer everyone material from 



 

 

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which people can produce their own truth. Thus, as many 'facts' as the number of people in the 

world can be produced but many facts that are independent from the will of all people in the world 

and which leave no room for interpretation, are ignored in this way. 

Post truth is a concept that best defines the epistemology of the postmodern period and 

constitutes an important part of it. The first known and defined use of the word post-truth is in 

Steve Tesich's article "A Government Of Lies", published in 1992. Tesich underlines that the lies 

which were told by politicians about the scandals that occurred during these administrations were 

easily accepted and internalised by the people.: “We are rapidly becoming prototypes of a people 

that totalitarian monsters could only drool about in their dreams. All the dictators up to now have 

had to work hard at suppressing the truth. We, by our actions, are saying that this is no longer 

necessary, that we have acquired a spiritual mechanism that can denude truth of any significance. 

In a very fundamental way we, as a free people, have freely decided that we want to live in some 

post-truth world” (Tesich, 1992). Tesich's prediction, which has been confirmed later with great 

acceptance, was the first to define the concept of post-truth, which will make its presence much 

more widely accepted to the world societies in the 21st century. 

According to McIntyre and Keyes, postmodern thinking is the major cause of the road that 

ultimately leads to post-truth (Altun, 2022, 256). Keyes considers today's technology as the another 

cause of the emergence of post truth (Güven, 2020, 31). 

The post-truth period should be perceived as a time period in which 'meaninglessness', and 

the concepts of 'meaning' and 'truth' are not needed (Güven, 2020, 32). According to Evan Davis, 

what is presented to us as 'reality' today is structurally contextless. It is not possible to determine 

whether facts are 'true' or 'false', due to this 'contextlessness' (Demirkol, 2022, 303). Evan Davis 



 

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evaluates the fact that the desire to reach the truth no longer means anything as a consequence of 

the fact that the social will has lost its directive position on social functioning (Demirkol, 2022, 

303). In a statement which has been published in The Guardian, which is one of Britain's most 

respected newspapers, Davis expands his thinking: “ “In practice,” Evan Davis writes, “we 

evidently are quite happy to believe untruths.” Davis is stating what is, perhaps, the most 

indisputable fact regarding what has been trumpeted as the rise of a new kind of “post-truth” 

politics. Shrewdly, he describes the belief that we a living in a post-truth era as “an expression of 

frustration and anguish from a liberal class discombobulated by the political disruptions of 2016” 

“ (Gray, 2017). 

In the postmodern period, there is no single truth; truth varies according to society, social 

group or individuals with a subjective perspective. Narrative is much more valuable than truth and 

thus, the 'best narrator' is the winner of this system (Altun, 2022, 256). Keyes claims that truth has 

moved away from what it really is and the main reason for this is the relativisation of truth. Keyes 

characterizes online platforms with the concepts of 'decentralization' and 'lack of control'. The 

anonymous character of the internet can be cited as another reason so well, which distances the 

truth from what it really is (Demirkol, 2022, 295). 

Keyes states that people of the post-truth period tell lies without feeling guilty. This type 

of person needs justifications that hide the truth in order to distance himself from being a liar. By 

doing so, he conceals the truth but he never thinks that he is a liar (malumatfurus.org). Keyes also 

states that, hearing the truth is not an easier act than telling the truth in today's conditions 

(Bulunmaz, 2017). Keyes argues that literary figures, lawyers, therapists, academics, journalists 

and clergy, like politicians, employ the post-truth approach in their discourse. He believes that 

manipulation and lying increase in direct proportion to the level of knowledge which the person 



 

 

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has (Özcan, 2020). We can assert that all these professions have gained more value and importance 

in the postmodern period compared to the modern period. The reason for this is the transition from 

modernist industrial society to postmodernist information society. Knowledge is much more 

important than in modern society, but the reliability and respectability of knowledge is much more 

controversial than in the modern period. 

James Ball argues that the increasing prominence of the internet over the traditional media 

is the reason that determines the character of the post-truth period, which values bullshit more than 

lies (Altun, 2022, 252). In Ball's thinking, bullshit is the force that dominates the media today. 

Websites that report bullshit news receive far more clicks than rooted media organisations (Altun, 

2022, 252-253). The fact that newly emerging internet news sources make bullshit news stems 

from the expectations of the people who read and follow them. 

Steve Fuller explains today's post-truth world through the sophists of Ancient Greece. 

Fuller says that the sophists used the rhetoric method, which Aristotle was considering the 'art of 

persuasion', and also the fallacy method, to present the facts in a different way than they are (Altun, 

2022, 259). In his own words, Mason-Wilkes explains Fuller's idea that post-truth is a concept that 

extends from past times to the present as follows: “Fuller claims post-truth is nothing new; a 

disconnect between external ‘reality’ and accounts of reality which have historically claimed 

epistemic authority has always existed” (Mason-Wilkes, 2019, 1198). 

Ralph Keyes argues that deception has become a part of our daily lives as a way of life, 

while Evan Davis says that the phenomenon of 'not trusting anyone' has become a natural element 

of our daily lives (Şimşek, 2018, 2-3). Ralph Keyes, thinks that the prevalence of the concept of 

'cheating' in the American lifestyle makes it easier for societies in the rest of the world to lose 



 

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touch with reality, because America is the most important influencer of the cultural transformation 

in the world (Altun, 2022, 251). 

Post Truth Politics, American Politics and American Elections 

Post-truth politics, which is the reflection of the post-truth concept in the field of politics, 

repeats its 'unscientific' and 'populist' features in political discourses. According to 

Hopkin&Rosamond, standing against concepts such as reason and veracity, feeling of distrust 

towards experts of a field, the dominance of populist and anti-elitist movements, can be listed as 

the characteristics of post-truth politics. (Dorosh, Astramowicz-Leyk & Turchyn, cited from 

Hopkin & Rosamond, 2022, 344). “Post-truth politics (also called post-factual politics and post-

reality politics) is defined as a political culture in which debate is framed largely by emotional 

appeals, and by the repeated assertion of talking points ignoring factual rebuttals” (Chowdhury, 

2018). 

It seems that post-truth politics is populist because it speaks to the sentimental side of the 

people, it is irrational because it has no content which is based on truths. Blanco Alfonso underlines 

that the concept of ‘passion’ has become more important than ‘rationality’ in his words: “The post-

truth era has revealed the ability of passionate political discourse (based on pathos) to ravage 

rational political speech (based on logos)” (Blanco Alfonso, 2018, 421). 

Vattamattam explains Žižek's thoughts in the context of the relationship between society 

and politics as follows: “The oft-repeated political lies make the people at large indifferent to truth, 

the symbolic order gets shattered, and people are dehumanized. With no sense of truth, we cannot 

criticize power and this makes governments more authoritarian. The sense of reality derived from 

the symbolic order is what Žižek calls social reality .. This, to a certain extent, stabilizes human 

subjectivity. The decline of the symbolic order leads to changes in the positions we take regarding 



 

 

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any social reality. This shift in perspective is what Žižek calls the parallax view ..“ (Vattamattam, 

2020). Sebastian Vattamattam focuses on two concepts here: ‘social reality’ and ‘parallax view’. 

For myself, I think that both concepts are closely related to the social transformation that the 

working class has been experiencing in the postmodern period. The social reality which is built in 

the modern era, has lost its response in people's minds with the collapse of the modern era. The 

change of social reality sometimes affects the perception of reality, but sometimes it also forms 

the need to destroy that reality and build a new one. 

In the 2020 American Presidential elections, Joe Biden was elected President of the United 

States by defeating his rival Donald Trump with a difference of more than 7 million votes 

difference. In the American Presidential elections which was held in November 2016, Republican 

Party's candidate Donald Trump was elected President of USA; perhaps this situation must have 

surprised that even those who voted for him because his rival Hillary Clinton was ahead in the pre-

election polls. In fact, Trump’s victory should not have been a surprise but expected because 

Trump is also an extension and a reflection of the populist / authoritarian / wild capitalist political 

line that has declared its dominance in many countries around the world. 

In the 2016 elections, the Republican Party, which is the representative of the production 

relations of the past, subjected the working class to an illusion with populist rhetoric and thus, it 

managed to win the election. The fact that, a significant part of American workers lost their jobs 

due to the changing production relations from industry to informatics and they did not know where 

to position themselves in the new economic life, made it easier for them to obey the rhetoric of the 

Republican Party. In the 2020 elections, however, the American working class has partially 



 

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awakened from this illusion. The working class made a 'lesser evil' choice compared to the 

Republican Party by bringing the Democratic Party to power. 

From such an axis shift, it should not be concluded that the Democratic Party is a party that 

protects the interests of the working class more than the Republican Party. The political philosophy 

of both parties is liberalism and supports capitalist relations of production. Despite the 

conservative, single-identity and more 'American' character of the Republican Party, the 

Democratic Party follows a more universal political line that embraces different identities. While 

the Republican Party realizes the right interpretation of liberalism, the Democratic Party reveals 

the left interpretation of liberalism. 

Peter Marshall claims that the political belief system, which he calls Trumpism, constructs 

the truth, but he does not think that this system is consistent or stable. According to him, Trumpism 

is a structure that includes a fluid belief acceptance and a self-fixed ideological stance at the same 

time (Marshall, 2021). Andrew Kirkpatrick says that Trump and people like Trump understand the 

life in general based on dichotomic logic: like black and white, like winners and losers. Trump 

proves with this logic that, he has no difference from the politicians which he claims that he is 

against; the politicians whom Trump calls they belong to ‘system’. Actually, all of them are 

following the Social Darwinist perspective on human nature. However, this mentality is no longer 

exclusive to the Right. Margaret Thatcher's infamous claim that there is no alternative to neoliberal 

economics has received double acceptance on the mainstream left. Social Darwinism, which is 

another reflection of the idea that there is no alternative to neo-liberal economy, gradually ceased 

to belong to the right political line and also took left politics under control (Kirkpatrick, 2017, 

322). 



 

 

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Tolmach Lakoff thinks that Trump is neither affiliated with populism nor any other 

ideology. For her, the necessity of an -ism is a prerequisite for being defined as an -ist; similar to 

other politicians, even a populist has beliefs that he adheres to (Tolmach Lakoff, 2017, 598). 

Mehmet Sebih Oruç is relates the success of Donald Trump to his style which takes spectacle and 

show to the forefront. According to Oruç, truth, ideology and negotiations have lost their 

importance in current political discourse and this situation is closely related with the success of 

Trump (Oruç, 2020, 147). 

In that respect, post-truth discourses are functional for right-wing parties and for those 

unemployed workers in terms of ignoring or denying the conditions which they are in. The mass, 

who need the warmth of populist policies and post-truth lies to escape the brutal economic realities 

they are faced with, also forms the natural voting base of these right-wing parties. 

Joker Film 

The Joker movie was released at a time when there was such a short time left for the 

American political elections and people have been breathing such a post-truth atmosphere. World 

societies which have experienced these approaches of post-truth politics rewarded the Joker movie, 

which was released in 2019, with a revenue of more than 1 billion dollars at the box office, 

constitutes a situation worth examining sociologically. In our opinion, there is a close relationship 

between the conditions in which the Joker movie took shape and the 2016 and 2020 political 

elections of the United States. When we delve deeper into the film, we encounter a scenario that 

is open to semiotic analysis and class analysis. 

It would probably be correct to understand the Joker movie as a 'last exit before the bridge' 

warning directed to all world societies, especially the American society. Economist Ergin 



 

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Yıldızoğlu considers as the primary reasons for populism-based policies and Trump's presidency 

are the rising unemployment rate and the shrinkage of the economy (Yıldızoğlu, 2020). A higher 

percentage of unemployment and poverty strengthens right-wing parties and their right-wing 

populism, as in many examples in the modern era. This is exactly what was witnessed in the 2016 

elections: a parallelism can easily be formed between the masses turning to Trump by ignoring 

that he is one of the best-known and most fervent representatives of "wild capitalism" in America, 

and the masses that brought the Nazi Party to power in Germany in 1933. The number of 

unemployed was 6 million in Germany in 1932 and this 6 million was the main factor that Nazi 

Party came to power in 1933. The number of people waiting for a 'saviour' in hopeless economic 

conditions is substantial and the expectation of such a savior is the biggest reason for the power of 

right populist parties/leaders. 

Such populism will certainly produce imaginary enemies to its potential electorate. In his 

article, Gleiberman says that the Trump administration marginalizes and even demonizes 

Americans whom he does not see as "normal Americans". This political line, which sees 

destruction as pleasure at a time when an attitude based on hatred is gaining popularity, is 

supported by its followers who glorify a cult of anger based on being 'white' (Gleiberman, 2019). 

The huge box office success of the movie can be seen as proof that the majority of the 

American working class has been realizing that populist-opportunist politics and president are not 

the right choice for their future. We can understand that people who do not have capital, who do 

not have any ownership or any right to speak in the means of production, find themselves in these 

films and get support from the Joker and similar films against the class that controls the means of 

production and capital. 

 



 

 

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From Arthur Fleck to Joker: the conversion of the subject 

The main character of the movie, Arthur Fleck, is a laborer. He earns his living as a clown 

and he lives with his mother. His mother Penny is a fan of Thomas Wayne, the strong candidate 

for mayor. The character of Arthur Fleck, apart from the fact that people do not respect him 

because of his profession, is someone who is not taken seriously by anyone in his private life. He 

also suffers from a disease that causes him to laugh constantly at irrelevant situations. 

The film embodies the goal to destroy the system in the person of Fleck and starts the 

process by turning him into Joker. Fleck begins to destroy and his first action is to kill three white-

collars in the subway. These middle class white-collars who do not have class consciousness 

ensure the continuation of the system by being the servant of the system. Although Fleck is from 

the lower class, the crushing gears of capitalism are not only valid to the lower class but also to 

the middle class. Tuğçe Nur Biga argues by underlining the "they don't care about people like you 

or me" statement, which Fleck’s psychiatrist told Fleck that the system does not give importance 

to the middle class and the lower class equally. The doctor seems to be advantageous economically 

and socially with her education and social status in comparison with Fleck, who is working in a 

precarious job and possibly less educated than doctor but ignoring the middle and lower classes at 

the same time by the system are happened in a socio-economic environment where economic 

criteria deteriorate, finding a job becomes much more difficult and social justice disappears (Biga, 

2019). Michael Eden, on the other hand, considers Wayne's butler as middle class and claims that 

he has served the system and Wayne with full obedience, like a machine: “Further to this 

bureaucratic (middle-class indifference) is represented by Wayne’s butler who cruelly dismisses 

Fleck from behind the iron gates to Wayne’s mansion while the bored social worker who 



 

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perfunctorily meets with Fleck weekly is po-faced and doesn’t really listen to him” (Eden, 2019). 

The psychiatrist is just as lost in the system as Wayne's butler or the white-collars on the subway. 

Perhaps the difference from them is that, she is weary of the system and does not have intense 

desire to serve to the system or to a person. The system eliminates those who are unwilling to serve 

it, like the psychiatrist, and throws them out of the system. 

The point where the psychiatrist and Fleck converge in the perspective of the system is 

'worthlessness'. The reason which the capitalist system does not value them is that they have no 

'capital'. In the system, the upper class that owns capital, is valuable; the middle and lower classes 

are positioned at lower levels by the system. Especially in economic crises, investments decrease 

and unemployment increases; as Biga mentions before, the value of labor and the laborer decreases 

even more in these periods. 

Fleck's chain of killings continues with his mother Penny and former co-worker Randall. 

As a person who is full of reaction and struggles against the system, he has no tolerance for lower 

class types who try to ingratiate the system and do not have class consciousness. What he wants 

to see is the thousands of people who take to the streets wearing clown make-up. He is aware that 

the future world, which should include more equality and freedom, will be built by the thousands 

on the streets. The presence of Penny and Randall is unnecessary, and is also harmful as 

unnecessary. They are an obstacle to the egalitarian and free world that the lower class will build 

in the future. 

Fleck also kills Murray Franklin, who represents the capitalist media. Franklin represents 

in this film the type of media that represents the interests of the upper classes that control property. 

The media, as it exhibits, never represents the non-property majority of society. Fleck, who was 

teased when he was first shown on Franklin's show, wins the public's favor and attracts attention 



 

 

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during the show. The program, which realizes that Fleck is attracting attention, invites him as a 

guest this time. These two figures that Fleck presents on the show are a good example of how the 

media objectifies dispossessed people. Franklin's program first presents Fleck as a comedy element 

and makes fun of him. As soon as he realizes that the public is interested in Fleck, he accepts him 

to display in a more 'serious' presentation, as a 'program guest' and this time, he tries to get a rating 

on him in this way. We can see that the media behaves with a Machiavellian understanding and 

does not care about the path taken towards the goal of 'making more money'. The media offers 

people things to linger on and earns money over people. 

At the end of the movie, the people also beat up the cops who follow Fleck. This beating 

is an indirect lynching. The health status of the police is serious but stable after this beating. They 

get beat up badly because they serve the system. However, the script doesn't kill them because the 

police are just a tool in the system. Finally, Thomas Wayne, who represents the upper economic 

class, and his wife are killed after leaving the cinema. They went to the movies with their son 

Bruce. The fact that Bruce wasn't killed tells us that society is or should be hopeful for the next 

generations, no matter what class they come from, lower, middle or upper class. 

Class Concept in Joker Film 

If we examine the film in terms of semiotics, the film has assigned a meaning and a task to 

each character in the script. Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha clearly represent the upper class; 

it is even possible to see Thomas Wayne as Donald Trump himself. The three white-collars whom 

Fleck killed in the subway represent middle-class who do not have class-consciousness and who 

are fawning and accomplice to the upper class. Fleck's mother, Penny, and colleague, Randall, 

represent the low income class without class consciousness. The poliçes investigating Fleck on 



 

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suspicion of carrying out the murders are the 'brute force' side of the system. Fleck thinks that they 

caused the death of his mother (the lower class), indirectly. 

It probably would not have been what most people expected of him that the increasingly 

insane and criminalized actions of a person who has a mental illness and earns his life by clowning 

gain the support of the people; moreover, he spearheads class-charactered demonstrations that spill 

onto the streets. Özkurşun says that when the meaning of Joker word is examined, it also has 

meanings such as 'anyone', anonymous'. It is referred to as a 'jester' in the playing cards but perhaps 

the most remembered way which he has is when he stands next to the king and reminds the truths 

to him (Özkurşun, 2019). Fleck's transformation from a person who is mocked to the Joker, who 

is the vanguard of a social movement, is conducing to laborers who do not have class 

consciousness gain the class consciousness. People support Joker, his resistance and even his 

murders by making clown makeup. 

If we consider that everyone is becoming a clown after Joker, that leads us to an interesting 

point in this respect: if everyone is the Joker, it doesn't matter who is the Joker. By choosing to 

hide his true identity behind make-up, Arthur Fleck wants to say that his own existence is not 

important and he has no intention of leading any social movement. The expectation is, for people 

to organize themselves with an anarchist-revolutionary attitude, without including the state and 

political institutions, and to govern themselves. This should not be perceived as a lack of discipline 

or disorder. The movie Joker informs us that the classical modernist era has already come to an 

end and a very different social and political life awaits us in the postmodernist era that has begun. 

Joker says that the construction of this period will not be realized by a savior who is from the 

politician class but by people themselves and by people believing in themselves. 



 

 

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Fleck has a desire to spread 'joy and happiness'. While he is making friends in his 

imagination with a single mother who lives on the same floor, he tries to spread the concepts of 

"joy and happiness" to her in the first place. The elements of abandonment, child abuse and 

alienation in his past should definitely be taken into account in making sense of Fleck's life course. 

Moreover, almost every person in his life has betrayed him (Eden, 2019). Fleck responds to his 

life and past, which is full of negative elements, with 'joy and happiness'. In addition, humor and 

joy allow Fleck to shoot the bourgeois class which he is fighting, with the bourgeois class's own 

weapon but with a different interpretation. In Özkurşun's thinking, Arthur confronts the humor 

understanding of the bourgeoisie which is based on violence with a violence which is inspired by 

humor. While he is doing that, analyzing the elements which makes the capitalist-eroded society 

laugh is helpful to him (Özkurşun, 2019). 

According to Biga, Fleck's harmony and relationship with the system reveals itself 

depending on whether he has a job or not. Fleck's incompatibility with the system and oppositional 

identity become evident after losing his job but his clash with the system does not come to light 

while he has a job (Biga, 2019). We can follow the nature of the relationship that the system 

establishes with the low-income class in Fleck himself: system keeps the low income class 

dependent on the system and in a competent position by employing them. It is possible for people 

to become independent from the system only if they do not need a job; this is a situation that can 

happen for the lower- and middle-class people if only they manage to retire. Whereas, the upper 

class either does not work at all for a lifetime or works less in terms of time. It does not have any 

obligation to the system but always shows adherence and loyalty to the system that makes them 

live comfortably. 



 

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Biga associates the Joker's “finding himself” and “constructing his own existence” with the 

concepts of 'human will' and 'consciousness' that exist in Marx's literature. According to Biga, 

Marx defines the basic feature that distinguishes human beings from other living things as 

'consciousness'. The concepts of 'will' and 'being free' at the core of man are the basic elements in 

man's ability to produce his own reality. The biggest obstacle in producing his own existence is 

the alienation of the individual from his own labor. Joker explores his own existence with the 

concepts of 'resistance' and 'rebellion', which are another reflection of 'consciousness'; being a part 

of the rebellion of the society is the main reason for overcoming his own alienation (Biga, 2019). 

Köpüklü says that the longing of the society which is oppressed under the system for a 

savior is embodied in Joker's anarchist personality. Joker’s case, which is suppressed by a system 

like society, makes it easier to produce analogy with society. The situations of Joker and society 

are immanent to each other because of their relations with the same capitalist system (Köpüklü, 

2019, 57). The Joker's problematic psychology, which comes from his troubled past, is in parallel 

with the masses which are overwhelmed under capitalist wheels. Gleiberman also thinks that the 

problematic psychology of the masses and Fleck's troubled inner world follow a parallel line: 

“Arthur is a figment, a projection, a dream image of our collective spirit” (Gleiberman, 2019). 

Joker film says that 'salvation' is not in a human-leader although people expect it in this 

way; salvation lies in the social bonds that people will build among themselves. In the movie, 

people follow Fleck's invisible call, go out into the street, everyone puts on clown make-up and 

everyone seeks 'salvation together'. This situation also differs from the method of right-populist 

politics that produces the 'leader cult', and it has to be different. Thomas Wayne, the politician in 

the movie, is killed. This killing is not a physical killing only, but a spiritual one also. All 

politicians and the political establishment were killed in Wayne's person; class differences and 



 

 

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class-based humiliations were also killed in Wayne's person. İdil Özkurşun is underlining Wayne’s 

expression which contains many humiliations and prejudices against poor people that ‘failed 

clowns in life who are jealous of the wealthy who have earned their living by working’ (Özkurşun, 

2019). That mentality is the one which the film resists completely. This perspective is based on 

inequality and discrimination, it includes capitalism's disdain for the lower classes who have no 

money. 

While Michael Eden draws the character structure of Thomas Wayne, he actually shows 

us a exact representation of the capitalist system in Wayne's person and what the Joker rebels 

against: “.. he is a rich man who gives to charity and has a respectful visage while also glibly 

expressing concern for the murdered city workers ‘Wall Street Guys’ as the film polemically refers 

to them and treating Fleck and his mother (a former employee) with utter disdain .. Wayne’s 

pompous and macho sense of entitlement is a nod to politicians and big business who believe their 

own hype, that their wealth is in no way due to luck, circumstance or inherited power but is actually 

directly related to their inert superiority, ‘you get what you deserve’ is a motif repeated throughout 

the film which satirises the American dream ..” (Eden, 2019). 

Class oppression and despiciency takes place severely between Thomas Wayne and Penny, 

Fleck's mother. Biga asserts that when the exploitation of the bourgeoisie on the working class and 

the patriarchal aspect of the capitalist system are considered together, the sexual exploitation of 

Thomas Wayne on Penny is better understood in the minds (Biga, 2019). Wayne, who is very 

likely Fleck’s father, denies being father of Fleck, and this reminds me of the denial of bourgeois 

class on its exploitation of the working class. Wayne's sensitive concealment of a filial relationship 



 

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that might be against him is exactly the same as the attempt of the bourgeoisie to conceal its 

exploitation of the working class over surplus value. 

If we look at Fleck's character structure from a Freudian perspective, we can see that Fleck's 

relationship with his mother is fed by the Oedipus complex. Like a caregiver, Fleck bathes his 

mother and prefers her feeding to his own. In a house without a father, he also has an intense 

longing and need for a father figure: he approaches Murray Franklin first and then Thomas Wayne 

(Eden, 2019) but both efforts are futile. These two brand faces of the capitalist system definitely 

have no intention to give heed to a ‘loser’, who is mentally ill and who is coming from the lower 

class; above all, to perform a fatherhood figure to him. 

Joker’s Proposal and Violence in the Film 

The purpose of the Joker movie is to propose a system change as an 'anti-system' movie. 

Thousands of people who took to the streets at the end of the movie present a social structure that 

has evolved from cosmos to chaos, but the movie can be subjected to criticism just at this point: 

the movie does not suggest a new system to replace the system which is destroyed. It leaves people 

in the midst of chaos, in a pointless and meaningless position. 

Biga attributes the inability to offer a clear solution instead of the system which is 

abolished, to the lack of an organized infrastructure for social action. In this respect, she says that 

the film fails to establish a connection between today's forms of rebellion and the struggle of the 

oppressed classes, although she appreciates the realistic look of the film (Biga, 2019) but Köpüklü 

likens the dampening of the lower class's hatred of the system to preventing the explosion of gas 

accumulation by allowing minor oscillations. Opening an opposition area to the opposition side 

under the control of the system means absorbing the opposition's reactions within the power of the 

system (Köpüklü, 2019, 57). In this perspective, it can be said that the film does not aim at a total 



 

 

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system change, on the contrary, it aims to reduce the hatred of the lower class towards the system 

to the lowest possible level, thus removing the lower class from being a threat to the continuity of 

the system. Köpüklü's perspective is an interpretation which we disagree with because we think 

that Joker makes an explicit call which is based on class concept. 

In fact, it may not be appropriate to blame the Joker for not making any suggestions about 

"how or in what direction the system should change" because few people in the world have any 

idea what the current system, which is in the throes of giving birth to a new one, has been 

becoming,. In this respect, it is an expected result that the Joker movie does not/cannot make a 

descriptive and precise definition of a 'new system'. This uncertainty is bothering the majority of 

people in the world and it is the reason for the protests and riots directed against states in different 

countries. 

The concepts of 'status' and 'class discrimination', which emerged as a result of the concept 

of 'inequality' in the nature of the capitalist system, are means of 'otherization' and 'exclusion' for 

the lower class. Thus, the system gives the individual no choice but either to 'revolt against the 

system' or to 'give up on himself' (Sunal & Arkan, 2020:240). If this state of 'revolt against the 

system' spills onto the streets, it would not be surprising that to express itself with the concept of 

violence. 

In American films, it is often seen that film includes violence and film justifies violence in 

the eyes of the audience. When Arthur turns into Joker and the character turns into a hero, the 

audience legitimizes in their minds the action of the character who committed a murder. Because 

Arthur serves the desire of the lower class to take revenge in all the murders that he commits. 

Arthur does his actions on behalf of the audience: his suffering, his fighting, his happiness, 



 

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everything is for the audience. While he performs these actions, the audience accompanies him 

with a sense of pleasure (Sunal & Arkan, cited from Kara, Kucukgoncu, Saygılı, 2020:242). 

Biga attributes the reason for the chaos based on anger and violence that occurs at the end 

of the movie that individuals move away from being a 'subject with rights' (Biga, 2019). The 

situation of individuals losing their ‘subject’ status in social life has occurred mostly for the lower 

economic class since the early 1980s. This is a mass already which goes out to the streets, protests, 

demonstrates and due to the case, clashes with the police. The poor people who are ignored and 

not taken seriously by the system, often try to make themselves visible through violent actions and 

send the message to the system that "I am here, too". 

As Last Word: The Call of Joker 

One of the most important rules that the discipline of sociology can teach us is the 

impossibility of spreading chaos in society in the long term. In the short term, society may show a 

high level of resistance to overthrow an unsatisfied regime or system. This state of resistance, of 

which we can find many examples in history, is called 'revolution'. However, society cannot 

sustain this resistance in the long term and it does not prefer to continue it. It tends to settle in 

certain order and structure, it prefers to return from chaos to the cosmos. Long-term tension is 

contrary to the interests of society. 

In this framework, society tries to extract the best possible system from this short-term 

chaotic process. Historical examples often tell us that such chaotic processes have evolved into 

different outcomes. The reason for this, as stated earlier, is the ' inability to organize' problem of 

the lower and middle class, which produces chaos and which demands change. This problem 

results in the chaotic process not in favor of the lower and middle class, but in favor of the upper 

class, which is better organized and more conscious of its class interests. 



 

 

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Still, we consider the film an artistic scream in the name of the lower and middle class. The 

main purpose and function of the film is to call the working class to unite against populism or to 

reflect the stance of the working class, which had already made an anti-populist preference against 

the system. Whichever the purpose of the film is, it has succeeded in its purpose. Although Joker 

does not know what the future system will be, it knows pretty well that the lower and middle class 

workers can survive only with an organized and class-conscious solidarity in the current system, 

and in the future one. What whispered slightly to our ear at the end of the movie is that the survival 

of every person who does not have any share in the means of production and earns his life by 

selling his labor depends on being in solidarity and reconciliation with other people like himself.  

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