Joker War

* MauLer - Rags - Weekend Warrior - Critical Drinker - Doomcock - Wolf - Jeb Bush - JLongbone - ThatStarWarsGirl - MetalCommander - LiteratureDevil - Alfred (unconfirmed) - SmilerAl - HeelVsBabyface- CinemaWins - Michael Moore apparently

Massives

* TYT Investigates - MovieBob - Jenny Nicholson - The Knights of Jen - Nando V Movies - MovieBob again - Ralphthemoviemaker - CinemaSins

### Date

October 4, 2019 - April 25, 2020

The **Joker** **War**, also called the **J\*ker War**, was an event that took place across EFAPs 57, 59, 61, 70, 71, and 83. It was a series of conflicts between movie critics who praised the 2019 film *Joker* and those who decried it.

## History

### Foreshadowing

In the weeks leading up to the release of *Joker*, various media outlets and internet personalities expressed concerns that the film would inspire a wave of real-life violence, often of either an incel or white supremacist nature.

This did not happen.

### First Strikes - Debut of TYT & Return of MovieBob

> "Well, joke's on you Bob, because you're not black so we don't have to laugh at your jokes."
>
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> - Critical Drinker
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>

After the release of the film, MauLer and Rags gathered Weekend Warrior, the Critical Drinker, and Doomcock for EFAP 57 to take a look at a video by TYT Investigates, a branch of The Young Turks that typically focused on economic politics but decided to throw their hat into the *Joker* discussion. TYT described the film as having a problem with black women, citing the handful of black women it claimed were portrayed as cruel to protagonist Arthur Fleck (and ignoring the various white men who were explicitly cruel to him), and arguing that the film believed that black women are obligated to laugh at white men's jokes.

The boys then turned their attention to their old foe MovieBob, who did not want to make this video because he saw *Joker* as an empty, unoriginal, substanceless film that would be forgotten about in two weeks, speeding through the plot synopsis that would actually hold some of the substance he said it lacked. He accused it of being a ripoff of about twenty other movies without saying what elements it took from those media, leading the gang to question if it is even a ripoff at all if it draws from so many inspirations. Bob's skimming over the content of *Joker* was in stark contrast to his *Last* *Jedi* analysis, which squeezed as much deeper meaning as possible out of it. Even Bob could not deny that Joaquin Pheonix' performance was good, however. He ended his review by saying *Joker* had nothing much to say but would not shut up, an ironic accusation coming from him.

### The Jebbening

On EFAP 59, MauLer, Rags, and a returning Wolf encountered Jenny Nicholson for the first time, taking a look at her video on *Joker*. Jenny began by questioning the intricacies of the sign-spinning clown advertiser industry, like why a store would bother trying to make or save money when it's going out of business, and why they wouldn't just hire someone unskilled to advertise for them, as if sign-spinning performers and going out of business promotions don't exist in real life. She claimed the world was unrealistically mean to Arthur, questioning why teenagers would beat him up for no reason, as if such a thing were impossible, and classified Thomas Wayne as evil for punching a “seemingly nonviolent" mentally ill man (who peacefully strangled his butler). Jenny questioned Arthur's motivations, accusing him of killing people because he wanted attention rather than simply because they were awful to him. She doubted that Arthur was crazy in a "brain chemistry kind of sense,” since his illness is a result of head trauma, and thought the film was saying he was cured at the end because he spoke more lucidly on the talkshow. She concluded from the "pearl-clutching old lady" in the talkshow scene that Todd Phillips thought people who don't like his jokes should die. Jenny tried at length to find a theme to the film, asking if the theme was that you shouldn't take medication, and eventually settling on the theme being "mental illness makes murderers," and that the film supported Arthur's murders. She also mentioned that she intentionally saw the film at a drive-in showing out of fear that another member of the audience would murder her with a gun. This did not happen.

Far more important than anything in Jenny's video was the discoveries made about former United States Presidential candidate Jeb Bush, to which about 8 hours of the stream was dedicated. It was discovered that a small Jeb was running on a wheel inside of every thinking creature's head, powering their thoughts and requiring occasional watering. The gang wondered aloud if Jenny's giant stuffed Porg secretly contained Jeb.

#### The Knights of Jen & the Death of Jay

While Jenny herself left her thoughts on the stream contained to simply a surprised tweet, The Knights of Jen took matters into their own hands, launching an attack on Twitter against MauLer, Rags, and Wolf where they painted them as hateful incels who couldn't let a woman have an opinion. Jay was caught in the crossfire, and died. He's better now.

### Discovery of Diabeto (ft Nando)

Two weeks after MovieBob said that nobody would be talking about *J\*ker* in two weeks, MovieBob talked about *J\*ker* again. MauLer, Rags, Wolf, JLongbone, and ThatStarWarsGirl took a look at what he had to say on EFAP 61, where they uncovered his villainous alter ego of Diabeto. Bob claimed that nobody should be surprised that a movie about a popular comic book character making a billion dollars, despite having previously celebrated *Captain Marvel*'s billion dollar box office when it came out between two *Avengers* films. Bob countered the idea that negative press claiming the movie potentially causing shootings was drummed up by left-wing journalists by pointing out that left-wing activist Michael Moore (complete with *Team* *America* charicature) enjoyed the movie, then criticized Moore for saying we should try to find out why mass killers become the people they become, because we should instead simply accept it's because they're racist.

The gang then turned their attention to Nando v Movies' *J\*ker* video. It wasn't very good either.

### Ralph's BAD TAKE & The Alfred Confusion

> "Is this guy supposed to be Alfred?"
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> - Ralphthemoviemaker
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MauLer, Rags, and Metal were joined by newcomer Literature Devil in EFAP 71, as Ralphthemoviemaker stepped up to the plate to take on *J\*ker*. Armoured Skeptic was supposed to show up, but he died. MauLer and Rags came prepared, having watched the films that people had claimed *J\*ker* had ripped off, and they couldn't see many connections outside of the superficial. Ralph criticized the film for having what he saw as no creative vision behind it, leading to a discussion of the arthouse film Le Fromage. He also raised the question of if the older British man looking after a young Bruce Wayne was supposed to be Alfred, a question which has to this day remained unanswered, and opened a rabbithole of possible Alfreds. Ralph's video also notably played previously unseen footage of a video from Mooper, the creator of the GDELB series.

### EFAP vs CinemaSins vs CinemaWins vs *Joker*

MauLer and Rags returned to *Joker* for EFAP 83, where they gathered SmilerAl, Drinker, and HeelVsBabyface to take a look at both CinemaSins and CinemaWins' takes on the film, with the goal of seeing who would do the better job of critiquing the film. While CinemaWins had the occasional point where he seemed to extrapolate a bit too much, and ended his video on a strange note by claiming that no movie is objectively good, CinemaSins performed far worse, barely able to go one Sin without getting something wrong, going to desperate lengths to try and find things wrong with the film.