Joker

Above, a tweet from a user which says 'It literally costs $0.00 to not say the fucking n word'. Below, a still from the Dark Knight in which the Joker says 'It's not about money, it's about sending a message.'

Joker is a villain from the Batman franchise. The character is often depicted in various movies, television shows, and comics as a nihilistic, destructive, and violent figure. He is used as a meme character in hateful contexts to express discontent with the world, sometimes to celebrate or encourage acts of political violence. There are numerous meme formats that include the Joker character, not all of which are inherently hateful. Context and conveyed message need to be carefully considered when evaluating such memes.

An example of the Joker being used as a hateful meme character was when it was coopted by Gamers Rise Up, a movement that started as a satire of Gamergate that relied on using alt-right tropes and aesthetics, and which openly spread hate speech.

Hatepedia was produced by the Online Hate Research and Education Project, which is an initiative of The Toronto Holocaust Museum. For more information, please visit our website or contact us at info [at] thethm.org.

Hatepedia and OHREP have been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

Hatepedia et OHREP a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada.