The Dionysian clown in movies: the Homicidal Joker in the Dark Knight (2008), Batman the Killing Joke (2016) and Joker (2019)

Abstract

The Clown, as a comic archetype, has been demonically possessed by killer clown culture. The latter had produced, all whilst subverting the erotic Greek clowning of satyr plays, several trends, ranging from Commedia dell’Arte in medieval Italy, to British pantomime tradition of leery clown characters like Joseph Grimaldi, and Deburau’s French theatrical performances which led to the development of the lofty and violent pantomime shows of the Hanlon-Lees. These shows inspired European and American literary trends to adopt killer clown personas; most notable of which, perhaps, is the controversial killer clown character ‘The Joker’. This American pop culture ‘anti-hero’ was depicted, controversially, in the movie The Dark Knight, the movie Batman the Killing Joke (2016) and the movie Joker (2019). In modern literary trends, the culture of killer clowns in literature exists for various reasons. Though the lens of philosophical and mythical studies, this article considers the Joker’s killer clown as a descendant of the continuous development of the interpretation of the art of clowning in relation to the Dionysian cult. It views modern clowns as characters that mirror the Greek god Dionysus.