The Effects of the joker on society
Although there have been villains before the Joker, he is probably the most memorable and in some ways, the most terrifying. His villainy is not his true nature (or so we are told) so we know that he has almost no humanistic tendencies and cannot be reasoned with because he has no reason. In this way, we have become especially frightened of the Joker and everything that mental diseases entail.
For example: we would almost be more frightened of the Joker, someone who has a disease of the mind than we would be of someone who is physically frightening. The Joker is not supposed to be a big man or physically powerful one, but his unpredictability makes him even more frightening than someone who would be. This has changed our outlook on what horror and fear really are. Instead of seeing horror films that emphasize the terror of monsters and physical acts of fear, our movies have turned to the fear of the mind and what it can do.
If this is all influenced by the Joker is speculation, but the Joker certainly came before this type of American fear and was one of the only lunatics widely published about before this new-found terror of a joker like mind started.
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For example: we would almost be more frightened of the Joker, someone who has a disease of the mind than we would be of someone who is physically frightening. The Joker is not supposed to be a big man or physically powerful one, but his unpredictability makes him even more frightening than someone who would be. This has changed our outlook on what horror and fear really are. Instead of seeing horror films that emphasize the terror of monsters and physical acts of fear, our movies have turned to the fear of the mind and what it can do.
If this is all influenced by the Joker is speculation, but the Joker certainly came before this type of American fear and was one of the only lunatics widely published about before this new-found terror of a joker like mind started.
Back to The Joker
Sources