Last night I was driving Janice home from a chiro session—likely to be her last, but we’ll see—when a thought struck me, related to the trailer for the Joker sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux. Starting 36 seconds in, Harleen Quinzel, as played by Lady Gaga, makes a shooting-herself-in-the-head gesture. It’s a nihilistic bit of physical comedy that the title character himself used in the original movie, so it comes off as flirting:
So what was the idea that hit me on the way home? Well…
If this makes you chuckle and you feel like sharing it with your friends, go right ahead! I showed it to Janice and she gave me the kind of laugh I love best from her, so for me, that’s already a win.
On the off chance that you’re blinking in confusion instead, one of Lady Gaga’s best-known songs is 2007’s “Poker Face,” which includes the lyrics:
Russian roulette is not the same without a gun
And, baby, when it’s love, if it′s not rough, it isn’t fun (fun)
I wouldn’t necessarily shame someone who enjoys a little rough play in the bedroom, but those lines also feel like they could have come from “classic” Harley Quinn, whose comedy and tragedy both boiled down to her confusing abuse with love. Whether that will apply to the character Gaga’s playing remains to be seen, since Joaquin Phoenix’s character has so far been very different from most versions of the Joker. The movie’s due out in October.
And then there’s the playing-card motif…
The song does seem to lend itself to multiple interpretations. Gaga herself has claimed it refers to herself sleeping with a man but wishing she were sleeping with a woman. Whether the creator of a work always gets the last word about its meaning is a classic academic debate. But memes like this aren’t about deep lyrical analysis, anyway: they’re just about funny little coincidental links.
When I came up with the gag, I thought there was a good chance it had already been done or was being done. You can’t always twist yourself in knots about originality, but I didn’t want to go to great lengths just to duplicate someone else’s effort here. So I used Google to do some due diligence. It lied to me immediately.
The source that Google’s AI cites for the claim that this is a line from the film is a comment on one of the movie’s earlier publicity photos, clearly not authoritative. When it comes to riffs on that gesture from the trailer, though, it looks like I got there first! (Or at least early enough that no one else’s version got too widely shared!)
Tomorrow: Going back to Babylon.
Loved yout one-liner. Makes me ask 2 questims: Why is it called Russian Roulette? Not Australian
Roulette? NRA Roulette?
2) Maybe Google AI is the ultimte weapon for The Joker