In Joker (2019) Arthur Fleck always wanted to become a successful comedian. But in my opinion he did not have the qualities of an aspiring comedian. He had a dream, but he did not actively pursue his dream to realize it.
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Arthur’s lifelong dream
Arthur Fleck always wanted to be a standup comedian. He admitted he had this dream since his childhood. He wanted to perform in big comedy clubs and one day be someone like his idol Murray Franklin. His pursuit of comedy career was not a secret desire. He was outspoken about it. He told his mother, coworkers, psychiatrist and even imaginary girlfriend that he is going to make it in standup comedy. In his mind he thought he was funny and well prepared for a break through until his own idol, Murray Franklin crushed that dream on national TV. If those unfortunate events didn’t happen, could Arthur have become a successful comedian?
His warped sense of humor
Comedians have different takes on life. They can take uncomfortable, controversial, taboo subjects and mask them in humor to discuss them with an audience. They know how to deliver jokes without offending or enraging the audience. Arthur lacked that sense of humor, even his own mother thought he wasn’t funny. But at least he tried to figure out how comedy work. He went to comedy clubs to watch comedy performances and observed how comedians made the audience laugh and tried to learn the craft by literally taking notes. But judging by his misplaced fake laughter, I don’t think he understood comedians’ jokes let alone learnt how humor work. Despite his best efforts he only managed to tell an offensive, simple knock, knock joke while he was on the Live With Murray Franklin Show.
His lack of comedy materials
Comedy materials are the most valuable possession of a comedian. Comedians are constantly working on their jokes. Some comedians even hire writers to write good material. It is an important part of being a comedian because the material defines a comedian.
Arthur also was working on his jokes. But his joke book was just a reflection of the state of his mind, it was a jumbled mess. He was using that note book for all sort of things such as writing jokes, taking notes on how to be a comedian, journaling his mental state as per his psychiatrist’s request, using as a scrap book for nude pictures. No wonder his jokes did not work on an audience.
Comedians oftentimes use their rough upbringings, dire living conditions, work place experiences, their own mental or physical disabilities as the source of comedy materials. Arthur had checked all the above boxes and it made him miserable. Arthur could have vented all his repressed emotions through comedy. That way he would not have to yell at his psychiatrist for not listening to his problems. Comedy would not have solved all of his problems, but it would have lessened his burden and made coping much easier.
He did not test his jokes
Comedians can’t repeat same jokes forever. They need to come up with new jokes constantly. When they come up with new jokes they don’t add them directly to their main routines. Instead they test new jokes on smaller audiences first. If the test audience reacted positively they will keep that jokes and discard negatively received jokes.
If Arthur tested his jokes beforehand, he would not have ended up getting ridiculed on the open mic event at the pogo’s comedy club and then later on national television. Also he would not have drawn so many gasps and protests in the Murray Franklin show when he said that inappropriate knock-knock joke. To be honest I think he might have known exactly what he was doing, saying that knock-knock joke on the show.
He did not developed a proper comedy routine to perform
Even without his nervous breakdown, Arthur Fleck’s open mic performance was a mess. He went up to the mic unprepared and without a routine. He delivered his first joke, then said “done” under his breath, proceeded to skim through his mess of a joke book looking for a new joke, said “here’s one” when he found another joke and started to tell completely unrelated joke to the first one. He should have prepare a simple routine if he was serious about making a career out of standup comedy.
If you are serious about comedy career and dreaming to become a big name comedian it is not enough to say few random jokes on a stage and hope to have a big break through. There are some talented, witty comedians like Jimmy Carr or Andrew Schulz who can just grab a mike and start to roast audience members. Even they use that method occasionally for crowd work or handling hecklers during their regular routine. Some comedians like Bill Burr perform like they are having casual conversation with the audience and randomly ranting about issues of the world. But if you compare similar bits from their shows you can clearly see that’s not the case, they were performing practiced routines which look like spontaneous jokes. If you want to know what a well-practiced routine looks like, look at Kevin Heart specials. He had perfected the art to a point his set shoots fireworks to his punch lines.
Arthur had missed many opportunities to practice his jokes
Arthur was not a recluse person. His daily interactions did not limited to only few people. As a clown he had to work with different people every day. He was not shy about it and enjoyed performing for crowds. He could have used that opportunity to test his jokes and come up with a routine. His workplace was filled with clowns, they were constantly joking around in their dressing room. It was a perfect place for picking up ideas and pitching jokes. Judging by how those people banter with each other, they would not have been gentle with their opinions either. So it would have been a reality check for Arthur about his comedic abilities.
His inability to accept negative criticism
Everyone have their own dreams, but only few people are actually trying to achieve them, fewer will actually achieve their goals. Only pursuing the dream will tell us whether we will be successful or not. An aspiring comedian must perform for an audience to test their skills and accept the criticism. It is up to the comedian to get upset from the criticism and discourage or use it to better self. There is no way around it.
When Murray Franklin crushed his dreams Arthur had two options. He could have accepted the criticism and abandon his fool’s errand to become a famous comedian or shrug off the insults and commit harder to his goals, so someday he could come back strong to prove that everyone were wrong. Instead he chose the third option to murder the person who made fun of him on the live TV.
Conclusion
Arthur’s lifelong dream was to become a famous comedian. He always day-dreamed about it. But he was not committed to realize his dream. He was too delusional to see his shortcomings and finally snapped when reality caught up to him. Because of these reasons it is safe to assume that Arthur Fleck would not have become a successful comedian even those unfortunate events never happened to him. Arthur Fleck aka The Joker was gifted with gun handling abilities, but ironically The Joker was hopeless at stand up comedy.
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