Joker

Plot hole: Arthur's appearance on the talk show makes hardly any sense. The show is a close port of Johnny Carson's Tonight show, for a huge audience, and yet he receives no screening at all, they put him (someone NOBODY in the staff knows the first thing about) on the air literally without a clue of what he is gonna do or say, and wearing a highly controversial costume. And, when he murders Murray, it is implied that everyone was able to see him doing that right away and he is cut 'off the air' at some point, as if the show were really live, which is preposterous for this sort of program outside of specific events (similar to how in contemporary TV "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", is not live). Even earlier when Arthur opened the letter his mom addressed to Wayne, you could hear the end credits of "Live with Murray Franklin" with the announcer saying the show is "Taped live in front of a studio audience." (00:48:00)

Sammo

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Suggested correction: I don't see this is a problem due to the fact that we can't be sure what really happens as apposed to what only happens in Arthur's mind. So if the whole TV show appearance is just another fantasy, he would have skipped the who screening process.

You are free to treat the whole movie as something where things don't make sense because in the fan theory of your liking it's all meant to have subtle hints that the movie is all a fantasy, but the movie does not present that particular talk show scene as a dream sequence. It'd be silly to nitpick the logic in the scene when he is picked from the audience by Murray at the beginning because it's obviously presented as nothing more than his fantasy, but his appearance on the show is what the movie built up to up to that point and is not treated as a parenthesis where logic should be suspended, nor disproven like the scenes with his girlfriend standing in.

Sammo

Suggested correction: The points raised are logical in the context of our real world. However, in the film world, different rules/logic can apply, and apparently do. In the movie world, this show is live, etc. Saying that something is taped live doesn't mean that it isn't also broadcast live; the two don't have to be mutually exclusive. They could just be saying that so people don't think they use a laughter track.

Plot hole: Given Arthur's mother was placed in an asylum it seems unlikely she would've been allowed to keep him once released. The state would've placed him in another home.

Rob245

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Suggested correction: Nobody says she raised him as a child. As soon as he turned 18 he could have chosen to live with her again. Quite possibly because he didn't like his foster home.

lionhead

Factual error: Based on the films being shown at the theater, the movie appears to be set in 1981. One of the TV commercials shows the Energizer Bunny, which didn't make its first appearance until 1988.

wizard_of_gore

More mistakes in Joker

Arthur Fleck: My mother always tells me to smile and put on a happy face. She told me I had a purpose: to bring laughter and joy to the world.

More quotes from Joker
More trivia for Joker

Answer: In a nutshell, it's because the film's protagonist is a mentally disturbed killer, and certain groups in America thought the film's violence would lead to copycat behavior.

Phaneron

I never got this aspect of the controversy, if anything, it goes to show what can happen when mental illness goes untreated.

ctown28

I agree with you on that, but unfortunately, there's so many people, at least in the United States, that have no sense of nuance and are prone to knee-jerk reactions. They would rather condemn and blame different kinds of media for society's ills, rather than stop and look at the message something is trying to tell.

Phaneron

I read about the concern over possible copycat behavior in an on-line article; Phaneron's answer is correct.

KeyZOid

Answer: Because the left thought it would encourage violence and mocked liberal run cities.The right thought the same on violence, it seemingly justified a mentally ill guy's actions, that it made white businessmen bad guys. Both sides in general only complained about Joker for attention.

Rob245

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