Let me start by saying that I am not trying to make light of the concerns of the Aurora shooting victims and their loved ones, either by connecting them to Todd Philips’ snobbery or by making more commentary on how comics are looked down upon. However, you don’t have to be Dirk Gently to see how all of this is connected.
“All of this” refers to recently quoted remarks by Todd Phillips about how he approached his Joker movie and why he ignored the comics, while also having what I feel is a big misunderstanding about how Heath Ledger’s Joker, also not an accurate depiction, connects to James Holmes, who shot up an Aurora, Colorado movie theater during a showing of The Dark Knight, where we were told he was inspired by the Joker, either of that movie or the character in general. I fully understand that theater not wanting to show the Joker movie because of that incident and I’m not calling them out for it. I’m not even calling out the families of the victims. However, a better understanding of the character, which you won’t be getting from Phillips’ re-imagining of The King Of Comedy by using the DC villain, is in order lest we continue the mistaken belief that this movie or that video game is to blame for any non-politically motivated mass shooting that occurs. Sometimes we make media the scapegoat because it’s easier than addressing the actual problems.
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