I don’t understand this.
I remember reading in some survey that the top two most instantly recognizable villains in the western world were 1. Darth Vader and 2. The Joker.
So how is it that this keeps coming up, in article and newscast, one after the other, that the maniac who shot up Aurora dyed his hair “red like the Joker.”
The Joker has GREEN hair! How is this not common knowledge? I know I’m a bit of a geek, but I didn’t think you needed to be a geek to know that!
ONE scene in ONE version of the many movies, where the Joker is specifically dressed as someone who isn’t the Joker.
That just makes no sense.
He was also dressed up in black body armor like Mickey Mouse. He threw smoke bombs like Sonic the Hedgehog too.
It was a pivotal scene in what lots of people of the shooter’s generation consider THE joker performance of all time.
That still doesn’t make it make sense, unless you couldn’t grasp even the basics of the fact that the Joker was wearing a costume. Do I have rainbow hair because I dressed up as a clown one year for Halloween?
It makes sense as something one stupid reporter got wrong, but not something that would keep spreading after the majority of people would tell them they were factually inaccurate.
Look, I also was like WTF. But after some Batman fans broke it down to me, I understood a bit better. It is possible that the reporter didn’t get it wrong. It is possible the shooter was paying homage to that particular scene when he died his hair.
But, let’s be honest here; I have no fucking clue.
I just don’t get why they’re making this insanely tenuous connection to the Joker’s single red-haired scene in the first place. He wasn’t dressed like the Joker, and wasn’t tricky like the Joker, didn’t set up any elaborate mind games or whatnot. Just dressed in black body armor and then blasted away.
The whole “he was pretending to be this bad man, look how awful it is to dress up/pretend to be other people/influence of the violent media!” thing is really being stretched to the point of snapping on this one.
A police officer told the press that he said, “I am the Joker”. That’s why the press ran with that. A statement like makes the story more sensational so that the t.v. can sell it to viewers.
When arrested, he told police “I am The Joker.” So that was what initially led reporters to that scene. But yes, the fact that it was a single scene should have clued everyone in by now that the dude is just a fruitcake and wasn’t actually aping The Joker.
No one has pointed out yet that the Joker is wearing a wig when he’s dressed as a nurse.
Not to mention it isn’t bozo red. I don’t think the nurse scene has anything to do with it. As a very casual fan, I will say that when I first read about the shooter declaring himself The Joker, I realized he meant a Ledger rather than Romero type of Joker but in my mind I saw the character from the '60s TV show and really didn’t give it a second thought. I think the average person who isn’t a big fan just has sort of a composite mental image of The Joker and if someone plants “red hair” in their mind, they have no trouble picturing him that way.
The media is lazy and stupid. The Joker had crazy hair. The suspect had crazy hair. Ergo they are the same.
He said he was the joker. The fact that red hair dye is easier to find that green combined with the fact that he is batshit crazy makes it plausible he was trying to look like the joker in his mind. Would you prefer if every time the media mentioned he said he was the joker they insert an editorial note stating that the joker had green hair?
Yes, actually, because that would reinforce the fact that the shooter is batshit insane, rather than the current inference which is that people who are interested enough in popular or counter-culture to dress up like characters are unhinged and likely to start shooting places up.
I happen to be a regular cosplayer, and I’m planning to wear costumes around Atlanta during Dragon*con this year. I’m not going as the Joker, but I have played as Harliquin before. I’d rather not get detained on the MARTA for suspicion of being a mass murderer, thanks.
I appreciate that those images appear to back you up, but that statement is incorrect. Cesar Romero’s joker makeup always included green hair. Those images are either degraded or suffer from very poor lighting which is creating a false reddish hue.
I’m thinking that if a guy is off enough that arming himself to the teeth and bursting into a darkened theatre to massacre people sounds like a great idea, maybe that guy also can’t be trusted to get the details of a costume down correctly.
Too bad ain’t gonna happen. I hope you understand that the more important fact is that he thought (or wants us to think) he was being the Joker. Not that he wasn’t a good enough fan to get the costume right. Unless you want to reinforce the stereotype that fanboys are living in their mother’s basement completely divorced from reality.
“12 dead in Aurora Co.” “OMG his hair should be GREEN!”
Exactly. Of course since then the police have backed away from this statement somewhat, so I’m left wondering what he really said and how unambiguous it really was. I’m also willing to cut the guy a little slack on the fine points of his costume being that he’s a fucking maniac. If he said he was dressed as the Joker, that’s good enough for me even if the hair color might be wrong. However it’s not clear to me if he really said that. We may have to wait for the trial or longer.
