Man "dressed as The Joker" injures 17 in Tokyo subway attack

Originally published at: Man "dressed as The Joker" injures 17 in Tokyo subway attack | Boing Boing

3 Likes

Probably doesn’t even bear mentioning that if this attack had occurred in the US, there would likely be dozens dead, rather than 17 injured.

11 Likes

Sad Ben Affleck GIF

9 Likes

Jeez, what an asshole.

3 Likes

That won’t stop the whataboutism on conservative news. “See?! Even countries without guns have mass public attacks!! Guns can’t be the problem.”
IF ONLY THERE’D BEEN A GOOD GUY WITH A GUN

3 Likes

I mean, that’s a pretty weak joker outfit.

3 Likes

Japan has a lot of social issues, and a pretty crazy suicide rate.

Rather than veer into the forbidden topic of speculating on this fine gentleman’s mental health, I’ll posit that he’s a giant coward that doesn’t have the fortitude to just end it himself, and wants the state to do it for him. This is just Japanese “suicide by cop” except without the summary execution by cops with guns.

I would only go so far as to say “fragile male egos”. We see it often enough in cross-over news of white supremacists, and this could be cross-posted in the misogyny thread.

1 Like

Remember when Joker came out, and Todd Phillips was so insistent that its celebration of violence was going to be a nothingburger?

“What’s outstanding to me in this discourse in this movie is how easily the far left can sound like the far right when it suits their agenda. It’s really been eye-opening for me,” he proclaimed, also explaining in the interview, “It wasn’t, ‘We want to glorify this behavior.’ It was literally like ‘Let’s make a real movie with a real budget and we’ll call it f–ing Joker’. That’s what it was.”

I tend not to believe that media representation of violent crime inevitably leads to real-life violent crime. But stuff like this always reminds that media representation is one part of the equation and sociopaths will cling on to whatever affirms their worldview. And even in Japan, absent the specific American politics that were inherent in the left-wing critique of Joker, it makes you think.

EDIT: Looks like some in the comments on the twitter post are pointing out that the guy is more likely dressed up as Kira from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

4 Likes

This feels like a toxic response to the old addage of “if you meet assholes all day, then you’re the asshole.” To protect them from the inherent lesson and an opportunity for self-reflection, men instead get to that part they’re handed the Joker, a gift-wrapped cultural meme of “…but if you’re the asshole, GREAT, assholes are clever and cool and everyone else are weak sheeple who SUCK and don’t GET IT.”

1 Like

He was dressed a lot like Heath Ledger’s Joker.

images

images (1)

1 Like

Yeah it looks like the BBC article confirms that it was a Joker getup.

Not the Joker I was expecting. It isn’t the cartoon or comic Joker rather than the Heath Ledger Joker? Anyway it’s also the first time I’ve encountered “blackpill”, although I guess the term makes sense.

The big difference is the necktie instead of the bowtie. It makes sense, though, because the Batman comics aren’t very well known here (and I don’t think the Animated Series is known at all), so most people have only been exposed to Batman through the movies in Japan, and the Nolan trilogy was pretty iconic.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.