The director of the new movie Joker explained that he decided to focus on a dramatic film instead of a comedy because he is tired of tiptoeing around the demands of “woke culture.”
Todd Phillips, 48, who famously directed hit comedies such as The Hangover and Old School, said in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, “Go try to be funny nowadays with this woke culture. There were articles written about why comedies don’t work anymore — I’ll tell you why, because all the f—ing funny guys are like, ‘F— this shit, because I don’t want to offend you.’”
“It’s hard to argue with 30 million people on Twitter,” Phillips went on, lamenting the social media mob that destroys anyone who disagrees. “You just can’t do it, right? So you just go, ‘I’m out.’ I’m out, and you know what? With all my comedies — I think that what comedies, in general, all have in common — is they’re irreverent.”
Explaining what moved him to make Joker, which the interview claims “doubles as a critique of Hollywood,” Phillips said, “So I go, ‘How do I do something irreverent, but f— comedy? Oh I know, let’s take the comic book movie universe and turn it on its head with this.’ And so that’s really where that came from.”
Phillips has nevertheless stoked outrage even in his new genre, as some have accused his new film of sympathetically portraying a violent, disaffected white man. Phillips bemoaned in response that “outrage has been a commodity for a while” and reflected that “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 been really eye-opening for me.”
