The funniest scene in the terrible film that is Joker: Folie à Deux isn’t meant to be a joke. But for Australians and fans of Aussie TV, one of the movie’s big musical numbers will get you right in your carbuncles for its noice, different, and unusual association with one of the best-ever TV theme songs: Kath and Kim.
The scene from Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel, which feels like it’s meant to be an unsettling declaration of homicidal nonchalance and outsider self-love (or something), sees Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck performing Anthony Newley’s “The Joker” at his murder trial. “There’s always a joker in the pack,” he sings, swanning around the courtroom in full Joker get-up. “There’s always a lonely clown.” Though it’s supposed to be a grand moment of the Joker loving himself sick, I could not stop cackling thinking of Gina Riley and Jane Turner’s legendary comedy show, Kath and Kim, which opens with Riley (who plays Kim) crushing a version of the song.
Let’s be clear, I did not love this movie — it’s the bain-marie of moi existence. But I loved this unintentionally hilarious moment.
‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ review: A middle finger to fans of Lady Gaga, the DC movies, and musicals
The song “The Joker,” which comes from the 1964 musical The Roar of the Greasepaint, has been sung by many over the years, most notably by the legendary Shirley Bassey on her 1968 album This Is My Life. Lady Gaga has covered it herself on Harlequin, her recently released companion album for Joker: Folie à Deux. It’s a separate version of the song Joaquin Phoenix sings in the film — and it already had Australian media outlets drawing the Kath and Kim connection.
Despite the many iterations of “The Joker,” Australians and TV fans may feel it in their waters as the version by Riley. The frost-lit credits of the beloved 2002 show about the foxy ladies/hornbags of Fountain Lakes see beloved characters Kath, Kim, Kel, Sharon, Brett, Epponnee-Rae, and Cujo moving in and out of frame while Riley powers through those notes. The whole thing is a visual ode to the opening sequence of iconic soap The Young and the Restless — the reference came up most recently thanks to a The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power teaser, which inevitably prompted fan edits.
Probably the musical moment that makes the most actual narrative sense in a film stacked with Great American Songbook standards like “Get Happy” (sure!), the scene deserves its own fan edit with Riley’s version. Watching Phoenix’s tortured serial killer Arthur Fleck singing the Kath and Kim theme song, I half expected Gaga’s Harley to jump up from her seat, shouting one of Kim’s iconic lines from the show about her husband, Brett: “I know he’s a dud root but he’s MY dud root!” (that scene, erase it from my memory). We’re three laborious acts in, struggling to remember why we dragged ourselves to see this “punishment” of a movie, and the Joker just drops his throwr on the carch and expects us not to burst into a chorus of “look at moi“s?
Sadly, it’s also the only moment I enjoyed watching Joker: Folie à Deux. The rest is best washed down with a large glass of Cardonnay and a plate of little baby cheeses, because it ain’t gettin’ any better.
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