Joker director Todd Phillips says ‘woke culture’ means comedies are too difficult to make

Todd Phillips, director of the much-hyped Joker film, has said he moved away from comedies because they are now too difficult to make with today’s “woke culture”.

Before the Batman villain’s origins story, which stars Joaquin Phoenix and is released in the UK this week, Phillips’s best known work included films such as Old School, Road Trip, Due Date and The Hangover trilogy.

Set in 1981, Joker follows failed stand-up comedian Arthur Fleck, who turns to a life of crime in Gotham City.

In an interview alongside Phoenix for Vanity Fair, Phillips said he chose the story because he had become wary of making what the US magazine described as “irreverent bro humour”.

“Go try to be funny nowadays with this woke culture,” he said. “There were articles written about why comedies don’t work anymore – I’ll tell you why, because all the f****** funny guys are like, ‘f*** this sh*t, because I don’t want to offend you’.”

Phillips said he did not want to have to argue “with 30 million people on Twitter”.

“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. 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’.”

Despite the intention to move away from controversy on social media, Joker has done anything but.

There is plenty of Oscar buzz around the film already, with widespread critical acclaim for Joaquin Phoenix‘s performance and the top prize at Venice Film Festival, but it is also facing accusations of glorifying violence.

Family members of the victims of a 2012 mass shooting inside a US cinema, where the killer reportedly identified as the Joker, signed a letter to producers Warner Bros, expressing concerns about the film.

Warner Bros responded, saying: “Make no mistake: neither the fictional character Joker, nor the film, is an endorsement of real-world violence of any kind.

“It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero.”

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Speaking to the Associated Press news agency, Phillips said he was “not shy” about discussing the scrutiny, but that he wants people to see the film before drawing conclusions.

“It’s a little troubling when people write think pieces without having seen it,” he said. “And even in their think pieces write, ‘I don’t need to see it to know what it is’.

“I find it astounding, to be quite frank, how easily the far left can sound like the far right when it suits their agenda. To that point, I’ve been disappointed.”

Phillips said he hopes the film inspires conversations about violence and about the treatment of people with mental illness.

“Part of the reason we made the movie is a response to the comic book world of movies,” he said.

“Like, ‘Why is this celebrated? Why is this funny? Why is this fun? What are the real-world implications of violence?'”

(c) Sky News 2019: Joker director Todd Phillips says ‘woke culture’ means comedies are too difficult to make