Introduction

The Running Joker meme showcases the titular character from the 2019 film 'Joker,' portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, depicted in a series of humorous and exploitable images of him running.

Background

Running Joker comprises various exploitable images featuring the character Joker running, which originated from behind-the-scenes photographs taken during the filming of the movie. The meme gained traction online, particularly after the film's premiere in October 2019.

How It Began

On November 19th, 2019, SplashNews photographer Christopher Peterson captured Joaquin Phoenix in full Joker costume running through New York City while filming a scene. This series of photographs was shared widely by multiple news outlets, including Daily Mail, People, and Evening Standard. The following day, Redditor wcrispy introduced one of the images to the /r/photoshopbattles subreddit, suggesting its use as an exploitable template. The post garnered over 22,700 upvotes within ten months, inspiring numerous submissions from users.

Meme Evolution

On November 21st, 2018, an anonymous 4chan user initiated a thread on /co/ inviting others to create photoshopped variations of the image. Throughout the year, the meme saw moderate usage. On September 24th, 2019, Facebook user Jason Ibarra edited the image alongside a famous Lionel Messi goal, which received over 930 likes in three weeks. The image gained further popularity with reposts, including a notable October 6th post by @wikiesqueletos on Twitter, amassing over 2,700 retweets and 10,000 likes. The meme also appeared in Reddit threads like /r/hmmm and /r/blursedimages, achieving over 42,600 and 19,500 upvotes, respectively. Additionally, it began to be used as an object labeling meme starting in October 2019.