Interpretation 

Joaquin Phoenix’s laugh in Joker was a necessity to get down for the film’s success. The laugh of the clown prince of crime in the comics helps distinguish himself from other villains as it represents his psychotic personality and does that similarly in the film as well. Arthur starts off the film in clear resentment of his uncontrollable laugh condition as it caused him clear pain. By the end of the film, he accepts his laugh and his new persona as Joker on the Murray Show, where it can clearly be seen that he is in no pain and embraces it. Both instances show people uncomfortable with his laugh but what is different is that Joker no longer cares about it while Arthur in the beginning apologized about his condition, showing how he has grown throughout the film.  

The stairs as previously mentioned help portray how Arthur transitioned into Joker. With them appearing twice in the beginning and one extended scene near the end, it becomes clear that the stairs symbolize part of the journey Arthur goes on into becoming the Joker. While ascending stairs in media represents a positive journey one takes, the music and the set-up of the scene presents irony in it as the audience can see Arthur’s life is on the downward spiral for the first two times we see the stairs. The last time is however different as the complete opposite is present. Descending stairs in media primarily represents a negative journey, but the way Arthur has accepted his transformation into Joker, he is finally happy and comfortable with who he is dancing down the stairs to “Rock and Roll Part 2” by Gary Glitter. This song choice caused much controversy as in 2015, Gary Glitter was sentenced to 16 years in jail for child sex offenses, and the reason it was used as it could help show the twisted way Joker sees his life with the song choice and stair symbolism.