JOKER MEMES AS A FORM OF EXPRESSING INNER THOUGHTS: A CHARACTER ANALYSIS OF JOKER WITH REFERENCE TO THE THEATRE OF CRUELTY

The term ‘Theatre of Cruelty’ was coined by the French theatre director, Antonin Artaud (1986-1948), in 1932, and it was a widely debated concept in that decade. The ‘Theatre of Cruelty’ is more concerned with the audience's sense experience than with dialogue and content. The term the theatre of cruelty offers a ground-breaking concept that aims to cultivate profound and immersive theatrical barriers between performers and audience members. Through its deliberate efforts to elicit intense emotional responses and challenge established theatrical conventions, it captivates by providing a transformative and boundary-breaking experience. The presence of the idea of the theatre of cruelty can be seen in films such as ‘The Joker’ and ‘Batman’. According to various studies, the film character Joker is influencing real-world violence. Traditionally, the role of the Joker, a clown character in the circus, is to create a comic sense among the audience. The Joker usually creates false himself and his pain and sadness within himself and expresses happiness outside to make the audience happy or create relief. In due course, it turned into a creepy clown, a clown carrying violence. Through the films ‘The Joker’ and ‘Batman’, the Joker's character gradually evolved into a celebrity anarchist. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people throughout the world made memes of the Joker character with violent elements to express their feelings and to anticipate attention and care. The Joker has become a multilayered character. People started to enjoy the dark characteristics of the Joker character in the films more than the comic elements of the Joker character. With the help of secondary sources and data collected through social media, newspapers, and articles, the study attempts to understand memes as a form of expressing inner thoughts concerning the theatre of cruelty.