The People’s Joker, a hilarious trans riff on DC characters, shut down over ‘rights issues’
Polygon has a team on the ground at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, reporting on the horror, comedy, drama, and action movies meant to dominate the cinematic conversation as we head into awards season. This review was published in conjunction with the film’s TIFF premiere.
“This movie is not illegal. I just said that to get you to come.” So says Vera Drew, the writer-director-star-effects artist behind the queer Batmanmovie The People’s Joker. But before the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Warner Bros. served a cease-and-desist order against the film anyway. Subsequent festival screenings have been canceled, leaving the future of The People’s Joker in doubt.
Vera’s vision of DC Comics’ signature villain the Joker as a metaphor for the trans experience certainly should be covered by fair use and parody under the First Amendment, which protects creators’ right to use what’s now known as “existing IP” for comic effect. The key here is that a parody has to “significantly transform” that IP to make it clear that it isn’t an official release from the rights owner — not a problem when it comes to Vera’s wholly unique film.
Fanfiction might seem like an unlikely vehicle for real-life autobiography. But given how personal the relationship can get between fans and the pop culture they love, it makes sense that Vera, a passionate fan of the Bat-verse, would use the Joker’s character and lore to tell the story of her own transformation from a failed improv comedian into a gloriously unhinged trans agent of comedic chaos. The People’s Joker might even be called an act of comedic terrorism, if it wasn’t so damn sincere.
The movie started when a friend of Vera’s sent her $12 to make “the Vera
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