Arthur Fleck
The Basics
-Name: Arthur Fleck-Age:34-Birthday: November 21, 1946-Height: 5'8-Weight: Approximately 125 lbs-Eye Color: Emerald Green-Physical Details: Underweight, small, frail, skin often severely bruised, boney, weak-Health: Mentally ill- suffers with severe memory loss, often has painful outbursts of uncontrollable, pathological laughter, severe depression, suicidal thoughts and tendencies, anxiety-Likes: Music, dancing, the Murray Franklin Show (pre Joker), smoking cigarettes, dark humor-Dislikes: Loud noises or spaces, crowded areas, cruel people-Hobbies: Dancing, smoking cigarettes, writing jokes, practicing his stand ups
Backstory
Arthur Fleck is a mentally ill loner who lives with and cares for his adoptive mother Penny Fleck. They live in Gotham City and the time frame his story takes place is in the late 70's - early 80's. Gotham City is going through a trash strike: so there is garbage piling up in the streets an the city is plagued with a 'super rat' infestation.He works at Ha Ha's as a clown for hire and aspires to become a successful stand up comedian.His childhood was filled with abuse in which his mental illnesses sprout from. Arthur suffers from outbursts of uncontrollable, pathological laughter at inappropriate times and does not fit into the society that he lives in.One day, Arthur gets beat up in an alleyway while at work which leads to his coworker Randall giving him a hot revolver 'to protect himself'.Due to city's budget cuts, he loses access to therapy and medication, leaving his mental health to plummet.He's ends up getting fired from work after bringing the gun to a children's hospital during one of his gigs and finds out that Randall claimed to their boss that Arthur was trying to buy a gun off of him a few weeks back.That night, on the way home, he gets jumped by three Wall Street boys on the subway after a fit of pseudobulbar laughter and he uses the gun for self defense- killing all three men.The news sparks attention across the city and though no one knows it was him: he's starting to feel noticed and he has no remorse for his actions.He takes up his first gig at Pogo's Comedy Club- which gains the attention of Murray Franklin (a popular tv show host)After reading a letter his mother wrote to Thomas Wayne, he finds out that Thomas may be his biological father. (Penny claims that he is.)Soon after- Arthur goes to the Wayne's residence where he meets kid Bruce Wayne but couldn't get in contact with Thomas Wayne. He returns home to his mother being taken to the hospital after suffering a stroke in response to investigators telling her that Arthur is the main suspect for the subway murder case.While she's in the hospital and Arthur is visiting her, the Murray Franklin Show comes on and Murray plays video clips of Arthur's outburst of laughter on stage and poor preformance at Pogo's and begins to ridicule him on his show.Next, he goes to confront Thomas Wayne after sneaking into a movie theatre only to be told that by Thomas that he is not his father, his mother is crazy and that she adopted him. He refuses to believe this at first, but he goes to Arkham Asylum where he reads his mother's file and confirms this information.He finds out that he's adopted, his father is still unknown and he reads about the abuse that he endured as a child which lead him to have the mental health issues that he currently struggled with.He returns to the hospital soon after where he murders his mother in the bed she laid in.Next, he receives a phone call inviting him to preform on the Murray Franklin show- he agrees, knowing that Murray was only inviting him to make fun of him on live television.Within the next day, his former coworkers Gary and Randall show up to Arthur's apartment to show their condolences for his mother's death and after Randall begins to mention how he's trying to cover his own ass, Arthur murders him. He releases Gary because Gary was the only one who was ever nice to him.That night, Arthur goes onto the Murray Franklin show as 'Joker'. His original intention was to commit suicide on stage as a punchline to his life which he considers a comedy, but winds up murdering Murray Franklin on set.He's taken away to Arkham Asylum after having a brief moment with the followers he's gained from a mass riot that started (unintentionally) because of him.This is the end of his canon backstory: I will be basing my Joker portrayal off of what was provided.Below, I have provided you with a link to my head canon based Joker Arc ( Asylum ) and an post Asylum ( P U N C H L I N E !) . These arcs contain very important information to my portrayal to Arthur as the Joker as well as information on his experience & escape from Arkham Asylum and the ventures he ends up in afterwards. These are critical parts of his story you must keep in mind if you are writing with me!