Jokers Wilding

Today, October 13, 2019, this reflective essay by Enki King is published, sharing his latest insights in the wake of the release of the new Joker film:

Jokers Wilding

In my October 1 Twilight Language essay "Klown-Kurrent/33," I recounted a number of mostly disturbing clown-related events that occurred in the weeks following Joker’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2019. I also predicted October 3, the day of Joker’s wide release, would, like the day of its festival premiere, be another day of violence. Additionally, I mentioned regions near the 33rd parallel should be watched for Red Dawn events*.

A Joker-related incident did occur on October 3 at approximately 33.7 degrees north latitude, but fortunately, in this case, bloodshed was avoided. In Huntington Beach, California, Cinemark’s Century Huntington Beach and XD movie theater closed down after receiving what was described as a “credible threat” related to their booking Joker.

Not so lucky were three residents of Smith Tower Apartments** in Vancouver, Washington. On October 3, a tenant named Robert Breck, 80, opened fire, resulting in the death of one fellow tenant and the wounding of two others. Like Arthur Fleck in Joker, Breck was a victim of harassment according to reports.

October 3, the final day of my 33-day countdown, ended as it began — with a deadly knife attack in France. Mickaël Harpon, an IT worker employed by the Paris police who had been hearing voices, fatally stabbed four coworkers and injured another. The incident was reportedly the worst loss of French police lives in a single day since World War II.

Harpon is French for harpoon, a synchromystic resonator here, as one of Joker’s bizarre weapons is his “BANG!” flag gun which, with the second pull of the trigger, fires a deadly harpoon. Also, of note is the location of Harpon’s attack. The police station is on Île de la Cité, an island in the river Seine. Twilight language’s name game is at play here: The Joker, and possibly Harpon, are insane, while the site of the attack is in Seine.

In 2013, another individual heard a voice in his head and launched a stabbing attack. In this case, the voice was that of the Joker, and the name of the knifeman was Dale Pipe. "Pipe" is synchromystically significant. In writer/magickian Alan Moore's graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, an unnamed engineer, while engaged in criminal activity at a chemical plant, is surprised by Batman, jumps into a chemical waste basin, and is swept away in a pipe. This pipe can be seen as a symbolic birth canal for the Joker. He emerges with chemically-altered white skin, bright red lips, and green hair — i.e., he is reborn as a clown. His discovery of his disfigurement contributes to his becoming completely insane. "Pipe" has continued to appear in disturbing news events. A pipe bomb was mailed to Robert De Niro on the first day of filming Joker. Pipe bombs were in the news again recently when on October 4, a Florida woman, reportedly "consumed with the Columbine and Oklahoma killings," was arrested after her parents notified authorities after discovering 24 of the devices in her bedroom. On October 5, four homeless men were beaten to death and another was critically injured in New York's Chinatown by an attacker wielding a metal pipe.

As Loren has noted, Chinatown was used as one of Joker's filming locations. Urban Dictionary cements the Joker/pipe connection by providing this definition for Joker: "A slang used while smoking marijuana. To joker, means to hit the pipe, bong, joint, anything that is being passed around, TWICE in your one turn…" (Note that "hit the pipe twice" reflects back to the Joker's "born again" experience by twilight language logic.)

Tequila, a main ingredient in The Joker's Tea, wormed its way into my awareness while I was digging for syncs. On October 4, a man who had been observed pouring a bottle of tequila into his slushie was ejected from a screening of Joker after terrifying audience members by clapping every time Joker murdered someone, and by spitting on patrons. Two days later, two shooters entered Tequila KC Bar in Kansas City and killed four and wounded five. The same day, Ginger Baker, drummer for the band Cream, passed away. Cream's song "White Room" is included in Joker's soundtrack. Loren alerted me to existence of a tequila cocktail called the Ginger Baker.

I reminded him that Tila Tequila famously got poop thrown at her while performing at an Insane Clown Posse show. Some sync holes seem bottomless…

Pondering Joker and insanity had me thinking about Arkham Asylum, a facility for the criminally insane that has housed the Joker in the comics, and which was inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and his fictional city of Arkham, Massachusetts. So, when news broke of vandalism at Salem, New Hampshire's America's Stonehenge, a site Lovecraft is rumored to have visited, my attention was captured. (This visit is believed by many, though not all Lovecraft scholars, to have inspired the tale The Dunwich Horror.) A stone known as the Sacrificial Table was engraved by the vandal(s) with the messages, "AWG1WGA," an initialism of the QAnon slogan, "As we go one, we go all," and "I AM MARK." The latter message may be short for "I am Mark Sargent," a flat earther meme. It would seem the individual or individuals behind this reprehensible act are simultaneously anti-globalist and anti-globe. Interestingly, QAnons refer to their opponents as "clowns."

It appears this incident is not isolated. QAnon-related graffiti, along with a broken stained-glass window, was left on July 8 at a Catholic church in East Boston. A QAnon follower vandalized a Catholic church on September 25 in Sedona, Arizona.

A suspicious fire at a Mason lodge*** in Northwood, New Hampshire, about an hour's drive from America's Stonehenge, occurred on the same night as the vandalism to the Sacrificial Table. No QAnon calling cards were reportedly left, but given the timing and proximity to the Salem, New Hampshire site, it seems a distinct possibility the same criminal(s) were responsible.

Arthur Fleck's line, "Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?" comes to mind while pondering all of this. Perhaps, when Joker eventually leaves theaters, things will quiet down. And maybe then, if I'm lucky, the song lyrics****, "Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right…" will finally stop looping in my head. ~ Enki King

Postscript:

I wonder if The Wizard of Oz syncs are going to join clown syncs this season.

I was viewing the neighborhood where the New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel collapsed on Google Maps, and I noticed the site shares a block with Rainbow Shops and The Ruby Slipper Cafe. Hopefully this doesn't signal an incoming clownado! ~ Enki King

Updates:

Right around the corner from Canal and Rampart, where the New Orleans Hard Rock Hotel collapsed, killing two, perhaps three, construction workers, is the Saenger Theater. Playing there is the adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, "Wicked."

This headline appeared after the collapse: "Some 'Wicked' Performances at Saenger in New Orleans Cancelled Because of Hard Rock Hotel Collapse."

Also, as was revealed immediately before and after the release of Joker, Joaquin Phoenix was inspired by Ray Bolger, who was originally to play the Tin Man, but was the Scarecrow in 1939's The Wizard of Oz. Phoenix said he was not copying the previous Joker characters.

_______

Notes:

*"'Red dawn event' is a milestone manifestation of unfathomable future dimensions." (July 24, 2012).

**This shooting occurred on the 13th floor of the 15-story Smith Tower, a high rise senior apartment complex. The building looks rather similar to the Capitol Records Tower, which is only 13 floors tall.

The two women who were shot were a 77-year-old resident of the Tower, and a 44-year-old caregiver who worked there. The numbers 77 and 44 are both multiples of 11.

***One of the oldest Masonic Lodges in the country in Northwood, New Hampshire, was engulfed in flames and burned to the ground on September 29, 2019. 

**** "Stuck In The Middle With You"

Well I don't know why I came here tonight,I got the feeling that something ain't right,
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs,
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you...

~ Stealers Wheel, 1972

Footnotes by Loren Coleman