About

Harley Quinn, also known as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, is a prominent DC Comics character in Batman lore as the main henchwoman of the Joker before being given her own comic series and long-form character arc. The character hit a spike in prevalence and virality during the 2010s, resulting in a standalone movie and multi-season-long TV show. Actor Margot Robbie portrayed the character in the 2016 film Suicide Squad, which notably elevated her online presence as the fandom created fan art and cosplay of her depiction.

History

The character of Harley Quinn was first created for the Batman: The Animated Series TV show, with her initial appearance sidelining her as another henchman under the Joker, meant to be a one-off.^[2] Over the course of the series, she grew in her importance, and it started to bleed out from the show into the comics, resulting in her canonicity in 1999. The footage of her first appearance was uploaded to YouTube by the channel Mister Custodian^[1] on April 20th, 2016, where it has gained 159,000 views in six years (shown below).

Online Presence

Online, due to her character in the show and how she was fleshed out in the comics, there are two distinct types of memes and cultures relating to Harley Quinn. Harley's characterization is that of a female Joker-lite character, one that originally had a Ph.D. in Psychology and became swayed by the Joker into being blindly in love with him.^[3] Because of this, much of the online content revolves around Harley Quinn as she's unwavering in her love for the Joker while also unstable, leading to Gamers Rise Up style posts including Harley (shown below).

With the release of the 2016 Suicide Squad movie, Harley Quinn received a live-action portrayal by actor Margot Robbie, which led to a new resurgence of memes that continued growing over the following years with each new instance of her character being used within the DC Movie Universe (shown below).

Associated Memes

Birds of Prey

Birds of Prey is an all-female superhero team in the DC Comics universe that had a standalone film release with Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie) as the star role and captain. The movie was largely a flop on release, leading many to make memes about its story and poor performance.

She Was His Queen

She Was His Queen refers to a series of jokes mocking a line from Suicide Squad about The Joker and Harley Quinn. The full line reads, "She was fearless and crazier than him. She was his queen, and God help anyone who dared to disrespect his queen."

Suicide Squad (2016 Film)

Suicide Squad is a movie based on the comic series following a ragtag team of supervillains who are sent on dangerous missions to earn their freedom. The first movie came out to middling reviews, but many felt it was carried by Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Will Smith as Deadshot.

Search Interest

External References