About

I'm Going To Become The Joker refers to an image of Joaquin Phoenix from the 2019 Joker movie subtitled saying, "I'm going to become the joker," a line that is not spoken in the film. The image was first used in a meme posted to Twitter in 2019 and became the subject of further image macros over the following years, used to ironically suggest someone is going to go insane after experiencing a tragic event. The phrase is also used on its own in memes without the image to suggest the same thing.

Origin

On August 28th, 2019, Twitter^[1] user @internethippo posted, "New joker movie is truly twisted" along with two images from the film; the left image shows Joaquin Phoenix saying, "I can't believe mother threw away my Nintendo," and the second, "I'm going to become the Joker," gaining over 56,400 likes and 11,100 retweets in three years (shown below). These lines are not spoken in the film.

Spread

On September 5th, 2019, Redditor ManOfAw3some posted a meme using the image of Joker saying "I'm going to become the Joker," to /r/dankmemes,^[2] which was reposted to Instagram^[3] by erb on December 10th, gaining over 4,600 likes in three years (shown below, left). On September 6th, iFunny^[7] user BatmanReacts used the image in a meme, gaining over 200 smiles in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

On June 1st, 2021, Instagram^[4] user largetrap2 posted the template, gaining over 11,000 likes in eight months. On December 5th Twitter^[5] user @uncledoomer posted the image in response to a post suggesting chicken tenders are at risk of extinction, gaining over 150 likes in two months (shown below). A screenshot of the post was reposted to Instagram^[6] by captainburger64 on December 6th, gaining over 1,600 likes in a similar span of time (shown below).

Template

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References