To call The People’s Joker (2022) a parody would be doing both the film, and Vera Drew herself a disservice. Neither would it be fair to call it a “fan film”, as Vera might be passionate about DC Comics and its cinematic universe, but she also has extensive credits as a comedian and filmmaker in her own right. Having edited both An evening with Tim Heidecker (2020) and Sacha Baron Cohen’s Who Is America? (2018), she has the chops necessary to pull off such a brazen project. Naturally inspired by adult swim shows like Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job (2007), it’s no wonder the film is more than just a chronically online shitpost. Despite what the heavy use of green screen might have you believe, the film put its money where its mouth is. Lovingly gaudy 3D models replace real actors and professional animators splice in their work to connect scenes together. The Riddler’s scenes were filmed through a Zoom call and it works seamlessly because Vera has set up such a ridiculous world. These “amateurish” touches are intentionally crafted for laughs and could only be cohesively brought together by a master editors. This “cheapness” allows us as an audience to be lulled into a false sense of security. Because there’s no way the silly clown movie could have something heartfelt to say, right?

Vera herself plays Joker the Harlequin, as she recounts her rise from a repressed stand up comic in Gotham to the trans villainess we all know and love. Starting out life as a boy in the wrong body, “Drew” is taken by their mother to Arkham Asylum in the hopes of curing her son’s perpetual sadness. Dr. Crane prescribes Joker with Smylex, a gas that induces a manic level of happiness in the user. Joker lives out most of her adolescence as “Drew”, gassing herself silly whenever something is likely to make her upset, angry or any other emotion not deemed “happy” enough. That is until UCB, Gotham’s clown stand-in for SNL, complete with a janky Lorne Michaels, is looking for fresh young talent to head their new lineup. Having watched the show as a kid, Joker heads to Gotham ready to make her comedy debut.

However, it soon becomes apparent from the invasive audition procedures of scanning genitalia and expensive tuition fees that the school is limiting Joker’s comedic potential. That, and she can’t tell a good joke to save her life. So when fellow student, Penguin eggs her on to create her own school of anti-comedy, the pair create a stand up venue for all of UCB’s outcasts. Although Joker still struggles to get any of her material off the ground, she finds comedy gold in using Smylex to laugh at her fellow comics most tragic backstories. In finding her niche, Joker is finally able to shed her “Drew” persona and become the woman she was always meant to be: Joker the Harlequin. But as her own comedy career takes off, their is one caped crusader who still stands in her way: Batsy.

The film refuses to shy away from any of its pop culture references. Joker dates a Mr. J (Kane Distler), taking a page from Jared Leto’s turn as the Crown prince of Crime. He’s as “damaged” as his head tattoo would have you believe, being as crazed, narcissistic and downright abusive as the real deal (Joker or Leto? Same difference, really). His non villain name is even a nod to Jason Todd, who both in the comics and animated movies, adopts the Joker’s old alias, the Red Hood, becoming a sometimes enemy to Batman. Meanwhile, Ra’s Al Ghul, Joker’s mentor and idol at UCB straight up borrows lines from Batman Begins (2005) , their training montage even having backgrounds ripped straight from the film, or fight scenes rotoscopped in the case of the animated segments.

Yet, it’s what the film does with these references that is truly magical. Vera, for all her magnificence as a film editor and shit-poster, is also an equally proficient screenwriter, taking all these tropes, references and funny gags about current politics and turning it into a meaningful story about a trans woman coming of an age. A woman living in a society that actively despises her and desiring a profession whose most high profile entertainers actively mock her existence.

Dr. Crane for example, he could have been just a small reference to Scarecrow and nothing more. But while his fear toxin is replaced with Smylex, Vera uses him as a metaphor for the internalised fear of trans bodies and minds, Smylex naturally being the “cure” to suppress trans identity, replacing it with a blank happiness. UCB may be a over the top parody of SNL, but it also hides within itself criticisms of the comedy industry at large; big institutions, whose convoluted audition processes and favourable bias towards those already in the industry, gate keep disenfranchised creatives from a successful career, incentivising them to prove their “diversity” to a board of white execs.

Vera’s comedy is not a shield from criticism, rather a slingshot from which she can take aim at the people in power. and that doesn’t just include people in the comedy and film industry, but those currently threatening the lives of trans children everywhere: concerned parents. Starting off as a hyperbolic caricature of a single mother (with impeccable comedic timing from Lynn Downey), Joker’s Mum is a neurotic hypochondriac, scared of her son moving an inch, let alone questioning their gender identity. But as Joker embraces more of herself, Downey’s performance gives way to a sincerity and level of sadness that’s uncomfortable to watch. Even the smallest word between the mother and daughter becomes a knife to the gut. Not many comedy films can leave you feeling choked up but Vera, knows to put earnest moments where you least expect them.

The People’s Joker is a hidden gem that speaks to what a post Marvel and DC superhero film could be. It may have started life as a parody, but the care and thought put into the project, as well as Vera’s willingness to flesh out characters that DC have spent the better half of a decade either ignoring or rehashing previous film iterations instead of something new, it’s understandable why people are going Gaga for this crowdfunded indie darling.