The only good thing that comes out of Joker is when Arthur makes it on Murray Franklin's fauxTonight show and what happens happens to end the program's run--Even though the Murray Franklin show appeared to be a knock off of the Tonight Show, I think it was supposed to be more like the old Joe Franklin show. Because it definitely appears to be a local show, not national. Although both Letterman and the Tonight Show both made local jokes about the city they were based in, so I don’t really know. It’s a fictitious universe, so you just have to accept it. Hard to believe the show would be live on air though, but that was necessary for the plot to advance. Also necessary for the plot to advance is that you would have to believe that in 1981 someone was videotaping an open mic night at a very small comedy club? Who would do that? The ownership? Why? Still, a very good film.
Hard to believe the show would be live on air though, but that was necessary for the plot to advance. Also necessary for the plot to advance is that you would have to believe that in 1981 someone was videotaping an open mic night at a very small comedy club? Who would do that? Exactly! Recording anything back then wasn't easy--or cheap. I don't know what a video camera cost back then, but one of those new-fangled VCRs would set you back a dollar or two.
And that's 1981 money! A video camera was probably even more expensive.
So this comedy club went to the expense and trouble of setting up a camera (imagine the miles of wires on the floor of the club leading to a tripod--waitresses and customers tripping over these in the dark) just to record some hack on open-mic night?
And then the owner of the club would have to deliver this tape to the Murray Franklin show, by mail or in person.
And once it got to the show, some poor assistant would have to screen the tape (among dozens or hundreds of other tapes) and find Arthur Fleck's routine amusing enough to bring to the attention of the show's producers.
The producers would have to sit down and watch it, and also find it amusing (and not excruciatingly painful, which it is) and decide how and when to use it.
This would take MONTHS.
But in the movie, it happens almost instantly.