All I Have Are Negative Thoughts

Submission 36,426

Part of a series on Joker (2019 Film). [View Related Entries]

About

All I Have Are Negative Thoughts refers to a memorable quote from 2019 film Joker said by the main protagonist Arthur Fleck (Joker) to a social worker. Following the release of the film trailer in August 2019, the still image of Fleck captioned with the quote gained popularity as a reaction image, with the quote also being used as a snowclone.

Origin

On August 28th, 2019, the second trailer for the then-upcoming film Joker was released.^[1] In one scene of the trailer, character Arthur Fleck (Joker), portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, tells his social worker that all he has are negative thoughts.

You don't listen, do you? You just ask the same questions every week. "How is your job?" "Do you have any negative thoughts?" All I have are negative thoughts.

On the same day, following the release of the trailer, multiple users online posted memes based on the quote, with the earliest known meme posted by Twitter user @someduudee (shown below, left).^[2] On the same day, Redditor trevorwoodkinda posted a meme which gained over 2,300 upvotes in /r/dankmemes (shown below, center),^[3] with a meme about Billie Eilish posted by Redditor AKS1195 posted on August 29th receiving over 35,000 upvotes in two months (shown below, right).^[4]

Spread

In the following months, the format received further spread on Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and other online platforms, with the meme seeing a surge of popularity following the release of Joker on October 4th, 2019. For example, an October 5th, 2019 Bruh Moment meme by Instagram user nova_xeno received over 11,200 likes in two weeks (shown below, left).^[5] An October 13th, 2019, post by Redditor sameedhusyan received over 28,700 upvotes in five days (shown below, right).^[6]