If The Joker Could Beatbox

Submission 10,810

Part of a series on Joker. [View Related Entries]

About

If The Joker Could Beatbox refers to a series of viral videos where beatboxer 80Fitz imagines what Batman villain the Joker might sound like if he beatboxed, mixing in Joker-like laughs and phrases into the beatboxing. The most popular version was posted to YouTube in 2017 and inspired a number of memes in September 2021 using its audio, including comedic remixes and lip dubs on TikTok.

Origin

On April 15th, 2016, beatboxer 80Fitz posted a video to his Facebook^[1] page titled "If the Joker could beatbox… w/ 80Fitz" where he beatboxes in a style he imagines the Joker might beatbox, working mainly off of Joker's laugh. The video gained over 273,000 views and 8,400 reactions in five years (shown below).

On December 14th, 2017, 80Fitz posted a video to YouTube^[2] doing the same thing, only in a more professional setting and using Joker's phrase "Why So Serious?" throughout the beatbox, gaining over 1.1 million views in four years (shown below).

Spread

On September 15th, 2021, TikToker^[3] swaggify posted a TikTok showing the "why so serious" part of the Joker beatbox, gaining over 70,000 views in a month. Google Trends shows^[4] search interest for "joker beatbox" growing in the same week the TikTok was posted. On September 21st, 2021, Redditor Sumrdmgi posted a video meme to /r/whenthe^[5] combining the I'm Tired of Pretending it's Not meme with the video, gaining over 1,300 upvotes in 14 days. The meme was shared by Instagram^[6] page averagepikario later that month, gaining over 334,000 views and 45,000 likes in six days (shown below).

On September 26th, TikToker^[7] callmeifyougetlost.com posted a meme showing a man asking "wtf are they listening to," talking about a crying character with headphones, placing the video in the crying character's thought bubble, gaining over 1.5 million views in a week (shown below).

The Original Sound for the video became popular on TikTok^[8]^[9] in late September and early October, inspiring over 2,300 videos on the platform in a week (popular examples shown below, left and right).

On September 27th, YouTuber Euan McCready Productionz posted a nightcore version of the beatbox, gaining over 50,000 views in a week (shown below, left). On October 1st, YouTuber Vort posted a slowed + reverb version, gaining over 4,100 views in four days (shown below, right).

On September 30th, Instagram^[10] user memixes posted a version of the meme using the He Will Never Have a Girlfriend format, gaining over 50,000 views and 11,000 likes in four days (shown below).