The Worst Idea Of All Time - 05: 15 Jokes From Joker: Folie à Deux

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

It has been three weeks, and in some ways five weeks. And in some other ways, it has simply been one day for Tim and Guy watching Joker: Folie à Deux. A damaged Lithium Ion battery pack has become a ticking potential timebomb threatening to destroy The Classic (Tim and Guy's current abode) adding beautiful background tension to this episode. The very definition of a joke is picked apart for a very long time after this 5th watch of the movie.We beg of you - Support this stupid idea at twioat.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Well, it's the worst idea of all time! A brand new way to lose your mind. Your boys are bad with what you need. It's not worse things, then life are free. That was a dear of all time. A brand new way to wreck your mind. What's the worst idea of all time? Well, it's Tim Bat here.

Tim Bat and his eye style. and guy hi tim and um i make it um watch five yeah i make it the end of a hard day's toil

uh i think the movie won that time and you've got to give it props for that you've got to look out for my friend tim because he's got what garfior and i like to call a case of the mondays yeah it's crazy to think it's still monday it's been monday for so long now it's been monday for a long time it's been Monday the whole day. To you, listening along, it is, of course, whatever day of the week, you so choose to listen to this. I just want you to know that canonically, you know, the last episode when we were dizzy with excitement, that was the same day. And you know the episode

before that, when we were with Johana? That was also today. It was our this morning. It has been Monday, in my experience, for three weeks now. But the way that we are, conducting this art project which here and I will be referring to it as we have chosen a method of recording and releasing our work

that is more accurate to the feeling than to true time linear time so to me it feels like it has been about three weeks today that's right and that is how the listener has experienced it absolutely so that is good

and honest well and let's just say whatever your relationship to time whatever calendar system you are prescribed to the the difference between the movie has proven itself to be

vast I believe previously I described us as cohabitating with the movie cohabitation we have moved into a world in which to continue the metaphor I think the relationship

between housemates has gone septic we aren't even really talking in the kitchen anymore we're moving around each other what it feels like is the movie is making room for itself around where we are and we are making room for ourselves

around where the movie is yeah and it does this much feel like we're getting out of its way like the movie's kind of romping and stomping around and it's doing its thing and we're kind of having to like acquiesce into an increasingly small corner of that sheer house if you were to look at it as a we're losing ground yeah if you were to look at it it feels like we lost a lot of ground just now as a as a boxing match I think you know on points we lost the fifth round undoubtedly

I think we got it on the fourth round I think we got one up on it recently now there is also a freedom with comes that comes with the knowledge that this isn't coming out immediately one of the factors that we have

at the moment is seconds actually after we'd hit record on all the equipment to start the episode it's very we're in if you're not watching this we're in If you're not watching this, hats off to you.

Well done. Because the visual component is mind bending. We forgot to say where we are. We're not just in a bar or behind a bar. Guy and I have watched the movie in between the two bars that are in the classic. There's a front bar and a bar that's in a venue. And we are in between them in a storage closet. We're betwixt the bars.

And we've got like a huge, tv in here and studio lights and cameras and audio recorders it's it's confined and i tripped over um the audio recorder and one of the battery packs fell hard onto the ground and we put it in a middle ice bucket because i'm not unconvinced that it being in lithium ion battery won't spontaneously combust and present immediate danger to the building can i okay so i've put it in a middle bucket in front of us so we can just monitor the situation underneath a structural archway can i made of wood ask you this famously flame retardant while from the perspective you know of someone who's concerned about his own safety and the safety of the building in which we're recording and my friend guy yeah sure

content wise you know would you not argue it would be probably quite stimulating and something quite exciting if the battery were to combust to me it's not worth the trade off earlier in the day it would have been I think

different different math on it I'm pretty rinse physically yeah where are you at physically and emotionally I just want to sort of stock take of the state of Tim Bat as it stands biologically I think a good way to view where I'm at is maybe through the

sty to the development of the i sty i sty with my little eye a feeling that is not great oh well i spy with my little eye something beginning with jay jealousy joker okay folly adieu how could you miss it yeah it's right there you know that is the sort of joke and i will say this for the the joker's dozen bit i did earlier i thought was um outstanding there are a few jokes that I suppose this is

their home but this conversation is their home but I think they can be rehoused I think

they can be remounted in a public forum I think as comedians working on

an art project in a comedy venue it is about some form

of comedian as in the movie is about some form of comedian it is incumbent upon us to take the opportunity to share the gift that we are unearthing and discovering and

refining to a wider audience perhaps of the comedy going public perhaps some of these jokes I'm trying to ashen face Tim Bat would land a little better with a room full of strangers who are largely stripped of

any context in which the jokes were written you know that's what I'm saying to you want to bring this to the masses I'm saying some of these jokes yeah belong on the stage and I just want to check where you're at

these jokes not jokes that are in the movie not joke not Todd Phillips's jokes about Todd Phillips's movie not even about inspired by the eyes spy material if you can remember back to a couple of minutes ago yeah

I think it would absolutely level the room me talking about my ice die the ice die stuff's a great pre- oh you saying I spy with my little ice something beginning with Jay what Joker you're too tired to laugh as hard as I know you wanted to but that is a funny what I did was funny

okay so because I Tim I am you'll get no argument from me but maybe for a different reason than what you think. Tim, I'm being funny right now and I don't need you to tell me

whether or not that's true. I actually don't need you to validate whether or not I'm being funny. You're giving a very Todd Phillips energy right now. No,

because I know. Which is very method. Because I have the gauge. Okay. So I actually could do this I don't need, I've got, there's an audience.

There's going to be an audience out there. Cool, man. Cool, man. So I don't, I don't need this. I don't need you. All right, bro.

To, to, I don't need you to laugh at my jokes. So, because I know they're funny. Okay, man. Yeah, I agree. Thanks, man. Oh, you're funny. I don't know if the jokes are funny. Okay.

Well, I guess we'll agree to disagree. There's some funny jokes in this movie, though, and Jokey 2. Name 15. Okay. legal notepad joke number one a man of your stature a man of your stature that counts as a joke yeah that is a joke

previously cited how tall actually are you yeah two jokes two jokes the yellow pages that's a visual gag that counts as a joke yeah the Catholic dog joke at the opening of the film delivered by what's his name again

Brendan Gleason the abusive mother joke delivered by Arthur That has the shape and feel of a joke It is a joke It's a joke It's like it's fucking grim But it's a joke

It is I think It's a solid joke Now We've done five jokes Lady Gaga Sorry Harley Saying knock knock Your dad's been killed in a car crash

that's a joke because it started with knock knock and she's playing with the form and i'm here for it number seven uh the joke that the real joker tells harvey fleck before he stabs him to death about the psychopath and the comedian meeting at a bar not a joke it is a joke yeah it is a joke why is it not a joke I'm trying to remember as close to the exact verbiage as I can he I think he even says can I tell you a joke

if someone's telegraphed what you're about to say with that that's a joke what you're about to hear is a joke so that's eight you gotta give me that that is definitely a joke yeah

a psychopath walks into a bar and sees a comedian that he loves from TV The comedian is, okay, a clown. The clown is drunk. It's pathetic. It's pathetic. And the...

Psychopath says, can I get you a drink? What are you having? What are you having? He says, if you're, the clown says, if you're buying... Anything. Anything. And then the psychopath says, then I'll get you what you fucking deserve. That's a punchline.

No, because it's not played for... laughs it's a it's a it's a it's a joke it's a rug pull it's a rug pull no it's a joke it's a joke it has a set up no and a punchline it's a joke you are wasting valuable time I'm wasting time

yeah you set this challenge I said it as it as a sort of oh wait no sorry eight I said it as an offhanded thing there's no world in which you can find 15 instances of a joke from this. Well, I got up to eight with, I was going to say with that breaking a sweat,

it was breaking a sweat. And now we're up, and now we're going to find what the ninth one is. And the ninth joke is... When Arthur writes down, um, can you get Leah better seat on the notepad? Very funny.

When she first sits, yeah. That's genuine. That's a laugh line. That's so good for us in the movie. Yeah. We keep watching. Joker 2. Follow you do.

Number 10. um hmm maybe this movie has nine jokes in it. One of my shining lights was actually oh no Steve Coogan's character has a joke we're back on

give me the tenth joke he says he's talking about the interview and he says you haven't sat down for an interview since famous talk show host and we know and we all know what happened there you think that's a joke yeah really

that's a lot I'm helping you I understand but my integrity can't help but well Arthur Fleck laughs at it yeah that's true

and the movie kind of presents it as a and then later on I mean Arthur also says do you know another joke that Arthur says is that a tag or is that a joke so Arthur says

oh no sorry it's a different bit yeah Arthur also gives a joke when he's walking with Brendan Gleason when he's feeling good after he's falling in love we might have 11 and 12

Lee because he says you don't know my one regret about going on the talk show I should have shot him first and let him ask his questions after yeah that's a joke so now we're up to 11

and here's number 12 for you when Arthur is being interviewed by Steve Coogan and he says I can't even remember what leads up to it but he said and then he's like

and then you shot him a joke if you can call it that and then Arthur says yeah I should have come up with a better one yeah that's the joke that's a joke that's a joke so there's 12 yeah the other one I had is and this is my shining light

I'm so look you want the God's honest truth some of the episodes are us feeling excited about what we're doing and some of the episodes are us trying to remember things that the movie presents and importantly reminding each other of what the rules are around a lithium ion

fire, which is, and I cannot stress this enough, don't put water on it. What are you going to do with it then? You've got to let it burn out. Do not put water on it that will make it way hotter. Don't pour water on it. You can put a lid on it to starve of oxygen.

Do not pour water on that battery pack if it starts lighten up. It's in the middle of a metal bucket in the middle of this venue, which is in like the middle of a block of buildings, in the middle of Queen Street. Yeah. It doesn't change the physics of adding water to a lithium iron fire.

Yeah, but I don't understand lithium iron fires. I don't understand the risk. There's nothing to worry about. Look, if you're hearing this, everything's turned out fine. Yeah, if this gets released, it went all right. The joke I like, the shining light, whoa, my God, brother, I'm running out of gas in real time over here. What just happened?

Did you have a mini-stroke or something just now? what's going on is your body shutting down I'm just I'm really in the work I'm really in the work do you feel closer to Arthur Fleck than you have right now I feel incredibly close to the creative ambition of this film

and the work that went into it yeah yeah do you yeah i think in terms of uh like if the yardstick is proximity to the character who is disgusting and losing his mind yeah i'm closer to that character than i mean there's one of the central sort of if you can if you can credit this movie with having motifs or questions is the question of identity are a man in his shadow you know the original question post in the film the same thing so there is a tim bat who exists in this room with me at 321 queen street yep who is partaking in this art project yes is that the same man

who has a family it are these two distinct men i mean look it's a it's a decent question it's a good question they're the same man i'm talking to right now yeah i'm talking to timbat the the the partner absolutely the father it's all different slices of the same pie because i'll tell you i feel like i'm um i feel completely divorced from what i have previously understood to be my reality really i feel i uh you know the world in which i live the life i have built for myself yeah feels abstract to where i am right now yeah yeah and it is and i think part of that is the fact that we're not done for ages

so who's running the show right now is it me or is it like my shadow i i'm communicating with your shadow right now i think this is the shadow self this is this is a shadow guy episode I'm inclined to agree the joke to which I was referring which would take us

to lucky number 13 and funnily enough jokes are the common ground jokes are the thing that both versions of myself share it's the centre of the Venn diagram

it's after a session in court I'm so sorry to report that I don't find that inside for what I just said

jokes are a Venn diagram where the two sunlight and shadow guys meet the idea that anything insightful could come from what we're doing is like you know you don't need to apologize for that okay

it is impossible like the the telescope that we're looking through yes to find meaning yes

is faulty. So anything I describe that I'm looking at through the horizon of this telescope is just nonsense. It's inaccurate and it's worthless. It has no value. You cannot trade on any of this information as though anyone could comprehend, understand or care about it.

It is interesting to view the art project we're engaged in in a transactional sense. What utility is this for anyone, Eva? Yeah. What utility is this? Yeah, it's an important question And one we will address Soon after we get to the end of our 15 jokes

So you're about to tell me what the 13th jokes of Jokey 2 is You know, it does actually hurt me a little bit That you didn't find it inside for it. I thought it might Yeah, I thought it might I don't think it was my best work either Sure But I did find satisfaction in realizing

That if there are to be, if I am to split myself into two Which is how I feel Yeah it's not necessarily the reality it's how I feel yeah you feel like I suppose like the portal

through which I can access my real life is through jokes yeah so it's almost like but me repeating it isn't going to make you believe it has any more meaning you put a slightly different angle on it

and also I think casting a spotlight on unnecessary meanness for me will allow me to also revisit my approach um the way that you just talked about it sounds like it's almost a cry for help for the sunlight guy from shadow guy and you're yelling across the medium of comedy to reach the other one I guess I mean two guys talking on one of those canned phones it is so and the string is

so regrettable to let this movie impact in any way how I perceive myself it is so both unsurprising and embarrassing to find myself in a situation where I'm running this level of self-analysis all because of what we are doing of Joker 2 it's just completely unnecessary yeah because I am largely and usually at peace with myself yeah is the utility in the destabilized state you find yourself not to me personally so I hope whoever is experiencing us

having this conversation is finding some value in it so what's Drake number 13 it's been a big day in court Catherine Keena is in the press scrum in the lobby whatever area you want to call it

and Lee Harley Quinn is walking who's saying you don't know what you're fucking doing you know ask her why she's got me sitting so far back throwing her weight around and creating public friction and the press are gobbling it up and she's saying he is going to get off you know he's going to get off it's all going to be okay and then you know he's off mike someone says and then what and lee says we're going to build a mountain and then someone off mic goes what that's a joke

and then Lee says from a little hill and then the same voice off mic goes what does that even mean now that's a joke and that's a joke that's really funny and to you the listener who's not seen the movie it's a refrain from a song that as with many of the songs that are used in the movie are that we consistently go back to

for reasons that remain to me elusive. Yeah. The use of music in this movie outside of just being something people like, people like music. People like music. Remains totally opaque.

Todd Phillips didn't have a bad pitch in the room, did he? People like music and people like jokes. People like music I guarantee you no less than 15 jokes People like music People like jokes And get this People like the movie I did

About this guy Yeah So what if I told you this What if I told you You're going to give me A hundred million dollars We should look that up I'm going to go away

I'm going to make a movie With songs And jokes I'm going to talk to my good friend Bradley Cooper about maybe getting Lady Gaga involved I'm going to work really hard on this I'm going to work so hard on this

I'm going to lose sight of what it is I'm working on and when I'm finished I don't want you to show a single fucking person to ask their opinion before we go to market when I'm finished working on this you know where it's going don't you straight to market

I'm going to try and get the 14 Joke in before we address what you've just brought up which is for my mind crucially important to discuss 14th joke the judge

has insisted upon Arthur Flex he wants to stop him turning his courtroom into a circus and he reminds Arthur of this many times and one time when Gary Puddles is on the stand.

He says, don't, you know, I'll ask you again, Mr. Fleck, don't turn my courtroom into a circus. And then with hand to the side of his mouth, whispering to the judge, he says, I think it's a little late for that, don't you think, Your Honor? And nods towards Gary Puddle's 14th joke. It's a joke.

It's a joke. What about, I mean, the opening, animated feature film is full of visual Prap Fools Yeah I guess if I've introduced that The Yellow Pages count as a joke Then Me and My Shadow

The animated feature that opens this Yeah but I mean we have to be specific Like what is the joke in that In the animated short I The depiction of police I guess you could argue as a joke No they kind of

Like the um is something that is funny a joke is the is the cartoon police going hop hop hop hop hop hop hop hop can we go back can we go back to before you did the police thing to the question which you know again

if we're searching for a thesis if something's funny is it a joke is that the question is the question yeah I mean not necessarily I agree

things have to satisfy other conditions beyond just being funny to be a joke and that's why I'm saying I feel sick the animated intro me and my shadow that plays at the start of this movie

might be funny and might have funny things in it but what is the joke that's all I'm asking and as okay here he is sunny and shea beejys yes

fertile ground to find a joke do you know of one or you're just like it feels like an area yeah and they she sings yes and it's played like for laughs

yeah the song stops while she's often a solo yeah she gets carried away with her solo yeah and he goes

he looks grumpy and then the band looks so Arthurin cuts out yeah and he goes you're kind of making it all about you and everyone knows the songs about me about love

loving me and he plays it like a joke and then she goes to the audience and this is like classic aside as a joke she goes now who's making it all about themselves yeah now that's 15 jokes you brought up such an amazing point that we have known for a couple of watches and not discussed yet somehow this film got made and released without any test screenings and I don't if I can know that much about Hollywood but at this budget that seems crazy to me

how does that happen I just think it's honestly you know I know it's a difficult then to get over the line but I can see you just have to say look

we cannot test this movie I don't know if it's Todd saying I don't know who's saying it's saying we cannot test this movie it's got to be Todd because there is not a single note that someone could give that we could take on to make it make sense.

This is what's so confounding to me about it is it's like and again we probably should Google this but it can't be that far off a hundred million dollar budget film once you account for promotion of it how do you how do you not test screen it

how do you get into a situation how does the studio get itself into a situation? How much money did the first movie make? I don't heaps I think like a terrific amount of money but even so there's so many like stories of sequels. In fact, I would say

that sequels probably flop more often than not. I don't know if that's true. Well, probably not commercially. Yeah, yeah, not commercially, which is the metric through which we're assessing is. Well, let me reframe that. There's got to be enough warning stories in Hollywood's history.

There's so much money involved. How expensive can it be to do some test screenings? How is it not like a contractual obligation for everyone involved? It's not about cost. It's about. vibes if this movie had any test screenings what do you lose be off

immediately also I get this I'm shocked to find out this movie came out last year yeah that is crazy a like we're basically existed this movie set in 1950 75 we but we are basically you and I are existing on the same timeline as this movie yeah we're actually I thought we're probably good kind of its target audience you are its target audience well man my boys yeah you and the people you have access to who this is for me and my friends online my online friends

how do you but like I just don't know what that conversation is of like okay so and then we're looking at the production schedule there's post there's the test screenings and then Todd Phillips goes

no you have to remove those from the schedule and they say why and he says because it will destroy my creative vision like is what the conversation is the other argument is it's the exact The studio executives are like, this is toxic.

We cannot screen this for people because words are going to get out that it's terrible. Whereas, if we just leave it as, this is a sequel to a hugely commercially successful movie. Bro. With Joaquin' Phoenix. Honestly, it's more intriguing. It is wafer thin, but it's not nothing, what you've just put out there. Because by your logic, or the logic you've just presented, then all it takes is the first tranche of cinema goers to ruin that.

So you would need everyone to go on opening weekends. Yeah, and I know that opening weekend is very important for every movie, but this movie was literally, it knows that it has produced a toxic waste site, and it just has to get everyone to go to this tourist destination before anyone dies of radio activity, radio toxicity. Yeah, you need, you need like, you know, they circled one week and they said, we're going to make as much money as we can back off this, because I promise you. It's, I don't, yeah, and I think it's more exciting than that. it's like people finding out along the way what a fucking disaster it is and removing the test some executive has snorted so much coke before coming up with this plan of like someone has laboured over what to do they've been watching like rushes and edits and stuff can you imagine watching this in any kind of unfinished form like without a grade or a mix and just being like

What am I even exposing myself to? I still consider what we are watching its unfinished form. As far as I'm concerned, this movie is still in previews. Actively. I don't know when opening night is, but it cannot have happened yet because from start to finish, this has not yet, there have been better screenings and worse screenings, but it has not yet fulfilled its objective for an entire. I really like thinking about the fact that someone who is in charge of the checkbook

decided the best possible chance we have of making any money back on this is hiding the it's the Biden fucking approach to campaigning yeah put him in a basement hide all the cameras gaslight your audience and then everyone just keep your fingers crossed for general election weekend everything's going well on the set of joker too everything's fine yeah is good news on the set of Joker 2 Joker 2 has never been more mentally fit and performing very well in meetings with everyone.

Yeah, Tom. I I think we're supposed to do Shining Lights. Do you remember that? Yeah, my shining light was the jokes. No, no. It was your own.

right it was like joke number 13 yeah yeah it was the offline jokes yeah yeah nice I should do one too go ahead um my shining light this is a

no it's not even a shining light I've got a it's an observation from me that like I don't know well we really fucking you like you and I personally really stupid to overlook how much attention

the real Joker kind of got in terms of shots because they go to that guy maybe five or six times in the movie and the first couple of times it was just going through me like why the fuck am I looking at this guy why is it why am I looking at him no I mean like but it didn't occur to me that if you are

that was Joker if you're invested in the story and you're paying attention I think you know it's fun for people to pick that up you know because he is initially he says he's been here he came here for seven weeks all he's done a smile and then he bit so and so and he and there's one thing i missed because i i couldn't even pass that through uh brendingleson's thick irish accent in my shit hearing i didn't hear that that guy i think it's reasonable to miss it because

the way the movie treats significant moments is so careless yeah it's a trust issue you you you you aren't to know that they're trying to show you something because you have no reasonable believe that they are you know like it'd be like if um if my three year old uh brought to me a bunch of stuff he said hey dad have a look at this and one was gravel and one was a piece of cement that had been chipped off something and one was a portion of a brick and one was plutonium but they're all presented as if here's just some rocks that i've got well there's a lesson there which is be present Or you'll miss out on the plutonium. Yeah.

Like you must treat every piece of sediment presented to you by your child or film. So to apply your logic to this, you are insisting upon sort of, and now I really feel like the snake is eating its tail, an unholy amount of attention on basically every frame of the two-hour, 18-minute runtime of this film. Can I be honest with you? I think everything, at least I have said in this conversation, is not canon. Not canon. This conversation, as far as I'm concerned, this conversation that we have been having. Yes. Is not on the record.

Okay. And I know that the episode's going to come out. Yeah. But to me, all of this. What you have to tell yourself is just that it's like, this is all sort of an void. This is like, if you have found, if this has found its way into your hands, this conversation, congratulations, because I don't know how you found it because it didn't happen and it doesn't exist. That's my belief. Holy shit.

Well, in the words of a common musical refrain from the movie that we keep watching, that's entertainment. I will not be lectured on what entertainment. is or isn't by this movie two thumbs down be honest don't be contrary be i'm not being contrary i'll tell you what my reasoning is i don't like to give two thumbs down if i'm compromised at all because i feel like i half of my brain was dealing with a potential just there's too much technology around. I'm surrounded by lithium ion batteries that are either going to run out of juice or explode

because they've made contact with the ground. That said, I am giving it two thumbs down. This was a dreadful watch. This is this is like I'm not going to call it the lowest ebb.

I'm going to call it the lowest ebb so far. Good night, everyone. We'll see you brun early. four another screening so just to put it into numbers tim for you yeah nine more times that's fine nine that's fine it's a big number see you tomorrow five this is what this is what's done to us in five if i can see you tomorrow bro i love love you i care for you don't think about it too much i'll see you in the morning you're going

to see me like you're going to see me when we stop talking off the record as we are you're going to see me hey listener you're going to continue seeing me like the bit between now and the next episode you're going to continue seeing me we got to stop you can't move for me i am everywhere i am you goodbye and good night and good luck and don't Tell anyone about this one.