Matthew Perry Embraced A Popular ‘Joker’ Meme In The Same Way Chandler Bing Would Do It

Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker has made over $1 billion at the global box office, entertained the still-sitting President of the United States, and laid the groundwork for potential sequels. And judging by the film’s continued success in movie theaters and the director and actor’s mutual willingness to further explore the iconic (and controversial) character, it seems likely that audiences might be getting at least one followup in the future. If that happens, though, the filmmakers may have to contend with Chandler Bing.

Over the weekend, Friends actor Matthew Perry highlighted what many Twitter users who had spent the week playing around with the “cinematic parallels” meme already suspected: that his famously sarcastic character had inspired Phoenix’s Joker performance. It a tweet, he reshared another user’s side-by-side comparison of a dancing Chandler with Arthur Fleck’s dance down the now-famous Bronx staircase. “You’re welcome,” Perry quipped.

— matthew perry (@MatthewPerry) November 16, 2019

Obviously, the Chandler character didn’t inspire Phoenix to dance down those stairs to Gary Glitter’s “Rock And Roll Part 2.” That moment was totally the result of the Joker team’s work on the film. Even so, this didn’t stop Perry’s followers from jumping onto the bandwagon and combing the Friends archives for other possible points of comparison — of which there are strangely many.

— Oldreruns (@oldreruns) November 16, 2019

What about this +++ pic.twitter.com/Yeaq810b58