Film Theory: Why Joker Is All A Lie

3. The Clocks

Time is an important point to bring up here because one hint hidden in the background of some of Joker's scenes also adds fuel to the idea that Arthur's testimony is not real.

In at least three different scenes, we see clocks in the background reading 11:11, which Todd Phillips has somehow managed to convince people means nothing more than a coincidence. Let's call bullsh*t on that one, because clocks on display in shops are not set at 11:11, they're set at 10:10 as a conscious thing because it's supposed to make people think of a smiling face. Someone has manipulated those clocks and consciously chosen them all to be the same time.

Here are the other two...

And then at the end...

The point here is not what time they're showing, other than as a unifier. There's no significance to the 11:11 reading on their faces. The point is that all three of them are tied to the same point as an indication of something else. They're little background details that prove that the story being told is by someone unreliable.

They're supposed to subconsciously invite us to realise that Arthur's constructed story didn't go as far as to think that the time on the clock should be different. It's not a necessary detail to the story, so his imagination filled in the gap with something and copy and pasted it every time there was a clock.

He didn't believe it was necessary to get his point across, so they became unnecessary details. And we should thus question the sanctity of EVERYTHING he tells us. For instance, when he crows about his other great triumph other than killing Murray Franklin...