Joker: Every Character Ranked Worst To Best

2. Murray Franklin

Robert DeNiro's role in Joker is like a walking Easter Egg - or at least a tribute to the two major narrative influences to this movie's story: Taxi Driver and The King Of Comedy. His casting almost feels like a thanks for gifting Todd Phillips those movies to riff off.

Murray Franklin - a wildly popular late night talk-show host and comedian whose power over his viewers Arthur imagines to be as powerful as it is over he himself - is also a full circle role for DeNiro who was cast in The King Of Comedy as a similar figure to Arthur opposite Jerry Lewis. It's a genius bit of meta casting.

He's not actually in it a great deal, but his observations of a certain type of entertainment show host (right down to his slightly too fake, too white teeth and his slightly too fake-tanned skin) are perfect and he lends a good bit of credentials as you'd expect.