Joker: Every Easter Egg & Reference We Spotted

19. Donald Trump

Despite being set in 1981, Joker contains many real-world parallels to contemporary society, most of all a trenchant class commentary which condemns the rich and powerful elite who care not for the most vulnerable and troubled in society.

This is best embodied through Thomas Wayne, who far from his typical benevolent capitalist depiction in most Batman media, is painted more as a Donald Trump-type figure.

Tellingly, Alec Baldwin was originally cast in the part - presumably due to his popular SNL parodies of the American President.

While Wayne is actually vaguely dignified compared to the current POTUS, he's nevertheless a conniving politician with a dim view of those "beneath" him.

In addition to actor Brett Cullen bearing a solid resemblance to Trump, the comparison reaches its apex during the film's unforgettable gala screening of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, where a protester outside the cinema wears a cartoonish mask which looks far more like Trump than it does Wayne.