The Facts on The Joker’s Laughing Disorder
Hilarious…
In 2019 Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Films released the critically acclaimed ‘The Joker’ featuring Joaquin Phoenix. If you haven’t seen it, you should but don’t worry there won’t be any spoilers in this article.
All you need to know is the film takes a grounded approach to the Joker mythos. You won’t find any comically large guns shooting at Batman but this also means writer and director Todd Phillips wanted to find a realistic reason for the Joker’s iconic laugh.
This led him to use the real-life disorder called Pseudobulbar Affect as inspiration. But what exactly is it and what causes it?
What is Pseudobulbar Affect?
Pseudobulbar affect (PBA) is described as sudden or uncontrollable outbursts of laughing and/or crying. The outbursts can strike at any time and seem to happen at especially inappropriate times leading some to describe PBA as a disinhibition disorder.
But this doesn’t mean the person suffering from it will laugh or cry at only inappropriate times. When they find something sad or funny they will still react but the reaction will be disproportionate to the trigger. A ten-minute laughing fit over a Carlos Mencia joke is a clear red flag.
What causes Pseudobulbar Affect?
You and I both know that brain injuries can cause all sorts of maladies such as making you believe you’re actually dead or giving one of your limbs a life of their own. You can read our articles about Walking Corpse Syndrome here or Alien Hand Syndrome here.
So it’s no surprise that the cause of PBA is thought to be in the brain but we’re really not quite sure how it happens or where in the brain it’s triggered.
Doctors and researchers may see signs of PBA in those suffering from dementia, brain tumors, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, other brain diseases, and injuries. They may even see signs of PBA as a side effect of other mood disorders like depression and bipolar disorder but how it works in the brain is still sort of a mystery.
A recent study published in 2013 found some hints that the cerebellum may play a large role in how it works but there’s no definitive answer as of yet.
You can’t prove these colors aren’t accurate.
As of today, there are as many as 2 million people in the United States suffering from PBA and diagnosing it can be pretty difficult as it can be mistaken for mood disorders. Someone crying at random points of the day for seemingly no reason may be diagnosed with depression meanwhile PBA may be behind the cause, making treatment difficult.
Since we’re not sure exactly how it works it also means we don’t have a cure for it but several studies have found that some antidepressants have been shown to be somewhat effective.
With a closer link being found between PBA and the cerebellum, hopefully, researchers and scientists can get closer to more concrete diagnostic tools and treatments.
As far as The Joker goes, although Todd Phillips has stated he used PBA as inspiration, Joaquin Phoenix said in an interview he doesn’t think his version of the Joker is suffering from PBA, so you’ll have to be the judge.
Quick Facts
Scott Silver also has a writing credit for the film ‘The Joker”
Other names of PBA may be Involuntary Emotional Expression disorder, Emotional Lability, Emotional dysregulation, and pathological laughter and crying.
