The Joke: Al the Killer’s Story Explained
| Let’s talk about Coheed and Cambria’s 2024 single “The Joke.” It’s a song that was originally planned to be part of the newest Vaxis album, The Window of the Waking Mind. However, for reasons unknown the band decided to withhold it from the album and release it as a single alongside the remaster of the song “Deranged.” Of course I was stoked about this two-song release. “Deranged” is one of my favorite Coheed songs (it made my top 20 list). It was written for the video game Arkham Asylum back in 2011 and it explores the similarities between the Joker and Batman. The song “The Joke” came as such a wonderful surprise. I was immediately hit with plenty of you Freaks and Children of the Fence asking for my opinion on the music video so let’s talk about it! “The Joke” Story Explained: The music video for “The Joke” might just be one of the most visually well-done videos Coheed has put out. (It you haven’t seen it yet, click here NOW!) I was pleasantly surprised to see the resurrection of an old character, Al the Killer, starring in this video. And the way they portrayed Al in the video looks like he walked straight out of The Second Stage Turbine Blade comics. I was immediately intrigued by the presence of a female Joker character, and I decided I needed to dig my teeth (knife?) into this story behind this song. So here we go… (*Disclaimer: as always, this is just my personal interpretation of the lyrics and the accompanying video. I welcome you to comment with your own theories!) Let’s begin with some background on Al the Killer. Without summarizing the entirety of the story behind SSTB, here’s what you need to know: Al is a serial killer who likes drugging, murdering, and mutilating women. He pilots the ship called the Camper Velourium which contains a big ole freezer where he keeps the dead bodies of his victims. The women he murders are surrogates for the woman he actually wants to kill: his ex-girlfriend Luci. One way to interpret the music video for “The Joke” is the depiction of the relationship beteem Al’s rational mind and his dark subconscious that drives him to kill. Another way to interpret the song/video is it’s a love song for a Joker-dressed version of his old lover Luci. Personally, I think it’s a combination of both. The lyrics alone appear to be a straight up love song for Luci. Phrases like “If you ever need to break somebody, I’ll be here to star in that comedy” and “Holding your umbrella under a falling sky” certainly paints the picture of someone who is hopelessly in love. If this is Al singing about Luci, it’s clear there is nothing he wouldn’t do for her. And their breakup can be seen as the impetus behind Al’s descent from crazy, abusive boyfriend to cold-blooded killer. Adding in the video aspect we see throughout the video Al is haunted by the ghost of Luci/Joker. With her picture on his dashboard, I think it’s clear he’s not over her. He loves her, he hates her. She laughs in his face, taunting him. She is the embodiment of his shame. This shame, this rejection, is the fuel to his rage-driven insanity. She is the dark side of Al, the part of him that makes him kill. We get the sense that he feels if he could only kill her, he’d be able to move on from his pain. However, if we’re talking Jungian terms, she is his “shadow self.” And the funny part is, the only way to heal your shadow self is through acceptance. (Not by stabbing it in the gut.) By taking out his rage on women who resemble Luci, he is actually trying to kill the part of him that feels this pain. And the act of murder only perpetuates this cycle of inner turmoil. I think that’s why Luci appears in the Joker regalia. It’s a poetic way to point out this juxtaposition. And because Al continues to go about freeing himself from his inner demons the wrong way (i.e. murder) we have the Luci-Joker “winning” in the end. The irony is that because of Al’s attempts to kill the object of his pain, we can expect him to stay in this state of perpetual pain and shame as the butt of the joke—a joke where he’s the only one who doesn’t get the punch line. |