Published to coincide with the release of Joker Folie amp224agrave Deux the sequel to Todd Phillips iconic blockbuster this imaginative reading sees Joker as an economic and political allegory presenting unexpected and dazzling insights into contemporary capitalism.amp10What could be more surprising than the cinematic presentation of theamp160Joker as a key to solving our present economic and political predicamentamp160Send In the Clowns leads us precisely there. Grip this movieamp8217s visual language its authors insist and we can also grasp a political grammar available to all that articulates a new worldchanging solidarity.amp10The predicament Send In the Clowns diagnoses is urgent the way late capitalism ensures astonishing inequality unleashing a backlash in conspiracy violence and authoritarianism. These pages map this unraveling onto the narrative of Joker. When the movie begins in 1981 neoliberal tides are shifting the sands the rise of insecure work the destabilizing of welfare the explosion of racialized incarceration. A close reading of the film allows Kennedy and McNaughton to isolate and confront these phenomena.amp10Send In the Clowns shows how melodrama has become late capitalismamp8217s preferred genre. It appears in neoliberal economic theory in a media seduced by caricatured villainy in state justifications for war. Melodrama allows demagogues to depict themselves as saviors and decry political opponents as criminals threatening the foundations of democracy itself.amp10The myth of the lone superhero has brought us to the brink of disaster. If we donamp8217t want jokers for president we must empower the clowns