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DC Comic Featuring Pregnant Joker Goes Viral — Writer Matthew Rosenberg Responds to Critics

Published: January 06, 2023
  |   By Cassandra MacDonald

A series of panels from a new DC Comic featuring a pregnant Joker has sparked a massive debate on social media.

The comic, The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #4, contained a non-canonical backup story titled “Knocked Upside Down!”

In the story by writer Matthew Rosenberg, Zatanna holds the Joker upside down while he insists that they would make a great couple. He begins to talk about what their children would look like, and she dunks him in a mud puddle while casting a spell saying, “no one else will ever have your baby.”

When the Joker wakes up, he is pregnant. He goes to the OB-GYN for help and ends up vomiting up mud.

The mud takes form and becomes a mini Joker, who he takes to Zatanna and introduces as their son.

The reaction to seeing a pregnant Crown Prince of Crime was swift.

Many complained that comics have been consistently going incredibly woke.

“Today, DC released a comic in which the Joker becomes pregnant and gives birth to a mud monster who transforms into a child-version of himself who he adopts as his son,” comic Youtuber Theresa Campagna tweeted. “…I don’t know how much longer I can do this…”

Others pointed out that it’s a throwback to the Silver Age style and doing a cheap gag.

“I get the ignorance of Right Wing loons expressing shock of the mirthsome backup story of Zatanna causing Joker to get pregnant in this week’s ‘Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing’. But comic fans parroting the same thing: did none of you ever read ‘Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen’?” co-writer 2004 Hellboy movie, Peter Briggs tweeted.

Rosenberg responded to the outrage by saying, “the reason people are mad at me today is the funniest reason people have ever been mad at me.”

In response, a user tweeted, “at least have the guts to admit you’re fan baiting on purpose. ‘I’m so genuinely surprised that anyone got upset by my story about a male character giving birth, even though transgenderism and if a male can give birth is one of the most heated issues in our culture right now.'” The user added, “you can’t possibly have been so naive you didn’t see this coming, which means you’re either lying instead of admitting you knew there would be this reaction or you’re incredibly culturally ignorant.”

Rosenberg replied, “you get that what people are claiming isn’t what actually happens in the story right? He swallows Clayface and then throws him up. He does not in any way get pregnant nor does he give birth. He eats and pukes. There is a joke about pregnancy in the issue. That’s it.”

“I understand that you got offended thinking a cartoon character might have gotten pregnant in a wacky, canonical story about a dream he had. But he didn’t. He got food poisoning,” Rosenberg concluded.

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