It isn’t groundbreaking for the trailer to a hotly anticipated blockbuster to end on a stinger, but fans couldn’t believe their ears when the final promo for Zack Snyder’s Justice League dropped yesterday. Not only did the footage conclude with the first look of Jared Leto back in action as the Joker, but he even said “we live in a society” for good measure.
Those not particularly well-versed in the ways of meme culture might not have understood it, but the internet went into absolute meltdown, and in virtually no time at all, #WeLiveInASociety was trending worldwide, while Leto himself even leaned into it when reacting to the trailer on social media.
The quote originated on Seinfeld, but somehow it’s morphed into becoming closely associated with the Clown Prince of Crime over the last few years. In fact, it was often used in conjunction with images of Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight, even though he never said the line in the movie, but memes are hardly designed with the intention of making sense.
Unsurprisingly, it stirred up plenty of conversation on social media, and you can check out just some of the reactions to the internet phenomenon being brought to life below.
The greatest accomplishment this film will have is joker actually verbatim saying, "We live in a society". Beautiful. https://t.co/ljkWnJGU32
— Hannah Reloaded (@HannahReloaded) February 14, 2021
Wait wait wait, the Joker actually says "We live in a society" in the new Justice League trailer, omg
— darcy (@dgtl_nightmares) February 15, 2021
Snyder cut of the Justice League, coming out on HBO Max.
The lines are a joke, his actual line incorporates the "we live in a society" meme and people are mocking it.
— insomniac (@insomni31780696) February 15, 2021
https://twitter.com/_Polar0/status/1361228179717775368
https://twitter.com/ThePsion5/status/1361227413598912517
https://twitter.com/tsunwya/status/1361227392849690624
Jared Leto's Joker Actually Says “We Live In A Society” in Zack Snyder's Justice League The Internet has won this round. https://t.co/N7Gi5f0Qyd
— kristoferkawas (@kristoferkawas) February 15, 2021
Joker saying "We live in a society" in Justice League is exactly like the "I'm the Juggernaut bitch" scene in X-Men: Last Stand
— Red (@drummarts) February 15, 2021
https://twitter.com/ryebuny00/status/1361215897763987457
Joker in the Justice League trailer: "We live in a society…"
Everyone: pic.twitter.com/qeRqoZtbHG
— ʙᴇɴ ʀᴏʙᴤᴏɴ (@RobsonBen) February 15, 2021
Since the Justice League trailer had "we live in a society" in it, Godzilla vs Kong has to have "return to monke" in it now by law
— Chrys 🔜 fwa (@itschrysolite) February 15, 2021
Of course, Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker saw the ‘we live in a society’ meme return once more, generating increasingly unusual and bizarre artwork as it continued to gain a life of its own. And given that the Snyder Cut of Justice League is shaping up to be unabashed fan service on an epic scale to reward those who’ve supported the project for so long, there’s absolutely no chance it’s a coincidence that the line was included, as the director would’ve known exactly how it would go down online.