Not a joke: Netizens angry over use of song by paedophile Gary Glitter in hit Joker movie
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The song is heard when the Joker movie's titular character (played by Joaquin Phoenix, above) dances down a staircase.
PHOTO: WARNER BROS
Loh Keng Fatt
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Movie audiences have gone wild over Joker, with the movie setting an opening-weekend box office record for an NC16-rated film in Singapore, with $1.89 million.
It also made $129 million in the United States despite concerns that the movie seems to be extending too much sympathy to a character with violent tendencies.
Detractors have now raised another red flag, pointing out that the box-office success will benefit Gary Glitter, who is jail for sexual offences.
Joker uses the song Rock And Roll (Part 2), which he co-wrote and was a hit for the British glam rocker in 1972.
The song is heard when the movie's main character (played by Joaquin Phoenix) dances down a staircase.
Netizens are aghast that Glitter could earn royalties from the use of the track.
USA Today reported that the reactions range from "So when you buy a ticket, remember who's getting some of that" to "I'm refusing to watch any @wbpictures or anything made by #WarnerBrothers @DCComics because @jokermovie uses music by a convicted notorious paedophile Gary Glitter".
But it is not clear how much Glitter, 75, will get.
Now serving a 16-year jail term, he first ran into trouble in 1997 over the possession of child pornography materials.
He fled to Vietnam, where he was said to have targeted pre-teen girls.
After serving a prison sentence there, he returned to Britain where he was convicted of assaulting young girls in 2015.
