To not draw a parallel between Tyler Durden and Heath Ledger’s Joker would be a failure on my part. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight presents a villain who has a strangely familiar worldview. The Joker isn’t meaninglessly sowing chaos and anarchy; “when the chips are down, these… these civilized people, they’ll eat each other. See, I’m not a monster. I’m just ahead of the curve.” His intention is to act as an equalizer in a corrupt city. Gotham, in fact, is so corrupt that every single level of their law enforcement has been infiltrated by the city’s criminal underbelly, and all of them are scrabbling to get on top.
While the city presented in Fight Club isn’t necessarily swarming with killer clowns or superheroes, the parallel is there. The city the narrator describes is corrupt in its’ formation, infrastructure, and class system. Its’ existence is profane, necessarily demanding equalization by some force. Project Mayhem is the equalizing force; its’ ultimate aim is to dismantle, dissemble, and destroy civilization. In throwing us back into a hunter-gatherer society, the Space Monkeys of Durden’s Project Mayhem have exacted what Nolan’s Joker would call a fantastic plan.
The two are self-described agents of chaos, harbingers of what they perceive to be fair and just. Is it coincidence that the American public holds both to be sort of dark heroes, even in spite of their flagrant disregard for humanity?
The two stand outside of society, lacking material attachments, and have taken on their respective shoulders the burden of bringing change to society – with violence if necessary.
That we hold them both in such esteem seems an indication that maybe we do understand the gravity of humanity’s plight and our own situation.
When the Joker asks ‘why so serious,’ Tyler Durden’s Space Monkeys raise their fists in answer.
Fight Club Manifesto 