Minor Comics Characters
Joker isn’t the sort of movie to fill its cast with characters from the comics, but a couple of supporting figures do share names with some very minor figures from the pages of DC.
First of all, Arthur’s social worker is named Debra Kane. You might think her surname is just a nod to Batman co-creator Bob Kane. That it may be, but the character was previously featured in the Batman: The Ultimate Evil storyline in which she’s depicted as a social worker Bruce Wayne went to see after the death of his parents.
Secondly, the two detectives who are on the tail of Fleck for the subway murders are named Garrity and Burke. There’s no Garrity in the world of Batman comics as far as I know, but a Detective Thomas Burke was introduced in Detective Comics #748. He’s described as the comedian of GCPD, which is ironic considering his no-nonsense attitude in the film.
He doesn’t appear on screen, but Penny Fleck’s psychological evaluation was conducted by Dr. Benjamin Stoner, according to her Arkham file. Stoner was an Arkham doctor in numerous 1980s DC comics.