If I had a 2023 bingo card, I can guarantee that ‘the voice actor for Arthur Morgan got in a TikTok feud with the Florida Joker’ would not be on it. It feels like a sentence written by putting a bunch of names on a corkboard and throwing darts at it.
For context: last week the “Florida Joker”, otherwise known as Lawrence Sullivan, told Rockstar Games that they “gotta talk” about his send-up inclusion in the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer. Sullivan went viral back in 2017 after his interesting choice of tattoos—inspired by Jared Leto’s Joker—went viral via a mugshot. I’m not here to cast judgement on what someone chooses to do with their body—though Sullivan feels like he has grounds to demand compensation from Rockstar.
@lawrence.sullivan0
♬ original sound – Lawrence Sullivan
This is despite the fact that GTA 6 confidently sends-up a few real life examples of famous viral videos of characters from Florida, like the “Racist Karen” who dual-wielded hammers and smashed up some cars, also back in 2017.
Arthur Morgan’s voice actor, Roger Clark, posted a direct response to the Florida Joker. Which is, uh—is certainly a thing that has happened on the internet. As far as I can tell, Clark has apparently since deleted the TikTok. The links and embeds I can find to it are broken, and it’s missing from his page. However, this is the internet, and videos are forever: it’s been preserved on the game’s official subreddit, and it’s also been making the rounds on Twitter.
Roger Clark 🐐 responds to Florida joker who asked for $1-2M from Rockstar Games for parodying him in GTA 6 from r/GTA6
“You don’t need to talk to them … they are lawyered up, man. They know exactly what they can and cannot get away with. If I were you, I would use the notoriety they just threw your way to your advantage. Capitalise on it somehow. You ain’t getting a job at Home Depot with that face.”
I’m not joining the Sullivan defence squad or anything—his initial arrest was reportedly due to carrying a concealed gun without a permit—but it did feel a smidge petty, and I can see why Clark may have thought twice about leaving it up.
Making fun of someone for how they look (no matter how strange you might find it) isn’t a great habit to get into, even if that person sucks—it just makes doing the same to less sucky people more accepted. Especially when that person’s doing far funnier things, like demanding Rockstar give them $1-2 million as Sullivan did over the weekend.
@lawrence.sullivan0
♬ original sound – Lawrence Sullivan
“Everybody’s saying that I’m hallucinating, that I’m not the Joker from GTA 6,” Sullivan announces. He then points at an “All GTA 6 Real Life Florida Man References” video with a remote control like he’s giving a TED talk. “That’s me … we gotta talk, or not—you gotta give me like a mil or two.”
As Clark pointed out, I doubt Rockstar would make these caricatures based off real people unless it was certain it wouldn’t get in any legal trouble, and it certainly has the cash to out-lawyer people if anything actually goes to court.
