Meanings
plural clowncels
- incel slangAn incel who identifies with the Joker from the Batman franchise.
2019, Caroline Cabe, "Inside Todd Phillips’ Joker and the Rise of the ‘Clowncel’, The Texas Orator, 22 October 2019
2 more examples
As for Joker, after the FBI warned of mass-shooting threats from so-called “Clowncels,” some theaters in the United States banned makeup and costumes during the screening of Phillips’s movie (Margolin and Katersky).
2021 March, Manuel Herrero-Puertas, “Super Whitman 1885”, in Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, volume 47, number 1, page 311There is a key difference here, however, in that clowncels seem to replace the self-pitying discourse common in incel forums with anger towards the rich and the powerful.
2021, Aylin Kuryel, “Looking at and with images: Crowds in Joker, Joker in the crowd”, in Sean Redmond, editor, Breaking Down Joker: Violence, Loneliness, Tragedy, unnumbered page
Origin
Cite this entry
clowncel. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clowncel
“clowncel.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clowncel. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “clowncel,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/clowncel.
Source: clowncel on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.