The Trickster Within Each of Us
THE MOVIE
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
DIFFICULTY
THE QUESTION
Why is Joy/Jobu Tupaki a perfect trickster?
WHAT WE LEARN
How to recognize trickster traits.
Warning SPOILERS ahead
PLOT:
The story revolves around Evelyn Wang (played by Michelle Yeoh), a Chinese-American woman who runs a laundromat with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and lives a stressful, seemingly meaningless life.
Evelyn faces a series of challenges: tensions with her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu), managing a failing business, and the rigidity of her marriage.
One day, while trying to resolve some tax issues with an auditor named Deirdre, Evelyn is swept into a surreal adventure when an alternate Waymond from another universe explains that the multiverse exists and that she is the key to saving it.
The real conflict arises when Evelyn encounters Jobu Tupaki, an entity from an alternate universe who is actually a version of her own daughter Joy.
Jobu Tupaki has become incredibly powerful thanks to her ability to access infinite versions of herself across the multiverse. This version of Joy is disillusioned, nihilistic, and capable of manipulating reality in absurd and chaotic ways, threatening to collapse the multiverse.
Throughout the film, Evelyn is forced to confront a series of alternate versions of herself in parallel worlds (each with different abilities) and to fight to stop Jobu Tupaki, who threatens to destroy everything with her infinite understanding of reality.
However, as Evelyn explores the multiverse, she begins to discover the beauty and importance of her life and her family connections. She realizes that the true key to saving the multiverse is not just fighting, but love, understanding, and acceptance. Evelyn faces and embraces the chaos of life, understanding that, despite difficulties and frustrations, what truly matters are human connections and the choices we make.
INTERPRETIVE KEY:
In this case, we are interested in the figure of the daughter Joy as a complex example of a trickster.
What is meant by TRICKSTER?
The trickster figure is an archetype that appears in many cultural and mythological traditions and is closely related to the concept of the joker in popular culture. The trickster is a complex character who challenges social conventions, breaks rules, and destabilizes the established order—but often with a purpose beyond mere chaos: they can also lead to transformation, reveal hidden truths, and inspire change.
Main Characteristics of the Trickster/Joker
- Rule-Breaker
The trickster is known for breaking social, cultural, or moral norms. They do not conform to conventions and often mock authorities or power structures. This behavior creates chaos, but also opens space for reflection on why certain rules exist and whether they are fair. - Ambiguity and Paradox
The trickster is often an ambiguous character, difficult to classify. They can be both a hero and a villain, depending on the situation and perspective. They are capable of interpreting and manipulating realities, creating paradoxes and confusion, but are never entirely evil. Their duality can reveal deeper truths about the world and human nature. - Cunning and Deception
Their main weapon is cleverness: not physically strong, they rely on intelligence to deceive, trick, and manipulate situations. Often, they are also great tricksters and pranksters, fooling those around them with jokes, schemes, and mental games. - Transformation and Change
Although the trickster can create chaos, their presence functions as a catalyst for change. Their actions often lead to transformation or evolution of society, individuals, or social dynamics. In many mythological stories and legends, the trickster also brings unexpected revelations or solutions. - Humor and Play
The trickster uses humor as a tool to challenge and expose conventions. With their irreverent spirit, they ridicule taboos and prejudices, often making their “victims” more angry at themselves than at the trickster. Their behavior may seem superficial or frivolous but often serves as a critique of societal rigidity.
Environment and Context
The trickster appears in contexts where rules are particularly strict or oppressive. Their presence is often seen as necessary to “unlock” rigid structures and bring a new perspective. In some cases, the trickster acts as an “antihero” who questions dominant value systems.
Examples of Tricksters in Mythology and Popular Culture
- Loki (Norse mythology): One of the most famous tricksters, Loki is a god who embodies deception, transformation, and chaos. Often an antagonist to the other gods, he acts for his own amusement and to challenge divine rules, but in many stories his behavior leads to unpredictable outcomes that sometimes reveal hidden truths.
- Coyote (Native American mythology): The coyote is a recurring trickster in the traditions of Indigenous American peoples, often depicted as a clever animal who plays with other beings in its community and with the laws of nature.
- Anansi (African mythology): Another famous trickster, Anansi is a spider who, through cunning and deceit, overcomes his enemies and earns the favor of others. He is often a symbol of cleverness and perseverance.
The Role of the Trickster in Society and Psychology
The trickster plays a fundamental role in social and psychological balance, as they challenge and question power structures and established norms, often leading to revelation or personal growth. In Jungian psychology, the trickster can be seen as an aspect of the individual’s Shadow, representing the dark or hidden traits of the psyche, but also as a symbol of transformation and liberation from social constraints.
In summary, the trickster/joker figure is a character who, through deception and transgression, challenges conventions, provokes change, and forces people to confront realities and truths that are often hidden or uncomfortable.
WHY JOY IS A PERFECT TRICKSTER
Joy/Jobu Tupaki is a perfect trickster because she dismantles mental, emotional, and narrative structures to create space for authentic transformation. She is not the hero, but without her, the hero cannot transform.
She subverts every rule of the multiverse
Jobu Tupaki does not just travel between universes: she experiences them all simultaneously. She is omnipresent, omnipotent, and unpredictable. This makes her a liminal figure: she never belongs to a single world but traverses them all. Like every trickster, she inhabits the threshold between order and disorder.
She uses chaos as a language
Joy embraces nonsense: hot dog fingers, raccoon chef, cosmic bagel. All these absurd elements are tools of deconstruction, which the trickster uses to challenge any claim to meaning or stability. In this way, she exposes the illusions of the system (family, society, linear logic).
She destroys to reveal
The trickster often appears as a destructive force, but her function is revelatory. Jobu does not just want to destroy the universe with the bagel: she wants her mother to understand the void she herself helped create. Destruction becomes an opportunity for awakening.
She reveals the hypocrisies of identity
Joy is queer, multifaceted, and rejects imposed definitions. As a trickster, she challenges fixed identities and proposes a fluidity that is simultaneously threatening and liberating. She forces Evelyn (and us viewers) to confront the multiplicity of being.
The trickster is never merely comic: she is tragic
Behind the humor and eccentric performance, Joy is deeply suffering. This dual register—between buffoonery and despair—is typical of the trickster: she laughs while everything burns, but in doing so, she invites us to look within ourselves.
REFERENCES:
Michel Foucault. Storia della follia nell’età classica, Rizzoli, Milano 1976
Paul Radin – The Trickster (1956)
Carl Gustav Jung – On the Psychology of the Trickster Figure (1954)
Marie-Louise von Franz – The Trickster in Fairy Tales (1972)
Lewis Hyde – Trickster Makes This World (1998)
Claude Lévi-Strauss – The Structural Study of Myth (1955)