The number of times in history that films have created an uproar leading to violence are surprisingly few, making the recent lurid predictions that Joker is likely to inspire mass mayhem a bad bet — possible in our always-deranged country, but not probable.

When it comes to predicted rioting at screenings through film history, a more typical experience is Luis Buñuel’s frustration when audiences didn’t riot at the premiere of his still astonishing avant-garde film Un Chien Anadalou in 1929. (If you’re squeamish, look away when that razor approaches the woman’s eye.) He was enraged when the film he made with Salvador Dali to act as “a call to murder” was greeted with warm applause.

Hysterical critics and pundits predicted widespread urban rioting for screenings of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing in 1989, which helped make the film a must-see in what turned out to be perfectly decorous theatrical experiences across the country. But on the other hand, the frenzied and graphically depicted murders in Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994), which led to its initial banning in Ireland and a delayed release in the United Kingdom, became notorious for allegedly helping inspire “copycat” killings including the Heath High School and Columbine High School shootings.