It is no coincidence that Joker takes place in 1981. It was an inauspicious year. Newly elected president Ronald Reagan — the most conservative man to sit in the White House in a generation — began his first term in office. Air traffic controllers went on an ill-fated strike. And Martin Scorsese, fresh off his critical success with Raging Bull, began filming one of the biggest flops of his career: The King of Comedy.

Released in 1983, The King of Comedy starred Robert De Niro as Rupert Pupkin, an aspiring but unsuccessful stand-up comedian, obsessed with his idol, the popular late-night talk show host Jerry Langford, played in self-parody by Jerry Lewis. Determined to book a spot on Langford’s show, Pupkin stalks him with increasing derangement, eventually resorting to kidnapping Langford, demanding the opening set that night as ransom. Pupkin is successful, performing to a studio audience blissfully unaware that they are applauding a violent, deranged psychopath. While Langford had insisted that what he does is so hard, Pupkin reveals that it is easily mimicked, packaged, and sold to an adoring audience that knows no better. The fool really can be the king.

But The King of Comedy sputtered at the box office, grossing just $2.5 million against its $19 million budget. While audiences were put off by its unsettling portrayal of celebrity fandom and violent resentment, critics were impressed, and the film has now become a cult classic. So much so that its story — and perhaps some of its politics — are clearly reflected in Todd Phillips’s Joker.