It’s no secret that Grand Theft Auto VI takes loads inspiration from IRL occasions and other people, however one individual colloquially known as the “Florida Joker” has seemingly taken umbrage with Rockstar Video games for presumably copying his entire total vibe.
Towards the tip of the GTA VI reveal trailer, we see what seems to be a younger white male together with his face lined in tattoos and sporting a deep purple hair shade. Naturally, because there’s only one person in the entire Sunshine State that looks like this, folks on X/Twitter stated this needed to be a reference to Lawrence Sullivan, a 30-something mannequin who went viral in 2017 after a mugshot of his tattooed face and inexperienced hair dropped. Due to Sullivan’s seems to be, he would go on to be dubbed the Florida Joker, what with the neon inexperienced hair and Chelsea smile tattoo from ear to ear. The GTA 6 character positively bears an uncanny resemblance to Sullivan, a lot in order that the Florida Joker himself determined he needed to weigh in.
Sullivan took to TikTok on December 5 to supply his two cents on the trailer. After swiveling the digital camera round his face to point out off his plentiful tattoos, the Florida Joker not solely stated that Rockstar Video games was “impressed” by him, however that they “gotta speak.”
“You may’ve seen that character on GTA 6,” Sullivan stated. “They simply dropped the trailer at the moment. You already know the place they acquired that character with the face tattoos [from]. You already know who they acquired that impressed by. Me. Simply look me up.”
Who Is The Florida Joker, Although?
His backstory is somewhat murky, although the now-defunct (sigh) “blockchain encyclopedia” Everipedia seemingly chronicles his upbringing. What we do have, nonetheless, is a few of his jail historical past. Sullivan was arrested in 2017 in Miami, Florida for pointing a gun at automobiles that had been driving by. In line with reviews on the time, the self-described “tattoo mannequin” informed police he didn’t have a hid weapons allow due to prices, opting as an alternative to easily preserve a loaded Smith & Wesson handgun in his pocket. After serving a fairly brief sentence, he was booked once more just some days later for weed, then once more in 2018, and as soon as extra in 2022. It seems he’s out now, as he’s been frequently posting TikToks concerning the GTA VI reveal trailer and that one character particularly.
The GTA VI reveal trailer was an enormous cultural second, having been considered over 100 million occasions now. Whereas people are stoked concerning the upcoming crime sim, we’ll have to attend till 2025 earlier than we will get our palms on it. Sadly, not everybody will have the ability to play it both, as the sport will skip PC at launch. I’m simply hoping that the lovable little Xbox Sequence S can run the sport with out exploding or melting.