I know the most likely answer is just that they've never seen the movie at full, but I truly don't get what people see in Bateman. Man's pathetic. He has a mental breakdown because of presentation cards, kills a random man and his dog because he was made to look bad in front of his circle and couldn't retort back, his monologues read like an edgy 13 year old trying to sound cool and badass, he solely puts sex and violence on TV and barely looks at it even, spends all day playing around in his office instead of working and constantly speaks in an incredibly obvious fake pretentious voice.
Even in his killer side, he constantly trips over himself and panics every time the detective questions him, he craves approval even from his victims and much much more.
He's so lame its funny how so many people see him as this weird superior sigma chad when he's anything but.
I feel like many people simply struggle with media literacy. As in, reading between the lines. They see the surface level cool guy and leave it at that, no further analysis.
Yeah the answer is basically in the comment, his monologues read like an edgy 13 year old trying to sound cool and badass. It's probably 90% edgy 13 year olds who made content that adores him, and the remaining 10% are older people who haven't developed the skills to see further than that.
I do think a huge overlooked part are the people who use the memes ironically too. When they first started popping up, even when they weren't self aware, I was happy to see memes made from outside the current zeitgeist and from a film I liked so I generally showed them my support. Now a meme of it can be made that's totally without irony and I recognise it as part of the format more than someone who is oblivious about the film.
Rich and good looking
People either identify with the irritations Bateman has, or like the movie for its commentary on society and therefore choose Bateman as a symbol of the entire movie.
For the first group, some really want to be able to say "fuck off" more often but aren't able to because of society. They feel like they're close to snapping and seeing someone else act out their shameful desires brings them a lot of enjoyment.
For the second group, they are mostly ironically (sometimes post-ironically) fanboying Bateman. They might think that by drawing attention to the ridiculousness of him getting away with his actions, they are providing commentary on the state of society. In a sense, they'd be calling Christian Bale's acting "based" because of how realistic it is.
Perhaps people love a man that they can relate to🤷
Bateman is also an extremely metrosexual character.
I heard a radio interview from the author Ellis where he said he'd written American Psycho after getting an unexpected windfall from his first book at a young age. Part of the book is based on his experiences as a closeted gay man in that era of Manhatten.
IIRC he's supposed to be a satire of stockbrokers from the 80's.
He really does capture what it is like being one of those Wall Street types. Everything from Daddy getting him the job, his total lack of technical and soft skills, his lack of distinct self, and not even the basic virtue of hard work. An entire civilization resources going to maintaining the image of a small select group who statistically would perform better if they didn't show up tomorrow.
They are the royality without the nobility.
A lot of them are 13 year olds that idolize Bateman. It’s relatable to them.
People admiring Patrick Bateman because you don't get that he's a serial killer is somehow less offensive to me than Elon Musk not understanding the whole point of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He claims his LLM is 'in tribute' to the book series where pretty much every single artificial intelligence that's interacted with is either messed up or an asshole and he claims the book inspired him to create it.
He never white manages to return his video tapes on time. That's quite selfish of him, I can't lie.
I bet he didn't even rewind them.
FEED ME A STRAY CAT
He also couldn't be more fucking wrong about Genesis. It's probably the most heinous thing about him tbh.
This thread is really alarming if you're like me and got Patrick Bateman confused with Jason Bateman
Jason Bateman - classic nice guy :)
Questionable! There was the whole thing when Jessica Walter spoke out about Jeffery Tambor that was very disappointing.
Didn't realize until I read this comment that I was doing exactly that. I was like wtf that guy seemed harmless and nice lol
The likes of Patrick Bateman and Tyler Durden are "cool" because they represent the pent up frustration of many men to fit in. Are their violent actions justified though? No.
Don't be like Patrick Bateman. Or Rorschach. Or Homelander. Or Tyler Durden. Or The Joker.
Be like William Riker.
Turn down your first command, pine after your ex who is also your coworker, and have various bad things happen to you that should leave you an existentialist PTSD drooling mess but doesnt because you are too unaware to have a sense of self?
