Patrick Bateman Is Now an Unironic Style Icon. Are People Missing the Joke?

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/t-magazine/patrick-bateman-american-psycho-style.html

30 comments

  1. This is like the greedy shitheads who think Gordon Gecko did nothing wrong.

  2. People were missing the joke when they were casting. Christian Bale asked the director if the script for American Psycho was supposed to be so funny. That’s when Mary Harron knew Christian Bale was perfect because he actually understood it.

  3. People always miss the joke, I’ve been in sales roles that used clips from The Wolf of Wall Street as hype motivation.

    Media literacy is dead.

  4. There are people who literally cannot understand satire/irony. And therefore probably also not the concept of an unreliable narrator or even simply a bad one (“He’s the main character, so he’s the good guy”)

  5. I mean, who doesnt like music? Who doesnt like to take care of themselves? Who doesnt like fancy nights out? Who doesnt like driving an axe into the head of some dude while enjoying a bit Huey? Honestly, I think we just try too hard to be objectionable…

  6. I think it’s the character of Bateman imitating reality. Lot of fake people out there who leave you for dead.

  7. Bret Easton Ellis was horrified to find out people look up to Patrick Bateman.

  8. Yes. Is is not clear by now that they don’t understand satire

  9. When I watched this in theaters (yeah, I’m ancient), two guys behind me were talking loudly about “if this dude’s so rich how come he got that old ass phone?” Maybe they were being sarcastic but I think it’s more likely that they didn’t have a clue what they were watching.

  10. Tbf, Bateman’s “friends” and coworkers missed the joke, too.

  11. That’s the thing with American Psycho. You really have two options:

    1) Bateman is a serial killer and is getting away with it because he’s a super rich white guy who works on Wall Street. (This is Harron’s interpretation)

    2) Bateman is not actually killing anyone but fantasizes about it and can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy because of all the drugs he does and/or mental illness.

    Neither of those involve Batemen being a hero or someone you should look up to. The memes out there are funny and the movie is very quotable but come on.

  13. I originally read this as Jason Bateman. and i was like…come on dude dresses fine.

    That being said, this should be about Homelander. He is the evolution of this misunderstanding.

  15. I always viewed it as the absurdist view of cracking fully in a polite society. Of course it’s a giant ironic joke.

  16. In the book he is obsessed with Trump, so things make sense.

  17. Yes because insecure weak men with narcissistic personalities are running the country now.

  19. Babes, we are back to the 1980s and early 2000s, where women are objects, might makes right, and men idolize rich “masculine” assholes. We’ve been through it before, it will eventually fall of style again, but yeah it’s a drag

  20. People get the “joke”. They just don’t care

  21. People get the joke. They just lean onto it. I know a lot of dudes like this. They think it’s hilarious.

  23. I worked with a guy who legally changed his last name to Bateman because he was so obsessed with the character.

  24. Dude. There are wall street guys, real estate brokers, small business owners, whatever, who *desperately want to be exactly like Bateman*. In appearance and feel, at least.

  25. I think I’m the only one here who actually read the article, because none of y’all are talking about anything it mentioned.

  26. Because he’s stylish af. Not a good person tho obviously.

  27. We have to stop assuming that most people are intelligent enough to understand irony.

  28. Same people who think Jordan Belfort was the hero of the movie.

  30. Social media is absolutely inundated with depictions of wealth, conspicuous consumerism, and materialism. What used to be considered selling out is now the ideal: “Get that bag.” If you aren’t monetizing every moment of your life, what are you doing?

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