What’s the Song That Plays in Joaquin Phoenix’s ‘Joker’ Teaser Video?

Todd Phillips' officially-released camera test footage from the upcoming Joker is appropriately set to The Guess Who's 1969 #1 hit "Laughing."

The clip, released through studio Warner Bros.' social media Friday, sees down-on-his-luck Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) slowly morph into a makeup-sporting clown, whose eerie grin quickly drops before turning grim. Phoenix is seen wearing blue eye shadow with accompanying red smears for his lips, nose and eyebrows.

Phillips' origin story for Batman's famed future archfoe is set firmly outside the interconnected DC Films universe, home to Ben Affleck's Dark Knight crime-fighter and Jared Leto's tattooed clown prince of crime. Warner Bros. calls the standalone project as "a gritty character study" and "a broader cautionary tale" centered around Fleck, a man disregarded by society.

Three-time Oscar nominee Phoenix characterized Joker as not belonging to any specific genre, saying the film doesn't fit into the scope of a superhero movie or a studio movie.

"It feels unique, and I think more than anything, and probably the most important thing, is Todd seems very passionate about it and very giving, and so that's exciting," Phoenix said.

"I think, underneath the excitement of these films, and the size of them, there are these incredible characters that are dealing with real life struggles. And sometimes that is uncovered and exposed, and sometimes it isn't, and so I always felt, like, there were characters in comics that were really interesting and deserve the opportunity to be kind of studied. And so I think that's what Todd sees appealing about this idea."

Warner Bros. recently announced Bradley Cooper (Guardians of the Galaxy, A Star is Born) boarded the project as a producer, reteaming him with his Hangover trilogy director Phillips.

Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2) co-stars as hardened single mother Sophie Dumond, the potential love interest of Phoenix's proto-Joker. Also starring is Brett Cullen (The Dark Knight Rises) as Thomas Wayne, father of Bruce Wayne, and Frances Conroy (American Horror Story) as Arthur's mother. Marc Maron (GLOW), Shea Whigham (Kong: Skull Island), and Robert De Niro (The Godfather Part II) co-star in unknown roles.

Joker is now in front of cameras for an October 4, 2019 release.