It’s no secret that Grand Theft Auto VI takes a lot inspiration from IRL events and people, but one person colloquially called the “Florida Joker” has seemingly taken umbrage with Rockstar Games for possibly copying his whole entire vibe.
Toward the end of the GTA VI reveal trailer, we see what appears to be a young white male with his face covered in tattoos and sporting a deep purple hair color. Naturally, because there’s only one person in the entire Sunshine State that looks like this, folks on X/Twitter said this had to be a reference to Lawrence Sullivan, a 30-something model who went viral in 2017 after a mugshot of his tattooed face and green hair dropped. Because of Sullivan’s looks, he would go on to be dubbed the Florida Joker, what with the neon green hair and Chelsea smile tattoo from ear to ear. The GTA 6 character definitely bears an uncanny resemblance to Sullivan, so much so that the Florida Joker himself decided he had to weigh in.
Sullivan took to TikTok on December 5 to offer his two cents on the trailer. After swiveling the camera around his face to show off his plentiful tattoos, the Florida Joker not only said that Rockstar Games was “inspired” by him, but that they “gotta talk.”
“You might’ve seen that character on GTA 6,” Sullivan said. “They just dropped the trailer today. You know where they got that character with the face tattoos [from]. You know who they got that inspired by. Me. Just look me up.”
Who Is The Florida Joker, Though?
His backstory is a little murky, though the now-defunct (sigh) “blockchain encyclopedia” Everipedia seemingly chronicles his upbringing. What we do have, however, is some of his jail history. Sullivan was arrested in 2017 in Miami, Florida for pointing a gun at cars that were driving by. According to reports at the time, the self-described “tattoo model” told police he didn’t have a concealed weapons permit because of costs, opting instead to simply keep a loaded Smith & Wesson handgun in his pocket. After serving a pretty short sentence, he was booked again just a few days later for weed, then again in 2018, and once more in 2022. It appears he’s out now, as he’s been regularly posting TikToks about the GTA VI reveal trailer and that one character in particular.
The GTA VI reveal trailer was a huge cultural moment, having been viewed over 100 million times now. While folks are stoked about the upcoming crime sim, we’ll have to wait until 2025 before we can get our hands on it. Unfortunately, not everyone will be able to play it either, as the game will skip PC at launch. I’m just hoping that the cute little Xbox Series S can run the game without exploding or melting.
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