Florida Joker

Overview

Florida Joker or Miami Joker, also known as Joker305 and JokerGang is the nickname of Lawrence Patrick Sullivan, a Gulfport, Florida local known for his face tattoos and mannerisms that make him resemble the Batman villain Joker. Sullivan first went viral online in 2017 when he was arrested for a weapon charge for allegedly waving a gun at vehicles. Sullivan gained further virality over the following years, including through an appearance on All Gas No Brakes and a viral feud with Boonk Gang. In late 2023, Sullivan went viral for accusing Rockstar Games of using his likeness for a character in the video game Grand Theft Auto VI.

Online History

2017 Arrests

On May 24th, 2017, CBS Miami uploaded a news report to YouTube^[1] where they speak with Lawrence Patrick Sullivan after his release from jail on a concealed weapons charge, in which it was alleged that he was waving a handgun around at traffic. In the interview, Sullivan denies waving the gun around and says he was "treated nice" in jail, saying they put him on the "psych floor" because he takes medication. His mom claims that he has "mental issues" and his sister calls him a "good person." Sullivan says he respected the cops during his arrest, calls the cops respectful and claimed to CBS that he's a "tattoo model." The video gained over 1.6 million views in six years.

The story was reported on the CBS News^[2] site that day, which also provided Sullivan's mugshot (shown below). On May 25th, The Hollywood Gossip^[3] published an article about the arrest titled, "Florida Man With Joker Face Tattoos Arrested For Good of Society."

On June 1st, the Miami Herald^[4] reported that Sullivan was arrested again on marijuana charges. According to the report, someone called in to the police claiming a man with green hair was loitering outside of a West Kendall apartment complex. When the police arrived they smelled marijuana on him. Sullivan reportedly tried to throw the marijuana into the grass as he saw the police approach and was arrested.

Boonk Gang Beef

Around September 2017, Sullivan began beefing on Instagram with rapper and influencer Boonk Gang. On September 20th, 2017, DJ Akademiks posted a compilation of their back-and-forth videos calling each other out to YouTube,^[5] garnering over 566,000 views in six years (age restricted). In the video, Sullivan threatens to beat Boonk Gang up if he sees him in person, claiming he's "pretending to be white" and that he'll "never be a Joker." Presumably, the beef started after Boonk posted several videos acting like The Joker, which he continued to do through the feud (examples shown below).^[6]

2018 Arrest

On November 13th, 2018, the Tampa Bay Times^[9] reported that Sullivan was arrested for violating his parole in regards to the 2017 concealed weapons charge.

Boxing Match With GumGang

In February 2021, Sullivan fought another Florida man influencer, GumGang, in a boxing match refereed by Channel 5's Andrew Callaghan, who at the time was working under the name All Gas No Brakes. The original videos of the pre-fight and fight have been deleted, but were reuploaded on February 1st, 2021 by YouTuber^[11][12] wipsishrooms2 (shown below, left and right). Sullivan won the boxing match.

Grand Theft Auto VI Likeness Controversy

On December 4th, 2023, Rockstar Games released the trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6. At the 1:04 mark in the trailer, a criminal character with face tattoos and colored hair appears in the trailer (shown below). The trailer makes reference to numerous real viral videos taken in Florida.

On December 5th, Sullivan began reposting content to Instagram^[17][18] about the trailer's references to Florida viral videos and people, specifically segments that claim the tattooed man in the trailer resembles himself, writing in one post, "@rockstargames we need talk asap about my bag you going own me hahahahaha." On December 9th, he posted a video to TikTok^[19] directly calling out Rockstar, asking for money for their use of his likeness, garnering over 430,000 views in two days (shown below).

The story was reported on by numerous media outlets over the following days, including The Guardian^[20] and Business Insider.^[21]

That day, Roger Clark, the voice actor for Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, posted a now seemingly deleted video to TikTok where he responds to Sullivan. In the video he claims that Rockstar is "lawyered up" and knows exactly what they can get away with parody-wise, suggesting they owe him nothing. He ends the video by saying Sullivan should use the notoriety to his advantage because he's never going to get a job at Home Depot with his face tattoos (shown below). The video was reposted to X^[22] that day.

Online Presence

Sullivan has lost several of his Instagram pages throughout the 2010s and 2020s, with one of the lost pages purportedly reaching over 120,000 followers before it was removed according to Before They Were Famous. He currently posts to his YouTube^[13] channel jokergang5022, a TikTok^[14] page @lawrence.sullivan0 and the Instagram^[15][16] pages jokerganggang and realfloridajoker.

Before They Were Famous

On October 9th, 2017, YouTuber^[7] Before They Were Famous, aka Michael McCrudden, uploaded his first video about Sullivan, offering a detailed look into his life. In the video, McCrudden claims that Sullivan was born in New York and his mother has MS. He claims that Sullivan's father is the "strong Irish Catholic type" and the two stopped talking when Sullivan got face tattoos. On his affinity with the Joker, he says Sullivan became obsessed after seeing Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the villain and had an "easier time relating" to Joker as opposed to Batman, the latter of whom he sees as closer to the cops. Sullivan became further interested in The Joker after the release of The Dark Knight.

McCrudden claims that Sullivan dropped out of school in the eighth grade and started training in MMA. Sullivan became a "sign guy" on the streets. McCrudden explains that Sullivan was first arrested in 2013 on a marijuana possession charge and that on October 14th, 2015, his best friend was murdered and his girlfriend who was pregnant with his child had an abortion behind his back, which resulted in his girlfriend attacking him with a machete.

On October 30th, Before They Were Famous posted a "Vs." video to YouTube^[8] pitting Boonk Gang and Sullivan against each other on various aspects of their social media personalities, garnering over 578,000 views in six years (shown below, left). On October 24th, 2021, Before They Were Famous posted another video on Sullivan, catching up on where he was at the time, garnering over 80,000 views in two years (shown below, right).

All Gas No Brakes

In July 2020, Andrew Callaghan, at that time running the All Gas No Brakes YouTube channel, posted a now-deleted video about various "Florida men." At one point in the video he talks with Sullivan, who denies the existence of COVID-19. The interview portion was reuploaded to YouTube^[10] that year (shown below).

Search Interest

External References