Highlights

  • The Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer showcased the lively and chaotic atmosphere of Vice City, drawing inspiration from real-world locations like Miami, Florida.
  • One character in the trailer, a man at a televised sentencing hearing who has highly detailed facial tattoos, sparked controversy when the "Florida Joker" claimed Rockstar used his likeness.
  • Although the Florida Joker also has lots of detailed tattoos, many see his claims and demands for compensation from Rockstar as baseless.

Fans have finally gotten a first glimpse at the wild world of Grand Theft Auto 6, with the massively anticipated title releasing its first official trailer on December 4. This trailer quickly amassed over 100 million views, breaking several longstanding records and only increasing the palpable hype that has surrounded the project for some time.

While most of this first Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer introduced fans to Lucia, one of the game's protagonists, it also showcased what players can expect from the title's bombastic return to Vice City. Of course, like many locations in the Grand Theft Auto universe, Vice City takes heavy inspiration from a real-world location, namely Miami, Florida. This was more than evident in the reveal trailer for GTA 6, with some real-world figures like the "Florida Joker" taking offense to their alleged inclusion in the promotional video.

grand theft auto 6 pc
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Grand Theft Auto 6 Doesn’t Seemingly Break One Rockstar Tradition That It Should

While excitement is reaching a fever pitch thanks to the recent Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer, one aspect of it continues a worrying Rockstar tradition.

Grand Theft Auto 6's Florida Inspiration is Already Causing Trouble

grand-theft-auto-6-florida-joker-reference

Rockstar clearly wanted to convey the core themes and tone of GTA 6's interpretation of Vice City from the get-go, and the recent reveal trailer did an excellent job at this. Despite the trailer only being brief, it managed to show the crowded beaches, bustling night-life, and chaotic inhabitants of the city in all their glory. Exaggerated and often satirical representations of American cities are a staple of Grand Theft Auto as a whole, with the most iconic franchise locations owing their roots to the following cities:

Los Santos

Liberty City

Vice City

Real-world Inspiration

Los Angeles

New York City

Miami, Florida

Since Grand Theft Auto's last installment, which released in 2013, social media and short-form content has exploded to become a dominant force of the internet. This is something that was also reflected in GTA 6's trailer. The video showcased clear parodies of things like TikTok and Instagram live-streams, so the game is expected to employ a lot of satire around influencer culture and viral internet clips.

People have already identified a number of references to real-life viral Florida moments in the GTA 6 trailer, with the Florida Joker drawing some of the most attention. During the GTA 6 trailer, a brief moment shows an eccentric looking man being sentenced at a criminal hearing on the news, with a Spanish description on the newscast stating how the man's tattoos were key to convicting him.

The man has dyed purple hair and a litany of face and neck tattoos, including blacked-out eye sockets, barbed wire across his face, and the word "impentinent" scrawled across his forehead. The fictional character has clear inspirations from many iconic mugshots that have gone viral over the years, but one man, Lawrence Sullivan, claims that the GTA 6 figure is a direct adaptation of his likeness.

The Florida Joker is Creating Controversy Around the GTA 6 Trailer

Sullivan is known as the Florida Joker thanks to his own striking face tattoos, which include the iconic Joker smile, blacked out eyes, a batarang, and the word Joker across his forehead. Lawrence Sullivan has had his own mugshots go viral in the past, and he believes his status as a Florida resident is perfect evidence that Rockstar has copied his likeness for its upcoming project.

The Florida Joker has been very public in his outrage over this, demaning financial compensation from Rockstar and drawing a lot of attention to himself. While it is undeniable that there are some similarities between Sullivan and the man from the GTA 6 trailer, the tattoos and hairstyles of the two are completely different, meaning many people see Sullivan's claims as baseless attention-seeking. Sullivan has even gone on to dye his hair purple as opposed to his usual green in an attempt to increase the similarities between himself and the GTA 6 character. While the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer explored many interesting characters, the Florida Joker has strangely made the tattooed man from the video the most controversial figure of the bunch.