'Joker' Searches Spike on Pornhub After Big Screen Release

Joaquin Phoenix is getting huge Oscar buzz for "Joker," but the movie's big opening weekend has some folks thinking about polishing a different kinda hardware.

For some reason, certain enthusiastic "Joker" fans decided to search for related content in the porn world. According to the good folks at Pornhub, they got a massive spike in such searches over the weekend ... just as director Todd Phillips' dark take on the Batman villain was breaking box office records.

According to Pornhub's metrics -- yes, they're tracking your fantasies -- there were more than 741,000 searches involving the word "joker" in the first 4 days following the film's release.

The biggest surge came Sunday when Pornhub saw 291,628 searches for a clown getting down.

Pornhub honchos tell us they've seen similar trends with comic book movies. For instance, when "Suicide Squad" dropped in 2016, it wasn't Jared Leto's version of the Joker that lit up adult film searches ... it was Joker's GF, Harley Quinn.

Fun fact: Pornhub says Margot Robbie's character still reigns supreme as the most popular movie or game character on the XXX site, with over 10 million searches last year alone.

Now, we know there's next to ZERO chance 3-time Oscar nominee Joaquin would ever want to venture into adult films himself ... a la "Boy Meets World" star Maitland Ward.