Joy/Canon


 * This article is about Riley Andersen's Joy. For the general concept of Joy as an emotion, see Emotions.

Joy is the protagonist of Inside Out. In the lead position among Riley Andersen's emotions, she is respected for the most part, but unknown to her, her leadership has been actively harmful towards Riley. It takes a departure from Headquarters, together with Sadness (who Joy often used to mistreat), for Joy to realize the truth.

Biography
Joy was born on the same day as Riley. Initially, she and Sadness both struggled to become Riley's lead emotion, but within a few years, Joy emerged victorious and has been controlling Riley, giving emotions other than Sadness their roles.

From then on, Joy holds a tight grip on Riley's mind, up until she and Sadness are exiled. When they return, however, Joy has had major realizations about Sadness, and thus, gives her a proper role which leads to her being accepted in Riley's mind later on.

Personality
Joy is everything one may think of that is related to fun. Especially in Riley's earliest days, she would not pass up an opportunity to goof around or otherwise have an exciting day. This, however, is often to the exclusion of other emotions, especially Sadness, whether intentionally or unintentionally. By the end of the movie, Joy still holds this demeanor, but now, she gives other emotions an opportunity to shine as well.

Joy has had little to no major conflicts with Anger, Fear or Disgust, her other coworkers, other than not seeing Riley's move in the same way, as the four (including Sadness) initially only wanted to paint it in a negative light. Nevertheless, during the exile, these other emotions miss Joy much more than Sadness.

Trivia

 * Early in the development of Inside Out, various different emotions were considered, all of whom were given human names. Joy is the only emotion to have retained her human name and make it into the final version.
 * Joy's original VA (and therefore, the stand-in for the voice of Theresa May in parodies featuring her), Amy Poehler, is known for parodying other politicians, most notably Hillary Clinton, on Saturday Night Live.