Civilized
The very first scene of the film is an ad for a company (Stratton Oakmont) that states the world of investing is filled with wild animals but their company is that of professionals, displaying a civilized workplace. As soon as the ad ends the very next shot is, ironically, that of crazed company men throwing people around in the office and making ridiculous bets. We see the opposite of what the company ad was claiming, instead of professionals we see animal-like behavior from the company people.
How Do You Function
When Jordan is having lunch with Mark Hanna, we see Mark snort cocaine, this leads Jordan to question Mr. Hanna that he is doing drugs in the middle of the day how can he still perform his job? To which Mr. Hanna ironically answers how else am I going to do this job. This is ironic as one seems to suggest that doing drugs, which are known to incapacitate your thinking, won’t let you perform your job while the other suggests that without drugs this job isn’t possible.
Drug Life
After Jordan decides to go do his own work with Donnie, he mentions that the first thing he needs is brokers, guys with sales experience. We as the audience expect Jordan to hire some professional-looking people with some experience but, Ironically, the people Jordan decides to hire all have sold weed except one, who is known as the Quaalude king of Bayside. All of them have sales experience in drugs.
Morality
Jordan starts to earn a lot of money through his skills and eventually decides to go on his own with his friend Donnie. After he hires his old associates, we see Jordan with his wife gifting her diamond necklace. This prompts his wife to question Jordan whether it would be better to sell these stocks to rich people who actually can afford to lose money. This is meant to shake up a moral and ethical question about the nature of his job in Jordan. But, ironically, instead of igniting an ethical question inside Jordan it gives him an idea to make more money.
Lemons
Donnie causes Brad to be caught by having a loud argument in a public place while handing over the money-filled briefcase. To stop Jordan from finding out Donnie gives him a very old and discontinued form of Quaaludes. While on this drug we see Jordan struggling to do anything. When he drives back from the payphone, he mentions that he and the car made it back without a scratch on them. Ironically, we are later shown the car and it’s covered with dents highlighting how much out of his senses Jordan was.
