May 29, 2015

"The couples laughed, and the clown did, too, but he didn’t really think it was funny."

"The whole scary-clown thing had gotten out of hand. Clowns now live in a world where everyone seems to hate them, or profess to do so. One of the remarks the clown hears most often, while driving, is someone in another car yelling — the words are always the same — 'Fuckin’ clown!' It surprises and dismays him every time."

From "Fears of a Clown."

22 comments:

Jason said...

HA HA HA HA HA FUCK HIS FEELINGS

gerry said...

A sad clown, living in San Francisco. It just figures.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Woody Allen said that being funny is nobody's first choice.

YoungHegelian said...

the fears of a clown....
when there's no one around...


(with apologies to Smokey R)

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I wonder what percentage of clowns have serious mental illness...

William said...

He should dress up as a transgendered clown. Transgendered clowns can demand to be treated with dignity and respect. Nobody laughs at Charley's Aunt any more........Are unfunny clowns more subversive of identity politics than funny ones?

hombre said...

People are obviously clownophobic. Bigots! Christians, no doubt.

Clowns need their own victim group lobbying, picketing, boycotting and suing until everyone embraces them.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

I quite like the phrase "clown shoes" to denote something silly, unserious, or beneath consideration. Ex: "Bringing up Club for Growth for no reason in a thread about a Hatian charity event? That's clown shoes, bro."

Robert Cook said...

I don't know why people who choose to be clowns can't understand the fear or distaste others have toward clowns. It indicates to me that people who choose to be clowns are not "normal," (or, to put it more generously, are "out of the ordinary").

Ann Althouse said...

I remember when people didn't hate mimes, then a few people did, then there was a tipping point and everyone did.

Ann Althouse said...

In the 60s, people loved mimes. They'd see a mime on the street and exclaim "Oh! I love mimes!" Loving mimes was a standard thing that people who loved being lovable loved to love.

Brent said...

I think it is funny how we discuss clowns like it is an unchangeable characteristic, like race, instead of someone dressing up.

Brent said...

"Clowns now live in a world . . ." They don't perform in a world, they live in it. They are always a clown.

Anthony said...

I don't hate or fear clowns. I just think they're stupid and never thought they were the least bit funny, even as a child.

Roughcoat said...

Creepy entertainment from the Middle Ages. Scared me ever since I can remember. Always thought they were sinister in a supernatural way. Tolkien's Black Riders are kin. Department Store Santa Clauses scared me too and I never ever sat on one's lap.

Phil 314 said...

Tough crowd.

Doug said...

Nobody ever loved mimes in the collective. We loved Marcel Marceau, the First Mime, because he was new and talented and fresh and creative and amazing and didn't come and fuck around with you while you were on a date walking on a city thorofare.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Sophisticated French clowns get a pass, though. Cirque De Whoever, right?

Chris N said...

Are puppeteers next? One can always hope.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

There's no good reason for a clown to exist. I used to think it was simple prejudice, and the popular thing to do, to hate clowns, like Ann said about mimes, after a tipping point (Gacy, in this case), but I took my 4-year-old son to Circus World Museum and he went berserk when the clowns showed up, and wouldn't stop crying and screaming, even though they never got within 30 yards of us. I know it's only one anecdote, and I actually liked clowns when I was a child, but based on my son's and other's reactions, I think there's something inherently frightening about clowns. I've grown to share that distaste for them.

Joe said...

Most clowns are genuinely creepy. Among other reasons, few are funny and so resort to doing weird things to get laughs.

Aussie Pundit said...

It's time to face the fact that as a cultural phenomenon, clowns no longer work in the modern cultural context - they simply don't appeal to people the way they did to generations long past.

What was so awesome and funny about clowns to them? It becomes harder to see the answer through the mists of time with each new generation.