Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Clowns aren't clowning around anymore

So, the Smithsonian magazine has an interesting article on clowns and why people think they're scary. 

Are people really scared by clowns?  Or is it just one of those hipster things to say? 

This whole afraid of clowns thing gets me to thinking, however.  As "scary clowns" are pretty much the whole clown business now.  At least in pop culture.  .  But now?  It's all scary clowns all the time.  Or drunk clowns. Or sarcastic clowns.  Or sad, depressed clowns.  Or homicidal bat-obsessed clowns. 

Do kids even like clowns anymore? Not in a scared way, but in an endearing fascinated way?  Do kids want them at birthday parties? I can't imagine they do.  Why would they?  All the younger generation knows of clowns is that they're scary. 

We've lost the innocence of clowns.  The way of Bozo is over.  The intentionally frightening clown worked for a while because it co-opted an otherwise jovial and friend-seeking character. 

Now the co-opted clown is all that we find. 

Which makes me wonder what other cultural or societal relic has likewise been so co-opted there's nothing of the original left. 

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Other than Kramer in Seinfeld, I've never run into the "scary clown." Any other allusions?

chickelit said...

Wasn't there a scary clown in the "The Simpsons"?

chickelit said...
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chickelit said...

I think it's a hipster generational thing.

chickelit said...

Another vibe I've been picking up from hipsters: how insidiously politically incorrect (hence evil) old Disney characters are. One recent rant about "Peter Pan" was memorable.

Paddy O said...

Doing a google image search for "clowns" shows the trend, I think. Almost all scary.

Lydia said...

I don't think I ever thought of clowns as scary until I was exposed to Bergman and Fellini movies. They loved to use them as symbols of, well, whatever.

Palladian said...

Which makes me wonder what other cultural or societal relic has likewise been so co-opted there's nothing of the original left.

The United States of America.

bagoh20 said...

"... what other cultural or societal relic has likewise been so co-opted? There's nothing of the original Left."

Yep, that's a good example.

chickelit said...

Tears Of A Clown by Smokey Robinson.

I remember biking to the dime store with my brother to buy that 45rpm when when it came out.

William said...

Christians. When I was a kid, the good guys in all the sword and sandal movies were Christian. Now they're mostly affiliated with pagan gods. The Russell Crowe character in Gladiator was pious but to his own household gods. If they ever do a remake of Ben Hur or Quo Vadis expect a more nuanced portrayal of early Christians and a more sympathetic characterization of Nero.

yashu said...

Any other allusions?

John Wayne Gacy.

Also, the Poltergeist clown doll (seminal for kids in the 80s).

And there's a whole string of tragic fucked-up clowns, in literature, opera, film.

A smiling face that is clearly a grotesque mask? That is dark stuff, intrinsically so. For a kid, an inkling of something terrifying about the (adult) human world. An utterly unreadable (inhuman) face.

I've always been creeped out by clowns myself-- from a young age (before any significant pop culture infuence on my tender brain). Mom tells me even friendly clowns would make me cry.

yashu said...

Maybe the oddest contemporary cultural appropriation of the "scary clown" is the Juggalo subculture.

Known Unknown said...

Stephen King's IT sealed the deal on the scary clown stuff.

Known Unknown said...
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Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Wasn't there a scary clown in the "The Simpsons"?

Family guy has an angry closet monkey.

Icepick said...

Other than Kramer in Seinfeld, I've never run into the "scary clown." Any other allusions?

Killer Klowns from Outer Space was full of them. And the alltime great line, "They got him! He's dead!"

yashu said...

One of my favorite sad/ scary clowns is the professor-reduced-to-clown (& his scary breakdown/ crack-up) in Der Blaue Engel (played by Emil Jannings).

The young Marlene Dietrich would drive any man insane.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Puff Daddy is deathly afraid of clowns. Which is funny because he is sort of clownish.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Send in the Clowns

yashu said...

I don't believe there was ever a time in which the clown figure was innocent & innocuous. Or if so, that was a temporary historical aberration.

It's one thing to have such creatures-- ultra-stylized representations of human (human-like) types, through masks painted or worn-- on a stage (a safe distance). From ancient Greek theatre to commedia dell'arte. In cultures throughout history and around the world, such figures appear in ritual ceremonies, representation/ performance/ shamanic intermediation of divine or supernatural (more than, other than, human) forces.

To invoke terror and/ or awe, not comfortable laughter.

Event carnivalesque laughter, saturnalian laughter, has something terrifying about it. Energies unleashed there are not suitable for children.

It's natural that to actually interact with such creatures-- not on stage, but to see them irrupting into our world, in the flesh, is an extremely unsettling experience. Such figures have always been uncanny, meant to be so.

Revenant said...

If I ever liked clowns I don't remember when that was. I kind of lump them together with mimes.

chickelit said...

I don't think I ever liked clowns - but I didn't dislike them either. I never bought what they were selling - nor did I reject it. I am clown neutral.

I always disliked mimes though - perhaps because they are French?

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

You inspired me Paddy!

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The Dude said...

That is Willard Scott in that picture. The original Ronald McDonald. He's not scary at all, but he seems a bit confused when it comes to figuring out which wig to wear on any given day.

Al Roker is a scary clown, but not in the sense that this post refers to.

Michael Haz said...

The Joker.

Michael Haz said...

Botox John Kerry is getting awfully close to having a clown face. A little lipstick and he'll be there.

Methadras said...

El Pollo Raylan said...

Wasn't there a scary clown in the "The Simpsons"?


Krusty the clown.

Methadras said...

The only clown that scares me is the one in the white house.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I was never afraid of clowns, just creeped out by them. They aren't really funny. Mostly they are just stupid. Mimes are not only stupid, they are annoying. We should have a national Punch A Mime Day.

Although, I do remember Red Skelton's clown skits with some fondness.

Michael Haz said...

Mimes are indeed creepy. The whole "I want to be like Marcel Marceau" thing was going on when I was an undergrad. Couldn't walk down State Street without some mime getting in your face. You'd have to give them a few coins to leave you alone. That's how they raised money to buy weed.

Barista wasn't a career path back then.