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Clowns: Evil Or Funny?

Clowns: Evil or funny?

  • Clowns are evil and out to get you

    Votes: 34 44.2%

  • Clowns are funny and out to entertain you

    Votes: 10 13.0%

  • Clowns are sad blokes trying to make a living

    Votes: 29 37.7%

  • Clowns are a national institution - how dare you imply that they are sinister in any way

    Votes: 4 5.2%
  • Total voters
    77
Perth's dwindling clown population is feeling the pinch as kids and parents look to superheroes and bouncy castles for birthday party entertainment.

The few remaining practitioners blame the negative image of the spooky clown perpetrated by the central character in novelist Stephen King's It, as well as the economic slump, for the downturn in their industry.

"Clowns will never completely go out of fashion, but it's getting harder to book gigs for sure," said Conny "The Clown" Torney, one of Perth's two known remaining traditional clowns.

"The whole spooky clown thing thanks to Stephen King hasn't helped, but a lot of it also has to do with external influences like the economic downturn and a range of other things parents can get to entertain kids at parties."

Ms Torney said her bookings were "significantly down" compared to several years ago — but she declined to reveal by how much.

She said she had taken to incorporating several other skills such as face painting and balloon blowing into her act to broaden her appeal. ...

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-07/clown-numbers-dwindling-in-perth/7071060
 
Clowns have taken to the streets of one Finnish city to poke fun at the emergence of unofficial citizen patrols, which are widely seen as being aimed at asylum seekers.

The troupe pranced around the streets of Tampere on Saturday night, at the same time as the anti-immigrant Soldiers of Odin group were on patrol, the Yle news website reports. In response to the right-wing group, the clowns call themselves Loldiers of Odin - a portmanteau of soldiers and LOL (laugh out loud). A video of their antics shows them following the Soldiers of Odin - while occasionally pausing to play in the snow - before skipping round them in a circle and singing.

The clowns, armed with an acrobat's hoop and a hobby horse, were dressed in typically colourful garb - one man paired a striped dressing gown with a Viking-style helmet. Another clown carried a flag featuring a misshapen swastika-style emblem on one side, and the words "Sieg Fail" on the other. On their website, the clowns say their patrol was "an attempt to make the streets both safer and hilarious-er for all people".

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-35343392?ocid=socialflow_twitter
 
12495122_1185448918161853_776714651677823725_n.jpg
 
Runs screaming from a FrKadash post for the second time in 30 minutes! :eek:
 
I had a co-worker who was a Lady Clown on the side for years. Just a plump, friendly gal with a flair for costumes (she once came to work on Halloween as a picnic, tablecloth, ants and all). She was rather hurt by the clown hate that seemed to grow in the 90's. I can't imagine that she frightened any kids as her friendly persona. I wonder if being female and a bit motherly-looking helped. She was quite opposite of the creepy, gloomy bunch FrKadash posted
 
I think the idea that people are scared/creeped out by clowns..beyond their use in that role in horror movies etc...is an affectation for most people who claim it. It's just one of those things you're now meant to all nod along with in recognition.
 
gattino said:
I think the idea that people are scared/creeped out by clowns..beyond their use in that role in horror movies etc...is an affectation for most people who claim it. It's just one of those things you're now meant to all nod along with in recognition.
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hmm, I don't know. I have a good friend who is honest-to-god scared of clowns. This fear extends to mimes too, which I discovered after I'd unfortunately sent him a video of Mummenschanz and he nearly had a heart attack. :eek:

While my own feelings about clowns are not so extreme, I've never felt comfortable with them. When I was small their appearance often made me feel physically sick, especially the ones in pointy hats.

Weirdly, though, I'm perfectly fine with Venetian carnival masks and think they are quite beautiful.
 
Ulalume said:
hmm, I don't know. I have a good friend who is honest-to-god scared of clowns
Click to expand...
Oh I've no doubt. There are genuine phobias of everything. And I understand there are psychological reasons why men behind masks will freak people out. But the common claim of being scared of clowns definitely appears to be recent and faddy. Its rare to find someone who admits to having no problem with them at all, and anyone who claims to "hate" them is guaranteed nods of "I'm like that too" approval ...which could be sincere, but I just suspect owes a lot to being the popular thing to say.
 
Maybe for so many to claim an outright phobia of clowns is a bit OTT, but I don't come across many people who find them funny, either.

If this thread was simply "clowns - funny or not?", it wouldn't have made it to page 30, I suspect!
 
gattino said:
Oh I've no doubt. There are genuine phobias of everything. And I understand there are psychological reasons why men behind masks will freak people out. But the common claim of being scared of clowns definitely appears to be recent and faddy. Its rare to find someone who admits to having no problem with them at all, and anyone who claims to "hate" them is guaranteed nods of "I'm like that too" approval ...which could be sincere, but I just suspect owes a lot to being the popular thing to say.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. I do think some are on the bandwagon, but also that the expressions on clown faces are 'fake' in the same way a fake smile doesn't reach the eyes (which is to say the muscles around the eyes are only used for a sincere smile and a fake smile only activate the muscles around the mouth).

Some people find fake expressions unsettling in the same way that similar signals from a insincere person are and as we've discussed elsewhere, it can be a marker for sociopathy, an attempt to mimic an empathy 'nearly successfully'.

So clowns are arguably caricatures of 'a person who feels wrong'.
 
Clown Motel
Oh, just a motel on the edge of the desert decorated with thousands of clowns conveniently located next to an abandoned graveyard
While Nevada's Clown Motel may seem like the product of a horror writer's fevered imagination with its army of glassy-eyed clown dolls and convenient proximity to a Wild West cemetery that holds the (possibly unquiet) remains of local miners, the dusty little lodging is just a fan of merriment. They swear.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/clown-motel
 
:eek:
Begging to be turned into a horror film set.
 
I've never found clowns funny or evil .. other than the John Wayne Gacy stuff which I've long suspected could be the cause of everyone deciding that clowns are now frightening (before Stephen King's 'It'), genuine clowns have always just seemed a bit crap to me, even when I was a little kid .. the self collapsing clown cars gave me a chuckle but that was about it.
 
E
Swifty said:
I've never found clowns funny or evil .. other than the John Wayne Gacy stuff which I've long suspected could be the cause of everyone deciding that clowns are now frightening (before Stephen King's 'It'), genuine clowns have always just seemed a bit crap to me, even when I was a little kid .. the self collapsing clown cars gave me a chuckle but that was about it.
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Exactly. They are just not funny enough to me to endorse their reputation for being delightful to children. I always liked verbal comedy and clowns are non-verbal. But they aren't bad and I wish them well when they parade and wave and visit hospitals and such. They shouldn't be tarred with the current perception that children will be scared of them right off the bat.
 
GerdaWordyer said:
E

Exactly. They are just not funny enough to me to endorse their reputation for being delightful to children. I always liked verbal comedy and clowns are non-verbal. But they aren't bad and I wish them well when they parade and wave and visit hospitals and such. They shouldn't be tarred with the current perception that children will be scared of them right off the bat.
Click to expand...


You can't write off physical comedy though. Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, etc... Laurel and Hardy could say more with a look or a way of walking than any written script.

Even Arthur Lowe falling over as Mainwaring could be hysterical just by putting his glasses on at an angle.
 
The case of two people dressed as clowns accused of attacking a teenage girl and her mother with vibrating sex toys in the parking lot of a Montgomery haunted househas been settled out of court, according to Kane County court records.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and the haunted house operators did not admit to any wrongdoing.

An Oswego woman filed a civil lawsuit in October 2014 in Kane County against Massacre Haunted House and two employees, Robert Keller and another male identified only as John Doe, alleging that an experience in the parking lot of the Montgomery attraction left her daughter with emotional and psychological injuries.

The parties reached a settlement during the first week of March, said Michael Huseman, the attorney representing the mother and daughter in the case. ...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/subur...toy-clown-haunted-st-0410-20160411-story.html
 
A man was knocked unconscious by a clown in a circus stunt which went wrong.

Ben Garnham, 37, was left motionless on the floor after a clown landed on his head and said he was lucky not to have been paralysed.

He suffered a cut head, swollen face and a headache and was taken to hospital after the accident at Circus Zyair's show in Blackwood, Caerphilly county, on Monday.

The circus has been asked to comment.

Mr Garnham, of Cefn Fforest, Blackwood, went to the circus with two of his three daughters, Jade and Amber, and Jade's fiancee, Lauren.

He was picked out of the crowd by the clown, Ben Coles, to take part in the show.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-36264243

Vid at link
 
ramonmercado said:
A man was knocked unconscious by a clown in a circus stunt which went wrong.

Ben Garnham, 37, was left motionless on the floor after a clown landed on his head and said he was lucky not to have been paralysed.

He suffered a cut head, swollen face and a headache and was taken to hospital after the accident at Circus Zyair's show in Blackwood, Caerphilly county, on Monday.

The circus has been asked to comment.

Mr Garnham, of Cefn Fforest, Blackwood, went to the circus with two of his three daughters, Jade and Amber, and Jade's fiancee, Lauren.

He was picked out of the crowd by the clown, Ben Coles, to take part in the show.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-36264243

Vid at link
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Ta-daaaaa!
 
So the clown said he was lucky not to have been paralyzed? Or was it perhaps some doctors?
 
Xanatic* said:
So the clown said he was lucky not to have been paralyzed? Or was it perhaps some doctors?
Click to expand...
That clown is a part-time doctor.
Obvious, innit?
 
Yeah, I'm not falling for that one again. I still have the scars from last time.
 
davidplankton said:
Clown Motel
Oh, just a motel on the edge of the desert decorated with thousands of clowns conveniently located next to an abandoned graveyard
While Nevada's Clown Motel may seem like the product of a horror writer's fevered imagination with its army of glassy-eyed clown dolls and convenient proximity to a Wild West cemetery that holds the (possibly unquiet) remains of local miners, the dusty little lodging is just a fan of merriment. They swear.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/clown-motel
Click to expand...

That place was on an episode of Ghost Adventures. Not because it was haunted, IIRC, but because Zak Bagans is scared of clowns.
 
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