You would think that, as the New York Daily News erroneously assumed, since clowns are more reviled than ever, no one in their right mind would want the job, and the tradition would be dying out in the United States and Canada.īut the truth is North America still has more clowns than it knows what do to with. Over the past 30 years, this general unease has blossomed into full-on clown hate in the United States, to the point where we have violent web games, popular Facebook pages, frequent Tweets, and blog rants dedicated to ridiculing clowns as creeps and monsters with phony, fixed smiles. “In many cultures, clowns would do things that were considered forbidden.” To top it all it all off, clowns put many people on edge with their suspiciously cheerful costumes, exaggerated facial features, and seeming lack of impulse control. When they’re right, we cheer them on-and when they’re wrong, usually in the most familiar, human way possible, they get their comeuppance in the form of painful or embarrassing pratfalls.
Believe it or not, that’s the point: Clowns were created to test social conventions and speak truth to power, wagging their gloved fingers at institutional tomfoolery. It’s no secret that clowns make people uncomfortable.
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