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May 27, 2005
Yeah, Clowns
You know, Mark Shea posted the lyrics to a song in the Clown thread below that made me think:
Who likes clowns, anyway?
I mean, doesn't almost everyone experience clowns, at some level, as kind of creepy? They make us laugh, but there's this hiddenness about them, the masking of the real identity, the makeup that, with just a flick of the wrist in one direction or the other can turn a grin into a freakish grimace. They come from nowhere and return there. Their presence and antics are tinged with menace and chaos.
Yeah, there are benign forms of masqued entertainment. Mimes, I suppose. But I think there's also this conviction, deep in the collective unconsciousness, that clowns are up to no good.
So, aside from the inherent inanity and blasphemy of the Clown Eucharist...who would fail to understand the subtley menacing implications of The Clown for many in a congregation?
Clowns, I guess.
Or do I just have John Wayne Gacy on the brain?
Posted by Amy Welborn | Permalink
Comments
Coulrophobia is the condition of being afraid of clowns. I'm not coulrophobic; I just stone-cold hate them. And their pervy cousins the Mimes, too. Naturally, Mimes can intuit my deep personal aversion to them, and have an unerring instinct for honing in on me in a crowd.
Posted by: Rod Dreher at May 27, 2005 3:15:41 PM
Fellini made a movie, actually a baroque semi-documentary shot for Italian TV, called THE CLOWNS that just exuded a kind of ... well, Felliniesque ... warmth and love for their charming grotesquerie and their charm in the grotesque. I warn that my opinion that THE CLOWNS is a great film is a minority one. You see clowns throughout his other films too. LA STRADA obviously and the ends of 8 1/2 and NIGHTS OF CABIRIA come to mind also. (GINGER AND FRED does too, though again I have a far higher opinion of that than most people do.) Throughout Fellini's films, but most pronouncedly in the later ones, his production design and makeup style were obviously clown-influenced and other styles of cartoon caricature, like Italian puppet theater.
Posted by: Victor Morton at May 27, 2005 3:21:06 PM
John Paul II liked clowns... I saw footage of him laughing it up at numerous performances of one named Japo.
Posted by: hieronymus at May 27, 2005 3:29:40 PM
But on the other hand, yes Rod. Mimes should be publicly tortured until their screaming and yelping has worn their voices out.
Posted by: Victor Morton at May 27, 2005 3:31:00 PM
Amy, you hit the nail on the head: 'Who likes clowns, anyway?'
I can assure you, I personally know NO ONE that actually LIKES them. Tolerate clowns, yes. But like them? No. And I've met enough kids that are afraid of clowns to say that clowns should stay away from children's parties.
While I'm not clown-phobic, I do dislike them with a fiery passion. Why? I dunno... it could be because they're so NOT FUNNY!! (there are a few exceptions, though, but the rule still stands)
Posted by: Veronica at May 27, 2005 3:37:50 PM
There's already a Web site:
http://www.ihateclowns.com/
And for mimes:
http://www.ihatemimes.com/
Jugglers are ok, right?
Posted by: David at May 27, 2005 3:41:57 PM
Clowns do have at least two patron saints:
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pst00152.htm
Posted by: David at May 27, 2005 3:44:01 PM
I don't hate clowns but I do find them repulsive and unfunny. That 1960s "Clown Christ" nonsense probably left psychic scars here, too.
Posted by: Sandra Miesel at May 27, 2005 3:47:31 PM
Can't sleep, clowns will eat me.
Posted by: Laura at May 27, 2005 3:50:26 PM
Mimes are *benign*? Since when?
Josh Whedon knew what he was doing when he hired mimes to play the absolutely scariest of his villians, the "Gentlemen," in the episode "Hush," from the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Posted by: Seamus at May 27, 2005 3:53:14 PM
Has anyone seen the short film, "The Clown of God?" It was used in a high school religious education class in the infamous seventies.
Posted by: Lynn at May 27, 2005 4:02:57 PM
Speaking of Whedon and Buffy, you can't forget the episode "Nightmares" in Season One, where the nightmare of Xander (one of the main characters in the series) is to be chased around by a maniacally cackling clown wielding a butcher knife.
Posted by: Leslie at May 27, 2005 4:04:06 PM
Clowns to the left of me
Mi-imes to the right
Here I am
Stuck at the clown mass with you
Posted by: Seamus at May 27, 2005 4:06:02 PM
John Paul II liked clowns... I saw footage of him laughing it up at numerous performances of one named Japo.
Well, I certainly hope someone brings that up with the advocate for his cause for sainthood. That's a terrible thing to learn about him.
Then again, he must love clowns, because he appointed so many of them to American sees.
Posted by: Rod Dreher at May 27, 2005 4:10:21 PM
Is the "Clown of God" the one where the clown is strung up at the end? I have dim memories of having seen that when I was in high school. I think it does shed some light on the clown Mass phenomenon.
I like clowns myself though I think you have to have a taste for the weird to appreciate them. On the other hand, one of my most treasured memories is walking through Jackson Square in New Orleans in a hurry and suddenly becoming aware that I was being mimicked by a mime. I turned and gave him a look that must have been awful as he shrank back from me like the subway thugs from Michael Caine's transvestite killer in "Dressed to Kill". If I could call up that look by will I'm sure I could rule the world.
Posted by: sj at May 27, 2005 4:12:17 PM
"Clowns do have at least two patron saints"
'Cause they need lots of help.
Posted by: Samuel J. Howard at May 27, 2005 4:26:00 PM
SJ, YESSSS! I saw that clown movie, too! He was kind of a mime-clown, wasn't he? I don't think he ever spoke.
The clown was going around brushing the feet of the kids with a whisk broom while the trapeze artists were performing. The clown was supposed to be Jesus, but I kept thinking how rude it was of this clown to be distracting the kids from those trapeze artists! I sympathized with the circus owner/Sanhedrin.
(Yet not denying that killing mime-clown/Jesus for distracting the audience was a tad harsh.)
What an idiotic movie!
Posted by: Robin at May 27, 2005 4:35:41 PM
Hmmmmmmm? Rod hates clowns? THAT explains a lot!
Clowns rule!:-)
Posted by: BenYachov(Jim Scott 4th) at May 27, 2005 4:40:08 PM
And by the way, don't anyone start up with the Juggler and the Virgin -- that's a 19th century short story; I've been looking today and can't find an actual medieval source!!
Posted by: Michael Tinkler at May 27, 2005 4:43:38 PM
Clowns: creepy pervs in makeup and drag. I've been meaning to blog the clown "mass"; thanks for stealing my thunder, Amy, because it would have gotten ugly :-)
Posted by: Bill White at May 27, 2005 4:57:24 PM
(Ticket Taker): "A crazy clown is after you? Oh, that's rich!"
(Crazy Joe DaVola): "Are you still afraid of clowns?"
(Kramer): "Uuuuuuuuh-huuuuuuuh..."
Posted by: Jason at May 27, 2005 4:59:08 PM
Victor, in Terry Pratchett's books there's a character named Lord Vetinari, who hates mimes.
From Guards! Guards!
It was said that he would tolerate absolutely anything apart from anything that threatened the city [footnote: And mime artists. It was a strange aversion, but there you are. Anyone in baggy trousers and a white face who tried to ply their art anywhere within Ankh's crumbling walls would very quickly find themselves in a scorpion pit, on one wall of which was painted the advice: Learn The Words.]
Posted by: Eileen R at May 27, 2005 5:04:45 PM
Underneath all that pancake makeup, this is what yer average clown looks like, Chester.
Posted by: Rod Dreher at May 27, 2005 5:16:06 PM
I am a priest and an admitted cuoltrophobe (or whatever the first person called it). The only negative childhood memory that I have of any priest was clown mass that my dear misguided mother dragged me to in So. Florida when I was just a little boy. I remember nothing except screamimg when I saw the pastor dressed like a para-liturgical Ronald McDonald and begging my mother to take me out of there. Now, I am the pastor of the parish down the street and can testify that every parish that my elder brother in white face was pastor has deeply effected by relativism and anti-romanism. I was never in any way shape or form abused by a clown but they give me the creeps and when I see a parish in any way shape or form encourage clowns I alwys take the opportunity to share my fear, it's real, with the people in charge.
Posted by: CBM at May 27, 2005 5:27:40 PM
Could we just call these guys the Insane Clown Posse. Oops, thats already taken.
Posted by: SiliconValleySteve at May 27, 2005 5:29:56 PM
I love clowns! My favorite Batman villain when I was a kid was the Joker, and I still like watching Batman cartoon episodes with my kids where the Joker is his adversary. There are skillful clowns and clowns that lack all ability. Too many people are exposed to the latter and never experience the former. I do draw the line at clown masses . I do abhor mimes however, especially French mimes!
Posted by: Donald R. McClarey at May 27, 2005 5:44:12 PM
The clown is probably semiotically a variant of the Trickster in various cultures, the liminal figure that inhabits, e.g., the transgressive festivals like Mardi Gras. Artistically it may be interesting to consider such figures, pretty Gnostic actually (a demi-god with alternate values); but in a Mass offered to* God The Good One, this kind of fudged archetypal mish-mash is out of place, openly ironic.
*I'm not trained in technical Catholic theology, so don't know if this is the accurate nuance...
Posted by: AH at May 27, 2005 5:55:10 PM
Boy do I hate clowns.
The world's two most famous clouds are the murderous Joker of Batman and the murderous Canio of Pagliacci. What does that tell you, hmmmm?
Posted by: 40 at May 27, 2005 6:03:43 PM
A lifelong Chicagoan, Gacy is my first thought when clowns come up. Of course, Red Skelton also was a clown, painted clowns, but Red is about the only weight on the positive side of the scale. Pratchett readers will recall how miserable and dispirited are the members of the Guild of Fools and Joculators. Mad geniuses behind The Animaniacs also had it in for mimes. I'm sure there's more to all this creepiness than there seems.
Posted by: Captain Yips at May 27, 2005 6:18:33 PM
In the words of a former co-worker, "Clowns are evil."
They always creeped me out. Dunno why. I somehow associate them with the Twilight Zone and the weird sort of dream sequence photography that favors the use of the fisheye lens. It's like all those "funhouse" stories in which the funhouse is anything but fun. In fact, can you remember *any* story featuring a funhouse where the funhouse is actually fun? Is it not *always* a deeply sinister realm of distortion and weird cackling laughter?
Yeah. Clowns are evil.
Posted by: Mark Shea at May 27, 2005 6:27:16 PM
Sheesh Rod, why did you link to that man's picture? He is a sex offender and also happens to have a disease with resulting facial deformities.
What is the point of emphasizing the facial deformities? Most people with such deformities are not sex offenders, and could benefit from support and compassion. I really felt disgusted that you used the picture in that way.
Posted by: Dev Thakur at May 27, 2005 6:30:38 PM
Growing up in Chicago, yeah, I think of Gacy as well. But otherwise clowns just bore me; always have. Birthday parties featuring clowns were just tedious because of feeling obliged to look like you were being entertained instead of just wishing he'd finish so we could get on to the cake. The balloon animals were kind of fun, though.
Posted by: Sonetka at May 27, 2005 6:37:02 PM
I am stunned at this senseless clown-bashing.
Possibly because I have just returned from my son's Kindergarten graduation picnic, where 40 kids and parents *seemed* to be enjoying Glitter Dot the Clown ( a local Mom who plays birthday parties) reenact the entire Wizard of Oz, complete with a (live!) Toto and trivia contest for the adults.
I guess you had to be there.
OK, so clown masses are admittedly over the (big!) top, but sheesh. I think the vast majority of clowns are just trying to entertain people.
"Pervs?" "Evil?"
Can a post from the Clown/Mime Defense League be far behind!?
Posted by: Cheryl at May 27, 2005 6:51:17 PM
What would a post by a mime look like, anyway?
Posted by: Kevin Miller at May 27, 2005 7:43:26 PM
!
Posted by: Donald R. McClarey at May 27, 2005 7:56:18 PM
Clowns are the other. Not people dressing up as clowns, but that which they dress up as. Not mortal, but angelic, demonic...other. And so they are creepy.
Posted by: Henry C. Luthin at May 27, 2005 8:05:05 PM
In describing that NYC Piskie clown event to a co-worker (a self-identified homosexual, "practitioner" of ancient Egyptian paganism and absolutely hostile to the Christian faith [How's that for picking friends, for we are the best of them]) his first words were "Isn't that...SACRILEGIOUS?!?!?!
How can he see what Piskies cannot?
Posted by: Boniface McInnes at May 27, 2005 8:17:09 PM
Victor, I liked The Clowns as well when I saw it many many years ago, though as I recall, Fellini's clowns didn't have that pervy menace they do today. I'd be afraid to see it again, though -- it followed Satyricon and Roma followed it -- not his prime. And I think the best thing about the Clowns was Nino Rota's music -- which one would never say about le notti di cabiria or i vitelloni, anyway!
Posted by: James Englert at May 27, 2005 8:20:05 PM
Red Skelton is the first image that comes to mind at the word "clown." He was a master.
I saw Marcel Marceau live when I was in college and loved him.
My former (very liberal) parish had a clown ministry, though I never saw them at Mass. Mostly they appeared when there was a parish get-together of some sort. They were a good bunch of young people. I interviewed them for the parish newsletter.
Personally, I'm neutral on clowns. Some I enjoy, others bore me, some simply fail to pull off the role.
Clowns evoke unpleasant thoughts, I suspect, because all of the rules of society are switched off when you're in the presence of a clown. A clown can get away with doing what sober relaity prohibits, and they are not predictable. That throws some people into confusion; and of course, it can quickly go over the top, but doesn't always do that. There is enough to laugh about in any one of us to provide material for any clown who wants to make use of it. But maybe we don't want quite that much honesty when it is that personal.
Posted by: carrie at May 27, 2005 8:50:28 PM
Anybody here see "Killer Klowns from Outer Space"? That would, I think, pretty much do it for anybody with regard to clowns, for the rest of a person's natural life.
Posted by: Lickona at May 27, 2005 9:03:50 PM
I am suprised no one has mentioned Keirkeggard's Clown Theologian. B16 opens Intro. To Christianity with a very good reference to it, expanding it to also include the doubts the clown must face within himself.
Posted by: Boniface McInnes at May 27, 2005 9:07:58 PM
How about the character of the evil clown, Pennywhistle, from Stephen King's It? Sure the movie was mostly awful, but Tim Curry's clown was pretty darn scary even in that mess.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 27, 2005 9:12:22 PM
Clowns are the spawn of Satan. Mimes? Pure, demonic evil. Does burn them at the stake sound about right?
Posted by: Marco the Triumphalistic Papist at May 27, 2005 9:19:24 PM
A mime once came up to my daughter, then about six or seven, at Busch Gardens and pretended he was going to eat her cotton candy. She screamed, recovered her wits, and punched him in the stomach. That sums up my attitude towards mimes too.
On the other hand, everyone loves ponies. I suppose we should just be thankful that no one in the hierarchy figured out and arranged Pony Masses for us.
Posted by: Kathy Hutchins at May 27, 2005 9:20:12 PM
"A clown can get away with doing what sober relaity prohibits, and they are not predictable."
Reminds me when I was in Charleston, S.C., and I went to this restaurant, supposedly a popular place, the name of which escapes me, but here was the "catch": the custom at the restaurant was the help would be insulting and rude--and this was supposed to be funny.
Well, I really wasn't keen on this idea; because I might say something I think is funny, but the waiter doesn't; and one of the rules I live by is, don't tick off the people who prepare (or bring) your food.
So, I decided, homey don't play that game--and I decided to say please and thank you and use my best manners. The result was the waiter was thrown into confusion; his attempts to play the rude part were uncertain and half-hearted, and I'm not sure he was entirely happy about it.
Posted by: Septimus at May 27, 2005 9:22:58 PM
Anybody here see "Killer Klowns from Outer Space"?
LOL. I can't believe someone other than me has seen this movie. (I used to be a horror buff as a kid; sue me.)
Posted by: Jason at May 27, 2005 9:26:52 PM
Septimus,
I once had a girlfriend who would make rude comments about the fast-food staff from the passenger seat in drive through queues. After about the third time leaving that queue to enter another at a different fast food joint, she finally got the picture.
Spitburgers with a side of booger-fries is not my idea of good eats.
Posted by: Boniface McInnes at May 27, 2005 9:27:48 PM
Clowns creep me out.
Really, really creepy---
I remember watching Prisoner of Azkahban and one of the students bogart (a creature that takes the form of your worst fear) was a huge cobra. The charm to get rid of a bogart is one to change the fear into something funny---her cobra turned into this huge, smiling, freaky clown head slowly listing back and forth in a Jack-In-The-Box.
This is funny?
The talk after the movie, among the adults I was with, was how the uber-creepy clown head was worse then the cobra.
just keep the clowns away---please
Posted by: julie at May 27, 2005 9:53:40 PM
Yes, SJ, that's the film. It was horribly memorable. I never decided why it was shown in a high school CCD class.
Posted by: Lynn at May 27, 2005 9:55:52 PM
Krusty is the only clown worth knowing.
I can't stand that Glitter Dot!
Posted by: Rod Dreher at May 27, 2005 10:03:41 PM
I will always respect the goal of the good clown -- to wipe away tears of pain with tears of laughter, and to hold a mirror to the pompous and ridiculous within us. Does no one on this thread remember "The Court Jester" or "Be A Clown"? As for my own personal experience, I remember holding my sleeping son (9 months old) in the cardiac ICU while clowns from the Big Apple Circus sang him a lullaby. Clown Mass? NO! Clowns -- yes.
Posted by: scotch meg at May 27, 2005 10:05:10 PM
I had never heard of a clown mass until a few years ago on one of these blogs. I just don't get it.
As far as clowns are concerned, I don't recall disliking them or having too many interactions as a child. I like Ronald McD and Bozo, nice happy, bright colors. It's creepy how horror movies, which I avoid as much as possible any way, use clowns as evil forces or whatever in them. Definitely creeping me out of clowns. I had no idea they were such dark characters. I am not strongly anti-clown, but I have gained a creepy feeling as others have.
Posted by: Peggy at May 27, 2005 10:47:31 PM
Dev Thakur: Sheesh Rod, why did you link to that man's picture? He is a sex offender and also happens to have a disease with resulting facial deformities.
What is the point of emphasizing the facial deformities? Most people with such deformities are not sex offenders, and could benefit from support and compassion. I really felt disgusted that you used the picture in that way.
You know, Dev, you're right. I didn't think of it that way when I posted the link to that guy; all I thought about was that he is a cartoon version of a sex criminal. I thought about his crime in relation to his grotesque appearance, but I've been thinking all evening that no matter what this poor man has done, he's grown up with that deformity. Who knows what it has done to him. Anyway, I'm sorry I posted that link, and thank you for correcting me.
Posted by: Rod Dreher at May 28, 2005 12:34:44 AM
I had a thought about how the clowns-are-evil theme seems to have permeated society, when I don't remember any such attitude when I was a kid. Mind you, I don't have any interest in clowns and never did -- I don't hate or fear them; they just weren't my bag (the attraction of the circus was, for me, the animals). But it occurs to me that clowns were a symbol of innocent, childlike fun for both children and grownups. Guess what has been removed from "adult" life, relegated to the nursery room -- and soon to be driven from that area when all the kids have been converted to infant nihilists drinking espresso from their little black sippy cups.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 28, 2005 1:33:21 AM
I have enjoyed everyone's input on clowns. Personally, clowns have never made me laugh a lot, if that is their intended purpose. They dress and use makeup wildly enough to be distracting, that's for sure. Guess I prefer characters who speak.
Posted by: PegofMar1 at May 28, 2005 7:18:55 AM
ll the kids have been converted to infant nihilists drinking espresso from their little black sippy cups.
I should have been so lucky. Instead, I ate FrankenBerry and sat in front of the TV being indoctrinated in the pseudo-anodyne rituals of Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Green Jeans, his significant other, as well as Mr. Bainter the Painter, Bunny Rabbit, Mr. Moose, Dancing Bear, and the sick Freemasonic genius behind it all, Town Clown. Look what it did to me. Curse that urbanized jester!
Posted by: Rod Dreher at May 28, 2005 8:31:29 AM
I guess clowns don't affect me much one way or the other. I was a pretty devoted Captain Kangaroo fan as a kid, and I would have remembered most of the characters, but I had forgotten all about Town Clown.
Posted by: Kevin Miller at May 28, 2005 9:04:45 AM
I've seen a bit of KILLER CLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE, walking through the room while my son was watching. They're hideous, just like the movie itself.
"The Juggler of Notre Dame" was written by Anatole France. It's the sort of thing that could have easily happened in the Middle Ages. (At least he didn't write about St. Angela of Foligno's striptease in front of a crucifix.)
The obnoxious Christ Clown film is THE PARABLE. I daresay it may Christianity unmeaningful to myriads of viewers.
Posted by: Sandra Miesel at May 28, 2005 10:28:51 AM
That's it: THE PARABLE! Thanks, Sandra.
I think it was part of the "innovation is everything" phase of religous education. As if kids would be "bored" by the plain Gospel.
Posted by: Lynn at May 28, 2005 11:28:54 AM
Well, if you anti-clown types want to know what REALLY provokes the tears of a clown, I suggest you take a long hard look in the funhouse mirror.
After reading this hate-filled combox I could barely drive my little car in circles. Nearly ran over a poodle. And NO, it wasn't on purpose!
Posted by: Clarabel at May 28, 2005 11:57:24 AM
Andrea, the fear of the clown figure is, I think, a lot older than the idea of the clown as a symbol of *innocent* fun. Clowns may be fun, but I can't really think they've ever been seen as innocent except in some circles in modern times.
Posted by: Eileen R at May 28, 2005 12:40:45 PM
I don't know...I like the European variety of clown, since they sort of come from the Commedia dell'Arte tradition. I think our U.S. clowns are just a cheap, bastardized version. Our U.S.circuses have such an aura of the come-on.
Posted by: Mark R at May 28, 2005 1:44:59 PM
"Killer Clowns from Outer Space".
Truly world-class shlock!
Posted by: CB at May 28, 2005 5:45:15 PM
Ridi, Pagliacci, ridi!
Posted by: Donegal Tom at May 28, 2005 6:20:46 PM
My (adult) son wishes it known that he finds clowns creepy and threatening.
Posted by: Sandra Miesel at May 28, 2005 6:26:12 PM
Clarabel: Shouldn't your email address be clarabel@howdydoody.com, not @ringling.com?
Posted by: Kevin Miller at May 28, 2005 7:03:23 PM
I always thought that I was the only person in the world who did not like clowns. As others stated here, I don't hate them but I have always found them scary, and threatening somehow.
A childhood memory: At breakfast, as kids, my brother and I would pop the yolks of eggs that had been served "over easy" and refer to the runny, orange matter as "clown's blood". The thought of that right now gives me the creeps, just as it did then in the early '50's.
Posted by: Stephen at May 28, 2005 8:11:23 PM
Eileen: I know that clowns haven't been and aren't innocent in other cultures. But I was talking about the culture I grew up in, and in whitebread, middle-class American* culture in the 20th century up until (I guess) sometime in the 70s the clown was a symbol of childlike innocence and fun.
*I know that in the cultures of many native American tribes what we call the "clown" was something quite different, anywhere from an ominous and threatening Trickster-figure to an instrument of political commentary.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 28, 2005 8:21:36 PM
Wouldn't the court jester fall into the trickster clown category?
Posted by: carrie at May 28, 2005 8:39:32 PM
Another note as to Rod Dreher's link to the deformed sex offender: I am glad he was sorry that he used that link in that way as it bothered me, but one good thing came of it, at least. Regardless his horrible crimes, I couldn't help but pity him for all he must have suffered due to his appearance. I prayed for him at mass today. May God have mercy on him and bring him to repentance and life! How many of our souls have had the same such appearance at any given time in our lives?
Posted by: julie b at May 28, 2005 9:05:17 PM
Carrie: no, I would think that the Jester would fall more into the political commentary category. After all, the jester worked for the ruler. The Trickster figure generally symbolizes out-of-control, lawless forces.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 28, 2005 9:44:53 PM
What about the unemployed jester?
Posted by: Boniface McInnes at May 28, 2005 11:22:18 PM
"Alas, poor Yorick..."
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 29, 2005 9:41:29 AM
Seriously: I assume that the unemployed jester would either have to curry favor with the new king, or hit the road. This is where my knowledge of jester-life fails. I admit I have not extensively studied the subject; I've only skimmed the surface of Medieval European history.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 29, 2005 9:43:17 AM
The Trickster is a mythic Type, a figure who disrupts the cosmos, often with positive results he didn't intend. The Trickster is often imagined as a Coyote in American Indian lore but other versions are the Raven and the Rabbit. See THE TRICKSTER by Paul Radin. FUR MAGIC by Andre Norton is a good juvenile fantasy with Coyote as the Trickster. (I have coyotes on the brain because I saw one in a neighbor's yard a couple of weeks ago.)
The medieval European jester is a Carnivalesque figure, from a different mythic universe.
Posted by: Sandra Miesel at May 29, 2005 10:16:43 AM
I have Fur Magic on my bookshelves somewhere. (I still need to arrange my books; right now they are crammed in all over the place, and I can never find the volume I'm looking for.)
Posted by: Andrea Harris at May 29, 2005 11:08:15 AM
It's good sense to be suspicious of anyone wearing a mask.
Posted by: Henry Patrick at May 29, 2005 7:35:13 PM
Or a big rubber nose and neck ruffle. Clowns are scary. Don't like department store Santas either. Never have.
Posted by: michigancatholic at May 29, 2005 10:49:23 PM
My mom took me to a department store Santa when I was about 4, and I wouldn't go anywhere near him.
What do you call a strange man in a red suit and fake beard who wants you to sit on his lap while he says "ho, ho, ho"?
Yah, that's what I thought too.
Posted by: michigancatholic at May 29, 2005 10:51:51 PM
I would echo the name Red Skelton. His television show was my favorite when I was young boy. The clown character of Freddie the Freeloader (a bum) is the one that came immediately to mind when I saw "clown" in the posting. Skelton was a gentle and warm performer who with just jestures and facial expressions could show the basic human dignity of Freddie the Freeloader, even as he was picking through a trash can or trying to sleep on a park bench. Even when I was a young boy, Red Skelton's skits could move me from deep belly laughs to tears of sorrow and compassion and back within a few brief minutes.
peace
Posted by: catholic at May 30, 2005 4:37:11 AM
As for mimes, I was always disappointed when they were able to free themselves from their invisible shrinking box.
peace
Posted by: catholic at May 30, 2005 4:42:56 AM
Clowns (at least, American circus clowns) have been portrayed as morally dubious for a long time. Does anyone remember the clowns from Disney's Dumbo (1941)? Callous and cruel, they were.
Posted by: Bob the Ape at May 30, 2005 7:13:46 AM
"FUR MAGIC by Andre Norton is a good juvenile fantasy with Coyote as the Trickster."
C'mon, folks. Everyone knows it's the Road Runner who's the Trickster.
Posted by: Seamus at May 30, 2005 2:48:20 PM
I am looking for the name of a short mime movie where the clown brings homeless people in off the streets and invites them to joing him in an agape. The movie is at least 22 years old. It is a prelude to inviting people to come to an agape. Can anyone help me find it? or give me the name of it?
Posted by: ju at Sep 8, 2005 5:56:36 PM
Yes, Parable.....who of us over 40 will ever forget now that we have remembered? Took awhile to recover this piece of deep scar tissue. I have done a little research as part of my therapy. Movie premiered in 1964 at the NY Worlds Fair, in some protestant inter-faith council pavilion. Hard to picture a tent full of half-soused Dean Martins and Phyllis Dillers really getting off on a 20 minute creep fest. By the time we came along in the 70s, its was shown in church basements and cramped AV rooms on those noisy 16 mm projectors with lousy sound. All I rememeber is being incredibly freaked out, wondering why I had to endure this thing at church AND at school, and when it would be over so I could reek havoc in the lunchroom. Its out on DVD, and I have half thought about getting it...then I sobered up. I just hope some young children don't see it by accident. AMEN
Posted by: backslider at Oct 13, 2005 10:37:47 PM
