On Clowns, Ass and Other

Clowns are getting a lot of publicity these days, not all of it necessarily good ...

Politicians are frequent recipients of my Ass Clown of the Month award (now presented every other Friday, to help me keep up with the number of available candidates). I suppose I should apologize to clowns everywhere for associating them with such low-lifes.

Politics notwithstanding, evil clowns are a going concern nowadays. Sad, entertaining clowns like the famous Emmett Kelly are few and far between ...

They've been replaced by clowns like the terrifying, murderous Pennywise from Stephen King's novel It ...

and the horrifying clown called Twisty from the latest season of the TV series American Horror Story (Freak Show) ...

It's gotten so bad that fellow blogger Angel has addressed the topic of evil clowns, warning us to "stay away from guys wearing makeup!"

But why is it that a clown - someone supposed to bring laughter and fun - has managed to become a symbol of evil? There are a lot of theories. One of them is spelled out in Sophie Gilbert's recent article from the Atlantic Monthly: How Clowns Became Terrifying. She writes that clowns traditionally are anarchic figures who defy the boundaries of normal social conduct ... they can act crazy and ignore normal social rules because they're expected to do so. From there, it's not too far a jump to the sociopath who does the same thing, with or without the makeup, such as Batman's arch-enemy The Joker, as portrayed by Heath Ledger ...

or serial murderer John Wayne Gacy, whose alter ego was Pogo the Clown ...

Our love-fear relationship with clowns extends to the formal realm of psychology: there is a documented medical condition known as coulrophobia, referring to a morbid fear of clowns. Several otherwise tough-guy television heroes suffer from coulrophobia, including the characters of FBI Special Agent Seely Booth (played by David Boreanz in Bones) and NCIS Special Agent Sam Hanna (played by LL Cool J in NCIS:Los Angeles).

As for myself, I have no particular problem with clowns, which is a good thing. Were I afraid of clowns, I'd have a hard time selecting ass clowns every other week ... for reasons other than the fact of the generally despicable behavior that led to their selection for the award.

So - if only for a little while - let's give the clowns a break ... send some in today:

It'll keep them from making real mischief.

Have a good day. Kiss a clown ... I'm available.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo