Originally published at: Sending clowns to hang around elementary schools proves to be a bad idea for a marketing campaign | Boing Boing
…
They only wanted to teach kids about how magnets work
12 Likes
When I was a kid, half a century ago, clowns were fine. We had Bozo, Ronald McDonald, and there was usually a local TV station children’s show that had a zany clown for a host (Clem Clown in my neck of the woods). Some of my earliest drawing attempts were of clowns. They were fun to draw.
I may be wrong, but I’ve always blamed the 1969 episode of “Scooby Doo,” “Bedlam in the Big Top,” featuring the scary hypnotist clown, as the turning point in public opinion regarding clowns.
3 Likes
Obligatory:
6 Likes
Newsflash:
Unless you’re in a specific niche, like a Juggalo or a crumper, most people don’t actually like clowns.
3 Likes
70s kid here and clowns have creeped me out forever. Even Ronald just doesn’t sit right. Not fear, just a powerful aversion. Oddly enough the only ones I like are the Pennywise types who are intentionally scary.
3 Likes
Yeah, I can see that. I remember reading about Gacy in the newspaper as a teen when that story broke, and being thoroughly freaked out.
1 Like
It’s got to be really contextual.
Cirque du Soleil clowns: Fantastic at a show or wandering the immediate grounds of the show.
If I see one by itself in a dark alley or following me at night Hell No!
5 Likes
On the nose. My very early exposure to nightmarish, Coney Island attraction mechanical clowns formed my opinion of clowns in general. I’m talking about poorly maintained jittery googly-eyed maniacally laughing creep-shock things that, to this day, makes me question the judgement of their makers and owners. What the fuck were they thinking?
5 Likes
That may be because the Pennywise look doesn’t reside in the Uncanny Valley of the ‘problem’ clowns. I don’t know.
1 Like
4 Likes
They were never fine. If a person is really funny they don’t need props like that which is why most clowns are unfunny people trying to be what they are not.
That’s always been my hypothesis. They’re creepy in the same way the infamous Polar Express animation is creepy. Off from human just enough.
3 Likes
“There was no evil intention behind the costumes and we sincerely apologise for it,” he said. “We will not do it again.”
Really, dressing in clown costumes, hanging around schools? Clowns are as creepy as Victorian dolls!
1 Like
A couple of friends in grad school, knowing my distaste for porcelain dolls and clowns, set a trio of porcelain dolls they had painted in clownface on my desk for my birthday one year. I miss those ladies and their cruel sense of humor!
1 Like
When I clicked this I thought it was going to be about the antivaxxers in B.C. They apparently decided to do this after first targeting hospitals and health care workers and finding that generated ill will.
Before times I went sometimes to a circus to watch the magician an the like. The clown is the stage persona and because so it’s totally different from the everyday persona. Not all comedians are happy and fun people in real life.
Professional clown follow a script and the wisecrack jokes are tried well before the show. At the end of the show Mr.Whacky becomes back to Sandra.
When grandparents etc. took 7-year-old me to the circus, I used to love the clowns, I can remember giggling myself stupid.
Now, not so much, although a good custard pie fight raises a grin.
