Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/09/24/juggalos.html
“The Gathering of the Juggalos is heaven for a photographer.”
—Nate Igor Smith on finding freedom among killer clowns.
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Can’t stand the music, but kind of admire the culture. Reminds me a bit of early 90s PLUR/rave culture.
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Woot Woot!
Seems that photographing Juggalos and ettes is as fun as shooting at carnivals and circuses. Never a dull moment.
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I guess I don’t see a real difference between Juggalos and Deadheads. It’s a culture forming around a band.
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Man, that scrub life guy is living the tattoos I am too chickenshit to get.
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I haven’t kept up with ICP, but there was a time when I was really into them.
Something people who “know” me wouldn’t suspect is that I went to one of their concerts in makeup with a friend (now my brother-in-law).
When my now mother-in-law saw an article about the concert in the newspaper she asked my girlfriend, “What kind of people would go to something like that?”
My girlfriend laughed and said, “Your son and Collin!”
“Nooooo. Really?”
Yeah, really.
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You should really get outside more.
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I’ve met representatives of both groups in their natural habitat. I actually like Juggalos a bit more, if I had to chose.
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ICP has waay more aggression going on than the Dead IMO.
“After being charged with battery in connection to an January incident at an Indiana waffle house, the rap duo, Violent J (a.k.a. Joseph F. Bruce) and Shaggy 2 Dope (a.k.a Joseph Williams), plead guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct last week according to the group’s record label. Both Bruce and Williams were ordered to pay fines of $325.”
“As we reported earlier this year (see “Insane Clown Posse Arrested After Restaurant Brawl” ), the two men were arrested after police claimed that an 18- year-old victim was beaten by the rappers and several other members of the group’s touring entourage at a restaurant following an ICP show in Indianapolis, IN.” -MTV
I can’t even imagine the GD guys getting in fights at a Waffle House or anywhere else for that matter.
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That’s true. Different music, different culture. They have different norms.
Deadheads had their own issues and were not exactly squeaky clean either, just not as area effect as ICP kids. Back when they were big, if you wanted anything illicit from pot, acid, shrooms, etc, they were the folks to go to. Drug OD’s were pretty common.
They also had their own behavior problems. Nothing like adult ass deadheads hitting on preteen girls. . . I am biased from personal experience on that one.
I think the difference was the time periods. We didn’t have a real internet like we do now, and everything they did wasn’t as watched and reported.
I don’t really see as much of a difference. Back in the day, the issues they had were not entirely dissimilar.
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Oh, shit, does this mean we’re going to have a group of Juggalo libertarian/conservative commentators 10-20 years from now like we do with the Dead?
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I would compare Juggalos more to Phish Phans, there’s an insularity: Phish and ICP don’t get much play outside of Phish and Juggalo circles, whereas the Dead were a legit part of the 60’s subculture that toured and shared fans with bands of that era (ICP tours with other Juggalo groups/artists, Phish tours with nobody.)
I will give Juggalos credit for one thing: they seem to know not everyone likes the music, whereas I’ve met plenty of Phish Phans who think that if they just play you this one ‘definitive’ live version of (silly named song) you will swoon and be a convert.
On one hand I can appreciate Juggalos for being weirdos/outsiders, on the other hand I don’t like the music and think the culture tends to promote dumbassery a bit too much.
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Now that the Furry thing didn’t work out, I look forward to Milo trying to parasite the Juggalos.
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Out on the road today. I saw a Hatchetman sticker on a Cadillac…
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Go to Burning Man today if you want to see the Gathering in 10-15 years.
That’s not an attack on either group, by the way. It’s just the nature of these things. None of the intangibles that make it special can be commoditized, and the whole thing costs money, and you’re starting to get media interest and people from outside your little group are asking how to buy tickets. Pretty soon you’re having dinner with the county supervisor’s family to discuss permitting, and Faygo has a whole advertising division that does nothing but look over your shoulder. It doesn’t mean the resulting thing is bad, necessarily, but you don’t get to have reliable planned anarchy year after year.
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With photos by Nate “Igor” Smith:
https://www.laweekly.com/the-best-things-we-overheard-at-gathering-of-the-juggalos/
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Let me note that Jerry Garcia had his middle finger bit off during a fight with Hell’s Angels.
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Nice try but,
“At age four,[19][20] while the family was vacationing in the Santa Cruz Mountains, two-thirds of Garcia’s right middle finger was accidentally cut off.[21][22] Garcia and his brother Tiff were chopping wood. Jerry steadied a piece of wood with his finger, but Tiff miscalculated and the axe severed most of Jerry’s middle finger.[23] After his mother wrapped his hand in a towel, Garcia’s father drove him over 30 miles (50 km) to the nearest hospital.[21] A few weeks later, Garcia — who had not looked at his finger since the accident — was surprised to discover most of it missing when the bandage he was wearing came off during a bath.[24] Garcia later confided that he often used it to his advantage in his youth, showing it off to other children in his neighborhood.” -Wiki
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I think you guys need to bring a class analysis to the difference between the Deadheads and the Juggalos, because that (outside of evolving in different time periods) seems to be a key difference between the 2 groups.
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