A Change of Laughter
In the following essay I will be analyzing the change in clown history, how clowns went from a laughing stock to the most scariest creature in all of media. Somewhere in history there was a change in the perception of clowns.
Ever since I was six years old I developed a huge fear for clowns, they seemed terrifying to me because they do stuff that they think is funny when, to some, it is not as funny as its seems. If people actually think about it; if the person who said or did the horrid things clowns do but without the makeup and costume it would not be as funny to them. During the medieval times clowns were known as jesters, their job was to act foolish and bring entertainment to the king and queen. Now clowns are known as a mysterious character, films often portray them as frightening figures and use them to act like murderers. Sometime during history the character of clowns changed drastically and changed the perception of clowns not only for children but for everyone. They changed from jesters to circus clowns to murders and finally to main horrid characters in the entertainment industry. Clowns were in every child’s party, now they are in every child’s nightmare.
Clowns have been around as long as 300 B.C.; they served the kingdom and its people as laughing stock. However, their jobs did not only make people laugh but helped kings change their opinions on foolish things they would want to do or on foolish things they would say. As said by Bruce Johnson on his article titled “History of Clowning from the Ancient Pharaohs to the Modern Day”, the Chinese emperor had the choice of painting the Great Wall of China, which eventually would cause more deaths in China, but because of a foolish joke his jester made about the emperor’s opinion on painting the way the emperor decided to take back his decision. Jesters would make fun of anything they thought was inane, so when they would make fun of decision kings were about to make the kings would most likely change their opinion about the topic. Since an early period of time in history clowns began to think they could change people’s minds on any opinion, they felt as if they could do what they wanted. The power to change a king’s decision was a big deal and jesters thought that they could get away with anything they wanted to because everyone thought it was funny.
The next phase clowns took was getting their “talent” shown to a larger audience; this caused them to move to the circus in the mid 1700s. Clowns decided to take jokes to a whole new level where they were doing stunts and acting very childlike. As Bruce Johnson said in his article clowns basically hurt themselves in order to create laughter from the audience. The circus grew largely, following the mass growth they began to travel to make more money. After virtually visiting behind the scenes of the Ringling Brothers Circus, I discovered that clowning is not as easy as it seems. Some clowns even attend school for clowning in Florida. The clowns from the Ringling Brothers Circus have to be prepared accordingly, every time before they start rehearsing they must be in their appropriate attire. They provide great entertainment to the people and they travel all around the world. It seems that the circus can be related to a corporation, the bigger the production the better the pay and it seems that the clowns are getting paid very well. Cirque Du Soleil is a perfect example of being rather expensive for clowns performing acrobats. This particular circus travels rarely and when in town they charge more than a hundred dollars and that is for a good show in Las Vegas. Clowns, or performing talents as some may call them, take advantage of the popularity they have and raise prices to an extreme that limits only people from upper class that can pay to watch them. Going back to the times of jesters, clowns are use to performing for royalty that they do not mind charging so much for a show. After watching an act on Cirque Du Soleil on YouTube called We Reinvented the Circus I came to the conclusion that clowns do stuff that to them seems funny but is not a real laughing matter. For example, they often use the trick of throwing pies upon their faces; if we analyze this we might think it is hilarious because it is happening to someone else other than ourselves but if you take the makeup away we might think the person is insane. It makes no sense to allow a person with makeup to do ridiculous scene such as throwing pies to each others face if we would not allow a person without makeup to do so.
Around the 1970s party clowns took a hit that brought down their fame for awhile. John Gacy was a well respected man who would help out the community and attend children’s party as “Pogo the clown” but what the community or the world did not know was that Pogo the clown was a murderer. John Gacy was one of the biggest serial killers known; police had found thirty three teenage boys bodies buried in the bottom of his house. Gacy was an insane person who organized his plan correctly, he had been killing for almost ten years and no one had suspected him. While in trial the media decided that his story was a great subject to target and made him popular around the world. Mobs of people were screaming outside his court case, “kill the clown, kill the clown” his story surely impacted the world and brought a new awareness of what clowns where. He had stated in an interview taken in the 1980s that he believed that disguising himself as a clown made himself feel less guilty of the murders he committed because society accepted clowns to act ridiculous and just laugh about it. In this situation people took it more seriously and decided that this was no joke. This was a new beginning of the views of clowns and the beginning of something greater, the start of terror.
Media took this story to another level and started to create films of clowns, however they were not portraying them as funny figures to laugh at but as scary mysterious people who murdered people for pleasure. Many of people seemed to be impacted by the movie "It", this movie uses the scariest clown that had ever been seen. Media started changing the looks of their clowns, for example, in the book Signs by Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon it is stated that in the Batman the Joker is not portrayed as a frightening figure in the 1960s but as media changed the Joker did as well. In the recent film he looks like a crazy man, frightening, and mysterious; no one knows exactly what the Joker was thinking. These interpretations of clowns made an expansion all over the world and now entertainment industries even have frightening events that does not leave out the haunt of clowns. I have recently attended Horror Nights in Universal Studios and in the entrance of the theme park they have a big section of scary clowns scaring the people that enter the park. It is most terrifying because they chase you and they come after you with chainsaws. It was an experience that was most terrifying and caused me to develop a larger fear in clowns. Entertainment changed the views of clowns for their own benefits however this caused more fear for the once creatures that use to cause laughter.
Media and mass industries have caused the audience to have different views on the figures we once saw as vulnerable. Mass media changed these views because it impacted a larger audience and caused more attention. Of course mass media took advantage of this opportunity and continued to scary people with clowns. Our new perception on clowns caused mass media to continue the growth of these scary figures. These clowns were first saw as Jesters trying to be different and not be criticize on to murderers without a conscious of what they are doing. In a way the industries created more commission from their part but less for the clowns who do not promote the scariness characteristic. Even though I am afraid of clowns I know it is because of the pictures and scenes that are portrayed to me while watching television or a movie, or reading a book. The case of John Gacy was a very gruesome case but it does not mean that all clowns are the same. Clowns may be greedy and want to have control of an audience but they are not murderers or scary figures we should fear.
Bibliography
(dmcipod). “We Reinvented the Circus” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 5 November 2007 Retrieved 18 October 2012
(documan1). “Serial killer- John Wayne Gacy” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 6 February 2012 Retrieved 18 October 2012.
Freckles the Happy Clown. Psalmsong Creations. Web. 18 October 2012
Johnson, Bruce “History of Clowning from the Ancient Pharaohs to Modern Day”. clown-ministry, 1992. Web 18 October 2012
Maasik, Sonia and Jack Solomon. Signs of Life in the USA. New York: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2012. Print.
Freckles the Happy Clown. Psalmsong Creations. Web. 18 October 2012
Wright, Brian. “Behind The Big Goofy Shoes.” Online clip video.Youtube. Youtube, 6 September 2009 Retrieved 18 October 2012.
Clowns have been around as long as 300 B.C.; they served the kingdom and its people as laughing stock. However, their jobs did not only make people laugh but helped kings change their opinions on foolish things they would want to do or on foolish things they would say. As said by Bruce Johnson on his article titled “History of Clowning from the Ancient Pharaohs to the Modern Day”, the Chinese emperor had the choice of painting the Great Wall of China, which eventually would cause more deaths in China, but because of a foolish joke his jester made about the emperor’s opinion on painting the way the emperor decided to take back his decision. Jesters would make fun of anything they thought was inane, so when they would make fun of decision kings were about to make the kings would most likely change their opinion about the topic. Since an early period of time in history clowns began to think they could change people’s minds on any opinion, they felt as if they could do what they wanted. The power to change a king’s decision was a big deal and jesters thought that they could get away with anything they wanted to because everyone thought it was funny.
The next phase clowns took was getting their “talent” shown to a larger audience; this caused them to move to the circus in the mid 1700s. Clowns decided to take jokes to a whole new level where they were doing stunts and acting very childlike. As Bruce Johnson said in his article clowns basically hurt themselves in order to create laughter from the audience. The circus grew largely, following the mass growth they began to travel to make more money. After virtually visiting behind the scenes of the Ringling Brothers Circus, I discovered that clowning is not as easy as it seems. Some clowns even attend school for clowning in Florida. The clowns from the Ringling Brothers Circus have to be prepared accordingly, every time before they start rehearsing they must be in their appropriate attire. They provide great entertainment to the people and they travel all around the world. It seems that the circus can be related to a corporation, the bigger the production the better the pay and it seems that the clowns are getting paid very well. Cirque Du Soleil is a perfect example of being rather expensive for clowns performing acrobats. This particular circus travels rarely and when in town they charge more than a hundred dollars and that is for a good show in Las Vegas. Clowns, or performing talents as some may call them, take advantage of the popularity they have and raise prices to an extreme that limits only people from upper class that can pay to watch them. Going back to the times of jesters, clowns are use to performing for royalty that they do not mind charging so much for a show. After watching an act on Cirque Du Soleil on YouTube called We Reinvented the Circus I came to the conclusion that clowns do stuff that to them seems funny but is not a real laughing matter. For example, they often use the trick of throwing pies upon their faces; if we analyze this we might think it is hilarious because it is happening to someone else other than ourselves but if you take the makeup away we might think the person is insane. It makes no sense to allow a person with makeup to do ridiculous scene such as throwing pies to each others face if we would not allow a person without makeup to do so.
Around the 1970s party clowns took a hit that brought down their fame for awhile. John Gacy was a well respected man who would help out the community and attend children’s party as “Pogo the clown” but what the community or the world did not know was that Pogo the clown was a murderer. John Gacy was one of the biggest serial killers known; police had found thirty three teenage boys bodies buried in the bottom of his house. Gacy was an insane person who organized his plan correctly, he had been killing for almost ten years and no one had suspected him. While in trial the media decided that his story was a great subject to target and made him popular around the world. Mobs of people were screaming outside his court case, “kill the clown, kill the clown” his story surely impacted the world and brought a new awareness of what clowns where. He had stated in an interview taken in the 1980s that he believed that disguising himself as a clown made himself feel less guilty of the murders he committed because society accepted clowns to act ridiculous and just laugh about it. In this situation people took it more seriously and decided that this was no joke. This was a new beginning of the views of clowns and the beginning of something greater, the start of terror.
Media took this story to another level and started to create films of clowns, however they were not portraying them as funny figures to laugh at but as scary mysterious people who murdered people for pleasure. Many of people seemed to be impacted by the movie "It", this movie uses the scariest clown that had ever been seen. Media started changing the looks of their clowns, for example, in the book Signs by Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon it is stated that in the Batman the Joker is not portrayed as a frightening figure in the 1960s but as media changed the Joker did as well. In the recent film he looks like a crazy man, frightening, and mysterious; no one knows exactly what the Joker was thinking. These interpretations of clowns made an expansion all over the world and now entertainment industries even have frightening events that does not leave out the haunt of clowns. I have recently attended Horror Nights in Universal Studios and in the entrance of the theme park they have a big section of scary clowns scaring the people that enter the park. It is most terrifying because they chase you and they come after you with chainsaws. It was an experience that was most terrifying and caused me to develop a larger fear in clowns. Entertainment changed the views of clowns for their own benefits however this caused more fear for the once creatures that use to cause laughter.
Media and mass industries have caused the audience to have different views on the figures we once saw as vulnerable. Mass media changed these views because it impacted a larger audience and caused more attention. Of course mass media took advantage of this opportunity and continued to scary people with clowns. Our new perception on clowns caused mass media to continue the growth of these scary figures. These clowns were first saw as Jesters trying to be different and not be criticize on to murderers without a conscious of what they are doing. In a way the industries created more commission from their part but less for the clowns who do not promote the scariness characteristic. Even though I am afraid of clowns I know it is because of the pictures and scenes that are portrayed to me while watching television or a movie, or reading a book. The case of John Gacy was a very gruesome case but it does not mean that all clowns are the same. Clowns may be greedy and want to have control of an audience but they are not murderers or scary figures we should fear.
Bibliography
(dmcipod). “We Reinvented the Circus” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 5 November 2007 Retrieved 18 October 2012
(documan1). “Serial killer- John Wayne Gacy” Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 6 February 2012 Retrieved 18 October 2012.
Freckles the Happy Clown. Psalmsong Creations. Web. 18 October 2012
Johnson, Bruce “History of Clowning from the Ancient Pharaohs to Modern Day”. clown-ministry, 1992. Web 18 October 2012
Maasik, Sonia and Jack Solomon. Signs of Life in the USA. New York: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2012. Print.
Freckles the Happy Clown. Psalmsong Creations. Web. 18 October 2012
Wright, Brian. “Behind The Big Goofy Shoes.” Online clip video.Youtube. Youtube, 6 September 2009 Retrieved 18 October 2012.