Why Do clowns Exist?
Growing up, like most kids, I was deeply unsettled by clowns.
It wasn’t their absurd face makeup, their deep cultural bend towards evil, or even their really big shoes. Although, I do think the big shoes are really unsettling. In my small little child mind, that meant that the clowns must have an absurdly big, big toe, and therefore they were more freaky than funny.
Throughout my middle school years I was always likened to the class clown. I’d do anything to get a laugh from a peer. On multiple occasions I was given detention for doing stupid shit like throwing grapes across the choir room, waiting the inside of a desk with a bottle of white out, etc.
This was well before my self-diagnosis. You see, I had ADHD, but my parents just called it being bad. As much as neurodiversity played a roll in my clownery, the reality was I was starved for acceptance, like nearly every middle schooler in existence (somehow).
As I’ve grown older, I’ve found myself once again drawn to clowns. During the pandemic, I started painting my face in clown makeup. Contrary to what you may think, it WAS NOT to a mental breakdown. I was recording makeup tutorials for literally myself. I would literally put on clown make up on camera, and then immediately take it off and feel some strange sense of liberation. Part of me wonders if the liberating feeling was more connected to washing my face for the first time in weeks.
Fast forward 5 years, and I’ve found myself once again drawn to the big top aesthetic. Not just because I am a big top, but more because I found it to be a beautiful metaphor for the life I’ve always lived. One that is filled with whimsy, where nothing is taken too seriously, and where everyone plays a role that is uniquely fit to them.
Unfortunately clowns and Circus culture are dying off. I remember my parents talking about how the circus was a dwindling version of what it once was. I assume that it had something to do with an increase in laws around elephant and lion transport. Also the logistics have to be a nightmare.
But more than ever I’ve noticed a rise in pieces and parts of the clown aesthetic (commonly known as clowncore) online. It makes me wonder, did the circus ever really disappear? Or did it just Evolve. In many ways a circus is just a dramatic retelling of the systems we engage in everyday.
Office culture: Circus (lions and tigers and bears oh my)
Bosses: Ring Leaders
Gay Bars: Circus (lions and tigers and bears oh my)
Drag Queens: Clowns
When I think about the modern retelling of the circus, I think of some of the most commercially successful media that’s been running in recent years. Media like Everything Everywhere All At Once, Stranger Things, Inception, and The White Lotus all mimic similar character archetypes that are present in the circus.
Archetypes like a Jester, a ring leader, a juggler, an animal tamer, and the strongman all help frame the world in a hyperbolized lens in a circus setting, but when we apply those same archetypes to other varieties of media, it still applies. Art imitates life, as we’ve all heard time and time again.
But the real question I’ve been asking is, “Why the clown?” Why does the jester play a role almost as pivotal as the ringleader? Why is the clown aesthetic reappearing in media? What does all of this mean?
Next week I’ll be back to share what I’ve learned from deep dive next into the origins of the clown (at least as we’ve come to know them today).
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Volume 2 of The Unserious Club is available
and I won’t stop reminding you until it sells out.
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now with free shipping bc charging for shipping is annoying
