So… yes. Halloween is coming and so is a remake of Stephen King’s “It.” Plus, Eli Roth let loose “Clown” and Rob Zombie has been advertising “31.” But to bring the terror to the next level, there have been a series of Clown Pranks and disturbances happening in Ohio. People are calling in clowns with knives to emergency lines, threats of a “Clown Clan” coming to school campuses and other threats are happening all over Ohio.
News article from CNN here.
So, yeah – if you’re out there causing clown mischief, more power to you! But keep it clean in fun and avoid burdening our emergency responders.
This has been Ed with your up-to-the-minute clown-related news. Peace out!
No matter how much you love clowns, you have to admit: a huge portion of our population is terrified of them. And it’s not because of Stephen King, either. Clowns have been terrorizing people for millennia.
Clowns have throughout time and different cultures had the lofted honor of playing the fool. This means that they were able to break social customs that the rest of us are bound by. That could be as simple as a flub in manners or it can be as outrageous as causing a raucous with someone’s embarrassment. Clowns are unpredictable – and unpredictable is scary. In fact, a lot of times in tribal cultures, it was the job of the clown to do the unexpected in order to “wake up” the tribe members and to get them thinking outside the box for creative solutions – or to simply break up the monotony of long, arduous chores or bleak and dismal winters.
And then there’s the whole face paint thing. Humans are naturally wary of anyone in a mask. If you can’t see a face, how can you know if you can trust someone? Even with strangers, if you see them later, you can recognize them. But with face paint or masks, you would never know who that person is or if you met them in plain clothes on the street. Exaggerated facial features are even enough to terrorize small children who have yet to see many horror movies.
Of course, the horror movies don’t help – they amplify the problem. When I was first starting out in Photography, I was shocked when I entered a contest on a site that usually had about 1k entries and there were only 5 TOTAL in the clown contest. I never knew clowns were THAT scary – and my love for them grew exponentially.
I love clowns because of all they represent – chaos, unfamiliarity, unlimited possibilities, and a break from business as usual. A little thrill doesn’t hurt, either.
So, a brief perusal of Wikipedia and a TON of my own personal research has made clowning even more awesome, in my opinion. And let me tell you why:
The first clowns go back to the Greek age of tragedies and comedies, and, as I’m sure you can guess, they started out in the comedies. In this context, clowns were considered “country bumpkins” and were the butt of a lot of jokes from the more “elite” in Greece – namely, those who could afford to live in the cities rather than on the farms. In this sense, clowns more closely remembered the Fool that they would become in the middle ages.
The trend of the clown as the country bumpkin continued throughout the centuries until they became famous once again during Shakespeare’s reign of entertainment. If you’re familiar with Shakespeare, then you may remember Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – the classic fools from Hamlet who became famous once again in the 90s. The purpose of these characters in Hamlet was to lighten the atmosphere and to point out the ridiculousness of the circumstances.
The Jester, an importact cousin of the Clown, during Medieval times often held an especially interesting position. Donning face-obscruring make up, belled caps and ridiculous costumes, the Royal Jester was charged with entertaining the royalty and their guests. Often time, this lauded position was the only one that could get away with criticizing the monarchy without being sentenced to imprisonment or death and it is said that The Jester, having an obscured identity and a charismatic personality, was a chief advisor to the royalty.
The tradition continued once film came out and through movies, clowns have delighted and frightened us.
So, yes, there is the short version. Super fascinating!
So, this has been a long time in the making. I honestly don’t know why this hadn’t happened before. But there has been a suspicious little gremlin following me around, haunting me as you might say, for years, and I’m finally ready to talk about her.
Her name is Ed Savage. And she pretends to be me! But she’s not. She goes by “Ed” (short for “Educated” dontcha know!) to conceal her gender and make people think she’s a guy and actually be respectful and stuff. But people don’t understand how truly wretched she is. She feeds off the fear of other people, especially the anticipatory kind. She isn’t someone you’d notice on a regular basis, but when she has your attention, boy, has she got it!
I don’t really know everything she’s been up to… and I’m a little scared of finding out.
Sooo… exciting news in ClownTown! Matthew Gray Gubler of Criminal Minds fame is out delivering pumpkins to his friends… in the middle of the night… as a clown…. Check it out! And, of course, spread the love by following our fellow spookster at http://www.twitter.com/gublernation – and tell him Ed Savage sent you!
