No Sex, No Drugs, No Wine, No Women, No Fun, No Sin, No You, No Wonder It's Dark

[snurri]

I haven't really been posting about Kenya because it's depressing enough to read about it, let alone recap it. Suffice it to say that things are not better. You may have heard that China's government newspaper asserts that the Kenya situation proves that Africa is not ready for Western-style democracy and needs dictators to keep order. Project much?

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have learned that children don't like clowns, and some are afraid of them. This is news? The clowns, however, are in denial. I can't say that I found clowns scary as a child; I was mostly indifferent to them. Nowadays I simply don't trust them, and when I see them on the bus I keep my hand near my wallet.

[Poll #1123430]

Comments

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Three words.

John Wayne Gacy.

(Also, I was frightened by a clown when I was young.)

[squirrel-monkey.livejournal.com]

Ditto on JWG -- I can't believe he wasn't in the poll. I was so ready to click that ticky box.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I guess it was too obvious. Also NOT VERY FUNNY.

[squirrel-monkey.livejournal.com]

I thought we were talking about really scary.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Mostly I was just going for laughs. Although in retrospect It was pretty obvious and probably genuinely scary to a lot of folks. Gacy is a little too real, though.

[rnb.livejournal.com]

I came to say the same thing. Gacy is the reason I don't like clowns.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'd even heard of Gacy until I was in my twenties. Which seems odd.

[rnb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it all went down in the Chicago suburbs, which is the area I grew up in, so I remember hearing about it all at a very young age.

[timalyne.livejournal.com]

Clowning itself is pretty cool. Still, I've always thought clowns frozen smiles to be pretty scary.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I like the clowns at Cirque du Soleil. Does that make me a snob?

[timalyne.livejournal.com]

I like those sorts of clowns, too (if I'm looking at the right thing.) I like the clowns of Circus Flora, too (also a European style circus). It probably does make us snobs, but why does that matter? Actually, I think it just means we don't like American style Clowns.

[johnaegard.livejournal.com]

The absolute worst is when you're around a clown who's bombing. Because if you're nice, like me, you want the clown to succeed and get laughs. But there's still this red-haired bozo squirting you with petunias and honking at you and in general pushing your boundaries.

I hate it when I get some empathy in my fight-or-flight.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I get the same way. I have a very visceral and uncomfortable reaction to people embarrassing themselves. It makes it impossible to watch certain sitcoms.

[wheatland-press.livejournal.com]

That's why I don't watch sitcoms any more.

My youngster inherited that trait, making him the King Empath of the 7th Grade.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

"Family Ties" was the worst. Those people just mortified me every week.

I don't watch traditional sitcoms anymore. I guess "The Office" can be pretty mortifying, but I love it anyway.

[tacithydra.livejournal.com]

Yes! Yes, exactly. I was incredibly uncomfortable watching the first season of the Office, at least until my immunity went up.

The British version of the Office scarred me for life.

And I still flinch sometimes with Arrested Development and what's-his-name, the brother-in-law who thinks he's an actor.

[stevenagy.livejournal.com]

So many choices ... but I had to remain "true to my school" so to speak. Plus, the only scary clown I ever saw was Bill Murray in that awful bank heist movie with Gena Davis and Randy Quaid. Can't even recall the name and don't want to kill the TGIF mood. :-)

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I think the name of that movie was "Not Very Good."

[stevenagy.livejournal.com]

Poor Jason Robards.

[scarypudding.livejournal.com]

The underage clowns at Jugend Circus Basilisk were pretty funny, even in a language known for its not-funny.

Then again, if they'd turned out to be forty-year-old midget clowns pretending to be children, that would have been kinda creepy.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I can't see your pik-tcher.

Still, "underage clowns" seems like a deeply wrong phrase.

[scarypudding.livejournal.com]

Hmm, works for me. It's full resolution. Maybe it's just taking forever? (Or maybe it's clown mind powers.)

http://www.circusbasilisk.ch/media/pics/bild2007a.jpg

Somewhere there's a picture of me in fairly professional clown make up, age 3. Never digitized as far as I know, luckily for you.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Firefox tells me that it contains errors. Perhaps this is just projection on the part of Firefox.

I'm going to find that picture if it kills me. PLEASE GIVE ME ALL CONTACT INFORMATION FOR YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS.

[scarypudding.livejournal.com]

I'll track it down at some point. As a Midwesterner, you probably won't be surprised to hear that Shriners were involved.

[o-kiki.livejournal.com]

The movie Poltergeist (wherein scary clown doll tries to kill Robbie), together with the movie It, and the JWG thing pretty much put me off clowns for good.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

CLOWN FEAR TRIFECTA!!!

[carnwrite.livejournal.com]

Where's the "all of the above" option? ;)

[snurri.livejournal.com]

You found it! It's right here!!

[tacithydra.livejournal.com]

Clowns are creepy because they have achieved the Uncanny Valley through makeup and odd movements.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

So we could eat clown meat without being cannibals?

[tacithydra.livejournal.com]

Only if you left the makeup on it.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm.