Why Do Clowns Get Such A Bad Rap?

Beverly Bowman
3 min readApr 15, 2022

--

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabonabona On Unsplash

This isn’t funny! What happened to our happy clowns?

Years ago when I was a teenager, I was living in a group home. Meaning the State of New York was my legal guardian. While living in a group home for girls. The State would encourage the group home counselors to take us on trips.

We would go to places like museums, national parks, movies, and the theater.

It was good for our morale and would give us some culture. On one particular trip, we went to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden.

It was spectacular, seeing the ringmaster in that big hat talking through this thing that looked like a horn. I could see all the different animals. Lions, horses, elephants, and little dogs are all dressed up in their doggy outfits. The circus ring was huge just like you see on television but better. It was real-life entertainment and we were right there sitting in front of all of the activities.

Elephants were walking right past us. Some were even doing their business and didn’t even look back they just kept on walking. Even though it was gross, it didn’t take away from seeing the clowns and all the circus acts. Back in the day, clowns were fun.

Clowns put a smile on your face and keep you laughing.

Way before cell phones and the Internet, back in 1946, A man named Alvin Livingston created a clown for Capital Records children's albums who he named Bozo the Clown. In 1949 Larry Harmon who was an enterpriser brought Bozo the clown to television as a children's show host in the 1950s.

Larry Harmon is responsible for Bozo becoming a show business staple for children for more than 50 years. Bozo the clown is the world's most famous clown.

When McDonald”s opened up, in 1955 Willard Scott who played Bozo the Clown on WRC-TV In Washington D.C. from 1959–to 1962 using the moniker “Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown”

McDonald’s used Ronald McDonald as its mascot.

And then came Coulrophobia.

Fear of clowns. Were they always around us? I wonder when did clowns start from being able to make people laugh at birthday parties to being scared every time they see a clown. In 1990 the movie IT by Stephen King came out. After that movie, it seems like every clown on the planet got a bad rap from then on.

“It’s a mistake to ask when clowns turned bad because historically they were never really good. They’ve always had this deeply ambiguous character,”

Sounds to me like clowns always had this good bad relationship thing going on with the public.

Who knew?

In America in the 50s and ’60s clowns were loved by kids everywhere.

After all, every clown can’t be considered a John Waye Gacy.

Holloween is considered scary but it doesn’t stop people from celebrating it.

In 2021 according to the (NRF), National Retail Federation Americans were expected to spend 10.14 billion dollars on Holloween. This money was spent on only one night. To that I say. Somebody has some money!

What’s scarier than Holloween people? I’m scared just hearing about all the money that was spent.

How much does it cost to hire a clown? Glad you asked. The cost to hire a clown for a kid's birthday party or event is $120-$150 per hour max. How many times can $150 go into $10.14 billion?

Just Sayin!

With all that is going on in the country. Food prices going up, covid is on the rise, housing inflation, human beings acting a fool.

With all the fake clowns running the asylum, the Democratics and Republicans.

We could use some laughter in our lives. We could use some cheering up.

They say laughter is the best medicine. One thing that clowns are good at is making you laugh. Clowns bring us happiness.

  1. Why was the clown so sad? He broke his funny bone
  2. How did the clown write his jokes? He just put pun to paper.
  3. What is the name of a clown sitting down? A stand up comic
  4. Why did the clown decide to take a holiday? Because the circus got a bit in-tents.
  5. What room is impossible to enter? A mush-room

Maybe these clown jokes didn’t have you laughing like crazy. I could see you did crack a smile!

--

--

Beverly Bowman

I write to inspire others as well as myself. If I can make some money along the way, I see that as another form of inspiration.https://beeready315.medium.com/su