{"id":457,"date":"2009-10-17T19:20:40","date_gmt":"2009-10-18T03:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=457"},"modified":"2010-02-03T20:36:29","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T04:36:29","slug":"all-the-world-loves-a-clown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/17\/all-the-world-loves-a-clown-457\/","title":{"rendered":"All the World Loved a Clown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Frank<\/a>

Frank Avruch as Bozo<\/p><\/div>\n

The first television shows I recall from my childhood are Bozo the Clown, naturally,\u00a0and Hobo Kelly, also a clown. Bozo in particular was a beloved, iconic personality. We loved Bozo even though he threatened to blind one of us every episode with that maddening flipping-the-spoon-into-the-glass challenge. He was above reproach.<\/p>\n

But somewhere along the line our image of the clown went from\u00a0cherished denizen of our childhood memories to… something else.<\/p>\n

\n
Be a clown,
\nBe a clown,
\nAll the world loves a clown
\nBe the poor silly ass
\nAnd you’ll always travel first class.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

First we lost our reverence for them. Bill Griffith created Zippy the Pinhead<\/a> in 1971. In 1974, in “The Groove Tube<\/a>,” Ko-Ko the Clown removes his red nose to light up a cig and read erotica to the kids watching from home.<\/p>\n

Once\u00a0the taboo against clown bashing had been shattered,\u00a0all hell broke loose, and the clowns came\u00a0pouring out. In 1988 we were cocooned in\u00a0cotton candy by\u00a0Killer Klowns from Outer Space<\/a>. Two years later Tim Curry traded in his garters for a clown suit and terrorized Derry, Maine as Pennywise in Stephen King’s “It<\/a>.” And two years after that,\u00a0in “Lisa’s First Word<\/a>,” Bart Simpson lies awake, hugging his knees, chanting “Can’t sleep. Clown will eat me”: Homer has rendered the image of\u00a0Krusty the Klown, Springfield’s beloved Percodan-addicted clown, on\u00a0Bart’s\u00a0headboard. And now there’s\u00a0Zombieland<\/a> (2009), where zombie clowns represent the deepest fear of the neurotic, reluctant hero, Columbus, Ohio. When there’s no more room in hell, the clowns will walk the earth.<\/p>\n

Some things are too bizarre to be make believe. Consider Pogo the Clown, aka John Wayne Gacy<\/a>, who killed thirty-three boys in the mid-seventies. And then of course there is the most infamous, most murderous\u00a0clown of them all: Ronald McDonald. Billions and billions served up childhood obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Sometimes reality is scarier than anything dreamt up in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Maybe that’s what makes clowns so damned scary, even to, or perhaps especially to, grown ups. We invited them into our homes to entertain, to delight, and they try to f’ing kill us. They are the wolf in freak’s clothing.<\/p>\n

Ready to face your fears head on? Time to nut up or shut up. “Killer Clown Revue,” twisted work by Kelly Hutchison, aka Dark Vomit,\u00a0frightens children of all ages at Copro Gallery<\/a> in Bergamot Station<\/a>, Santa Monica, through October 24.<\/p>\n

\"The

The Clowns Last Supper<\/p><\/div>\n

You really ought to get down there sooner rather than later. I know that what’s his name said the recession is over, but… come on. Still, a lot of this work has sold, including the veritable who’s who of clowns, “The Clowns [sic] Last Supper,” above, for $5500. These\u00a0are not your mother’s clown paintings, and they’re going fast.<\/p>\n

Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first television shows I recall from my childhood are Bozo the Clown, naturally,\u00a0and Hobo Kelly, also a clown. Bozo in particular was a beloved, iconic personality. We loved Bozo even though he threatened to blind one of us every episode with that maddening flipping-the-spoon-into-the-glass challenge. He was above reproach. But somewhere along the line […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,6,7,4],"tags":[54,53,56,55,40,66],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-events","category-musings","category-raves","tag-bergamot-station","tag-clowns","tag-copro-gallery","tag-kelly-hutchison","tag-los-angeles","tag-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-7n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":852,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions\/852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}