Saturday, April 11, 2015

Clowns Are Not Stupid...They Just Do Stupid Things...

I was thinking about why clowns are funny.

Are clowns stupid?  Maybe.  I'm not sure.

I think Pee Wee Herman is innocent.  Charlie Chaplin is an innocent.  Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Bill Irwin Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy?  The Three Stooges?  They are not smart but they keep trying over and over.

I don't think there's such a thing as a lazy clown.  Clowns are always trying to get something, moving forward, just moving.

Here's a mistake I think people make trying to be clowns.  Clowns don't know they are dumb.  I think why we watch and listen and laugh is because they do dumb things out of pure innocence.  As do we all.

Pee Wee Herman chased his bicycle across the country, not because he's dumb. Just pure child like wonder.  He couldn't live a life without his bike.  Laurel and Hardy carry a piano up a thousand flights of stairs, only to find there was a road to the top.  They take the piano back down and drive the piano to where it's supposed to go.  It's just such simple innocent logic.

I get frustrated watching a clown that is not connected to this notion.  I remember watching a clown try to unpack a suitcase once in a stage act.  I was so frustrated.  It didn't make sense, just unpack. it.  He was missing the simple logic.  He didn't convey to the audience his simple mind.

As a clown, I get frustrated by my own props. My hat, my juggling clubs, my balloons.

I get hit by a juggling club in the head.  I try and figure out why I got hit.  I do it again, I get hit again. If I'm not an innocent, it's frustrating.  Why not just put the juggling club down?  Or just juggle, obviously I can juggle.  I keep trying to do the same thing over and over.  Eventually I win.

Einstein had a definition of insanity.  Trying the same thing over and over expecting a different result.  I think he could have been talking about the clown as well.

I think it's funny with Abbott and Costello discussing "Who's On First"  Bud is innocent to the fact that a man named "who" is unusual.  He's ok with that.  That's pretty funny on it's own.  Costello is frustrated because he's answering the question "who, is on first?"

Costello tries over and over to get a different outcome to the question "who's on first"  The Three Stooges try every job you can imagine and each time they mess it up.  That constant movement is funny.

I think we like clowns because we are all dumb, we are all innocent.  We'll put a grocery bag on top of our car and drive away or go fishing and bring everything but the bait.  We put the cereal box in the refrigerator.   I had a friend once take his dog for a walk then realize he forgot his dog.

We relate to these funny things. The clown will do them again and again and expect another outcome.  That's what's funny.  Because we all do these dumb things.  The clown just never learns.


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