Booknote: Bad Clowns

Benjamin Radford, Bad Clowns. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2016.  ISBN: 978-0-8263-5666-6.

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: reference, clowns, pop culture
Format: paperback
Source: Berea branch of the Madison County (KY) Public Library

This book is a semi-academic treatise on bad clowns ranging from bad to terrifying. It looks at clowns in media and popular culture. The book features an introduction, then 13 chapters, a section of notes, a section of references, and an index.

Some chapters are more interesting than others. The last chapter deals with trolls, online trolls that is, as a modern form of bad clown. While the rest of the book was interesting, well reasoned and presented, this last chapter was basically a stretch, as if the author ran out of material, and he need to put in a patch to wrap up the book. Compared to the various clowns and clown variants the author presents, online cowardly mostly anonymous assholes, a.k.a. trolls, should not be anywhere near clowns. This was a serious flaw in an otherwise pretty good book.

The author looks at clowns from early times with characters like Mr. Punch. Then looks at clowns in media and culture, including criminal clowns, and even some sex clowns.There is also a look at coulrophobia (fear of clowns). As librarian and reader, I found the chapters on clowns in books and literature and in film and screen to be the most interesting. The clown sex and porn chapter was also interesting. In addition, the book features some good photos and  illustrations, many from the author's personal collection.

While not a definitive book, this book can serve as a good start to learn more and investigate the topic of bad clowns further. It can give you a  good start for further research. I liked it, but I felt at times it could have been better.

3 out of 5 stars.

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Additional reading notes:

On why this book:

"Perhaps a better question is 'Why not a book about bad clowns?' They are all around us: television, in movies, video games, books and elsewhere. Bad clowns have -- much to the irritation of good clowns-- over the years become the most recognizable type of clown. Yet there is relatively little (even semiserious) scholarship about these villainous vagabonds" (1). 

What is included in the book:

"This book goes far beyond trotting out the familiar bad clown tropes of John Wayne Gacy and Pennywise. They are included here, of course, but you'll also find bizarre, lesser-known stories of weird clown antics including S&M clowns; Ronald McDonald protests; Bozo obscenity; clowns in vans abducting children; evil clown scares in Europe and North America; backstage scenes at Marvel Comics with Obnoxio the Clown; Crotchy, the clown who forced the Nebraska Supreme Court to watch him masturbate; dip clowns, troll clowns, and much more" (1). 

Clowns are not inherently threatening:

"Clowns may be scary to many people, but they are not inherently threatening the way a coiled rattlesnake or knife-wielding mugger is. The fear of clowns stems from a latent, potential harm, a suspicion that the seemingly silly and harmless pratfalling fool before us may in fact not be so silly, so foolish, or so harmless" (21). 

On a side note, Chapter 10 has a section on "Clowns as Shamans." This could be useful for one of our GSTR 410 classes that has an emphasis on humor and a unit on Native American humor.