What is the history of clowns? Any good book recommendations?

google Commedia dell Arte

IT,

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>>1788461
the first would probably be Binkyaten

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Here's some cool shit OP.

Ya heard 'bout Native American Sacred Clowns?

The Heyoka ->

>The heyoka (heyókȟa, also spelled "haokah," "heyokha") is a kind of sacred clown in the culture of the Lakota people of the Great Plains of North America. The heyoka is a contrarian, jester, and satirist, who speaks, moves and reacts in an opposite fashion to the people around them. Only those having visions of the thunder beings of the west, the Wakíŋyaŋ, and who are recognized as such by the community, can take on the ceremonial role of the heyoka.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heyoka

>>1789804
upboated my good gentlesire XD

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>>1791997
Also OP check this shit out ->

Ritual clowns, also called sacred clowns,[1] are a characteristic feature of the ritual life of many traditional religions,[2][3][4] and they typically employ scatology and sexual obscenities.[3][5] Ritual clowning is where comedy and satire originated; in Ancient Greece, ritual clowning, phallic processions and ritual aischrologia found their literary form in the plays of Aristophanes.[6][7][8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_clown

Going all the way to Roman and Greek comedies there was a very particular tradition/formula they all follwed. Look at plays like the Soldier and those of Plautus to see the formula in action. They always had this old lady character, a funnyman character, the romantic couple, an evil braggart and so on. It wasnt about making characters so much as using the characters in certain situations. These often worked best with theatre companies when actors specialized in these roles.

This tradirion came back when drama did, and soon there was commedia del'arte in italy and beyond where the rules were codified and people really knew what was going on.

Splitting off from this movement was the Harlequinade where you had these characters and by the climax of the story everything descrnded into slapstick comedy (theres also a transformation where the characters BECOME the archetype and one "Clown" character declares "Here we are again!")

Eventually clown was the most popular character in the Harlequinade and Joseph Grimaldi started doing solo performances as just him while training people. Clowns became the go to family entertainment for hire for more than 100 years until recent media and incidents have rendered them too scary for todays culture.

How did clowns become associated with horror?

>>1789804
+1

>>1792500
Because clowns arent something people really know. They could be anything. The smile is painted on so we dont know how they really feel, for example. People like more clarity today than clowns give.

Also anybody who entertains children (or tries to) is immediately seen as a pedophile. Look at what people baselessly put on Mr. Rogers.

In a way it shows how oversexed we are, where it people think all interactions (even if it is entertaining kids) are made with hopes of getting laid. Its obviously not true, but its the disease of today.

Also there were a few episodes of birthday clowns and magicians snapping at a child and hitting them or something back some years ago, which is often because parents these days conflate entertainment and babysitting. If you hire a clown to entertain your kids birthday party, be in the room with them, its not a safety things, its also a respect thing to make sure the kid behaves. Clowning is a stressful job where you have to constantly be both stupider and smarter than a six year old.

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>>1792004
>>1792561
>This easy