Fear the clown

I’ve never claimed to be cool or have my finger on the pulse of the young generation, but surely this is an elaborate hoax gone way too far.

I was innocently watching TV on Sun, and during the commercials of regular shows that people my age should be watching, I flipped to the MTV VMAs. And there was some guy on the stage and he said something about Clowning vs. Krumping. Now, krumping I had vaguely heard of (probably due to my new found obsession with MTV’s My Super Sweet 16) but clowning was new to me. And there were a bunch of hip hop type dancers dancing (or krumping) and one freakshow wearing normal hip hop clothes with a giant rainbow clown fro.

Then I promptly forgot about it until I was having coffee with the 1 cent short bunch and I mentioned it. There’s apparently an entire movie dedicated to this movement. Instead of joining gangs, inner city kids have the option of joining clown dance troupes where they wear the full on clown suits, makeup and such. Because it’s cool??? Or maybe it’s just krunk.

Maybe I am a square. But really?? Clowns?? A friend compared how I’m feeling about clowning with how our parents must have felt during the height of the baggy, low trousers craze. (not that it ever seemed a good idea to me, but I did accept it without question) But, as far as I know, that was a completely new phenomena. It came from the streets, or something. It wasn’t co-opted from the American circus clowns, which was co-opted from European clowns from before they ever invented America (from what I understand) . Not scary dark clowns, regular clowns.

As we were trying to rationalize it, lots of theories came up. Are they like peacocks, they show their colors to attract women? Are they identifying with the under appreciated life of a clown? Are they saying they’re clowns = fools, and that's what they are? Is life in the ghetto so much of a circus that it might as well, literally, be a circus? I was told to stop over thinking. At least I know, for sure now, that I'd be a horrible YA librarian.

Is anyone aware of this clown thing? I get the impression that it’s something pretty localized in Southern California, but made it big when the famous music stars started picking it up.

Rize the movie

MTV article on the craze

Personally, I still don’t believe it, and I’m sure it’s a really elaborate hoax. Surely, I’m being punked. If it is a real movie, does anyone want to see it with me?

Maybe clowns are perceived as tough because so many people are afraid of them

UPDATE:

The Rize movie is being compared to another movie I've never heard of about the Drag Queen competitions: Paris is burning --- could be interesting

This Tommy the Clown guy, is apparently an evangelist and a clown, and a former crack dealer-- So many careers!

There's a fantastic NY Times Magazine article from June 19, 2005 called The Clowning, Rump-Shaking, Wilding-Out Battle Dancers of South Central L.A. If you don't have database access, I can email you the article, if you're interested.

From what I understand when you're clowning you're wearing a clown outfit and krumping. But you don't have to be dressed as a clown to krump.