1. Today’s clowns have white faces because the first clowns centuries
ago would kill children that didn’t laugh and grind up their bones.
During this process the clowns face would become white with bone dust.
Eventually, clowns were forced to stop killing children, but the implied
inducement to laugh that the white face represented remains.
2. Clowns often rub themselves with a mix of cotton candy and liquid butter to hide their stifling clowny odor.
3. Although it doesn’t appear in his official biography, Kim Jong Il ran off with the circus as a clown for several years as a teenager. His father found him and forced him to give it up. His dad did, however, allow him to keep his hilarious oversized clown pompadour.
4. Often, people who are alcoholics are drawn to clowning. The makeup and clown suits cover up most of the visible signs of alcoholism. Slurred speech, shaky hands and the inability to walk a straight line are all pluses if you are a clown. Hobo clowns were often just hobos picked up by the circus while drunk, put in makeup and allowed to wander freely through the circus tent. Also, alcoholics are able to get away without purchasing a red, bulbous nose.
5. When circuses are without food, the clowns are eaten before any of the animals because the animals are harder to replace.
6. Clown is a German word meaning “don’t leave the kids alone with that one.”
7. The word clown is believed to come from the Icelandic word klunni, meaning a clumsy person.
8. The earliest record of the word clown dates from around 1560.
9. Clowns are nicknamed Joeys after the early 19th century pantomime star Joseph Grimaldi.
10.The full name of Krusty the Clown in The Simpsons is Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yercham Krustosky. He’s voiced by Dan Castellaneta.
11.The declaration of International Clown Week was passed into US law by President Richard Nixon on August 2, 1971.
12.The world’s oldest clown society, Clowns International, was founded in 1947.
13.There are an estimated 20,000 clowns in the world.
14.Johnny Burnette had a hit with Clown Shoes, written by PJ Proby.
15.Ronald McDonald was first played by Williard Scott in a 1963 TV commercial.
16.Serial killer John Wayne Gacy was known as Pogo the Clown.
2. Clowns often rub themselves with a mix of cotton candy and liquid butter to hide their stifling clowny odor.
3. Although it doesn’t appear in his official biography, Kim Jong Il ran off with the circus as a clown for several years as a teenager. His father found him and forced him to give it up. His dad did, however, allow him to keep his hilarious oversized clown pompadour.
4. Often, people who are alcoholics are drawn to clowning. The makeup and clown suits cover up most of the visible signs of alcoholism. Slurred speech, shaky hands and the inability to walk a straight line are all pluses if you are a clown. Hobo clowns were often just hobos picked up by the circus while drunk, put in makeup and allowed to wander freely through the circus tent. Also, alcoholics are able to get away without purchasing a red, bulbous nose.
5. When circuses are without food, the clowns are eaten before any of the animals because the animals are harder to replace.
6. Clown is a German word meaning “don’t leave the kids alone with that one.”
7. The word clown is believed to come from the Icelandic word klunni, meaning a clumsy person.
8. The earliest record of the word clown dates from around 1560.
9. Clowns are nicknamed Joeys after the early 19th century pantomime star Joseph Grimaldi.
10.The full name of Krusty the Clown in The Simpsons is Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yercham Krustosky. He’s voiced by Dan Castellaneta.
11.The declaration of International Clown Week was passed into US law by President Richard Nixon on August 2, 1971.
12.The world’s oldest clown society, Clowns International, was founded in 1947.
13.There are an estimated 20,000 clowns in the world.
14.Johnny Burnette had a hit with Clown Shoes, written by PJ Proby.
15.Ronald McDonald was first played by Williard Scott in a 1963 TV commercial.
16.Serial killer John Wayne Gacy was known as Pogo the Clown.