Haha #1

[cyberghostface]

"I don’t like clowns, so I thought it’d be a good idea to write about them. What a gas, to get to partner with some of comics’ best to tell these ditties about a bunch of real jokers." -- W. Maxwell Prince

The story follows a down-on-his-luck clown who nonetheless considers himself to be lucky.



He loses his job working at a carnival and when he tries to cash his last check the bank is robbed. One of the robbers shoots him in the head.





After the robbers leave him for dead, Bart gets back up.

Comments

[crinos]

You know there is a serious dearth of heroic clowns in popular media, so its nice to see this guy turned out to be a good guy, at least for the moment.

That being said I think he is in desperate need of a cat scan or something because he obviously suffered some brain damage and is hallucinating.

[icon_uk]

I can think of a few...

The Clown was the superheroic identity of Polcie Commissioner Nick Nolan in a Harvey Comics series back in 1940.

DC in the 70's gave us Harlequin, Duella Dent's heroic identity.

The 90's gave us Marvel's Slapstick, who's a little weird, but is superhero adjacent at least.

And Astro City has Jack-in-the-Box, who is awesome.

Gosh yes, that's not a lot over eughty years is it... compared to the number of villainous clowns at lease.

[deh_tommy]

Of course, prime Duela Dent tends to flip flop between moral alignments and most versions of her (or Duela Dent stand-ins) as strictly evil.

The closest thing to a not-evil clown in recent memory is Lola Pop from Arms And this one character from a Danganronpa fangame.

[stubbleupdate]

Slapstick, whose last big break was heroically beating an unsuspecting man into a coma with a mallet

[icon_uk]

Wasn't it Gauntlet he beat up, heartless, super-weapon equipped drill sergeant who covered up his own complicity in the death of a minor when MVP was killed during a training excercise he orchestrated?

[silicondream]

The Creeper is usually heroic, isn't he?

But yeah, Jack-in-the-Box is fantastic. Spider-Man's true heir.

[lordultimus]

Does Modern Harley count?

[crinos]

Harley is a strong chaotic neutral. She's not a bad person, most of the time, but she's not what you'd call a straight up hero.

[dcbanacek]

Phineas Gage in a clown suit...

While in my cynical heart of hearts I know this won't end well, I sincerely hope this bucks the trend and this guy doesn't kill his family and/or go off the deep end.

[cyberghostface]

Fwiw this is the end of his story, each issue is a different clown.

[reveen]

I'm kinda not a fan of shitting on clowns as a pathetic, loser profession. Because even if they're out of vogue it's a pretty demanding profession that even in the minor leagues requires plenty of skills that need dedication to learn.

You need coordination, comedic timing, plenty of energy, the ability to put on a happy, fun persona on command regardless of how you're feeling. You have to wear heavy costume and makeup regardless of weather. And in the higher end of the scale you're getting into genuine, possibly dangerous acrobatics. Sometimes even working with animals.It deserves respect. Even before you talk about the monumental influence it's had on the development of comedy.

Also, for the record John Wayne Gacy wasn't really a clown serial killer in a proper egg-chicken sense. He was killing years before he started working as one for what was a fundraising and charity outfit.

[arilou_skiff]

Yep, clowning is serious, demanding, and has a long and fascinating history and set of traditions.

[crinos]

Add to it that clowns have a strict code of ethics for how to behave in costume.

https://famousclowns.org/clown-poems/clown-commandments/

Like clowns get a bad rap due to villains like the Joker and Pennywise but real life clowns are pretty much the opposite of all that.

[icon_uk]

That's a fascinating list, and eminently worthy goals.

The thing is I remember there was a series about, and starring, professional clown Charlie Cairoli when I was a kid in the 1970's and, despite him being something akin to circus royalty, and me being only somewhat aware about "scary clowns" from the Batman 66 Joker (who I never found scary as a kid), and basically being the ideal target audience for such a show, I never found him remotely funny, and nor did most of the people I know who watched the show.

And that's been the case ever since. I can, and do, genuinely admire the skill, training and technical artistry in much of what they do, but that's distinct from their ability to make me laugh, which is seldom. Normally I just sort of look on unmoved or squirming in second hand embarassment.

And yet, the likes of Laurel and Hardy's schtick, or the Marx Brothers I find hilarious (I know the Three Stooges are considered by many to be better tehcnical comedians, but their films have never really been shown in the UK so I have no real exposure to them). Perhaps it's because they're actors employing some of those skills in their characters rather than being the characcters and expecting me to laugh automatically.

[fra080389]

that wife is a terrible old stereotype