Sideshow Freaks

October 26, 2005 7:19 PM

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Step right up and see the Sideshow. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we have something here for everyone. See the freaks of nature, the mutants, the human oddities, the sword swallowers, the dime museum, a special exhibit of sideshow banners from the past, and yes, we even have, live before your very eyes, direct from the 21st century, special acts from the Coney Island Sideshow. And for a small extra charge, a special section of premier performers including exhibitions of pugilism, as well as an exhibit of posters from Tod Browning's movie, Freaks. The circus starts in a little over an hour and a half, so you have plenty of time to see these astounding wonders of the world.
posted by mischief (22 comments total)

um... great post and all, but uh, look down.
posted by moonbird at 7:21 PM on October 26, 2005

Where? Search didn't turn up any hits.
posted by mischief at 7:26 PM on October 26, 2005

Doh!
posted by numlok at 7:28 PM on October 26, 2005

Your's post does have quite a bit more "meat on it's bones" though!
posted by numlok at 7:29 PM on October 26, 2005

mischief, you have been around long enough to not have to suffer this kind of embarrassment.

Much of your content here is really new to me, and cool, but the timing is just unfortunate.
posted by snsranch at 7:29 PM on October 26, 2005

Damn, that was some sloppy grammar... YIKES!
"Your"/"its" if you please...
posted by numlok at 7:31 PM on October 26, 2005

Heh. It's still on the front page...
posted by davejay at 7:31 PM on October 26, 2005

Word-up on that snsranch!
posted by numlok at 7:31 PM on October 26, 2005

No biggie. Just excise, "Step right up and see the Sideshow."
posted by mischief at 7:32 PM on October 26, 2005

FWIW, i like this post... wish it could be combined with the other one.
posted by moonbird at 7:32 PM on October 26, 2005

It's not like that one particular link is my primary link.
posted by mischief at 7:33 PM on October 26, 2005

... and sorry, crunchy, I didn't grok your post.
posted by mischief at 7:33 PM on October 26, 2005

The best sideshow I've seen recently has been Armand Leroi's Human Mutants TV show from the UK, based on his book. Now showing at a BitTorrent near you. Personally, I recommend UKNova.
posted by meehawl at 7:35 PM on October 26, 2005

Combine to make one really good post!
posted by snsranch at 7:37 PM on October 26, 2005

yeah, actually, the sideshow link is the only doubl one and the rest of this is fascinating stuff.
posted by shmegegge at 7:38 PM on October 26, 2005

Hard Luck
posted by hortense at 8:50 PM on October 26, 2005

Search [threads] for: [sideshowworld.com]
in [the past year]

There were 2 results for "sideshowworld.com" in the following threads

Hey - that was tricky...

/meh
posted by Chunder at 2:41 AM on October 27, 2005

Damn - wrong button
/slaps head

What's the fascination with freaks/mutants/etc. anyway? Is it just a morbid sense of fascination? Or more "Hey look - they're different. I'm normal after all"?

It was obviously a popular pastime way back when, but is it still subconsciously something that people find interesting? Personally I just think it's uninteresting, sometimes disturbing, and more than a little tasteless and uncomfortable. Perhaps it's just the way I've been brought up...

(Not really an AskMe post!)
posted by Chunder at 2:44 AM on October 27, 2005

What's the fascination with freaks/mutants/etc. anyway? Is it just a morbid sense of fascination? Or more "Hey look - they're different. I'm normal after all"? posted by Chunder at 5:44 AM EST on October 27

Well, for me, my fascination stems more from a "Hey look - nature created something or someone amazing that I've never seen before. I think my brain might have grown a little." A rationalization? Maybe. But I do think this sort of thing broadens one's mind.

Humans have been intrigued by the unusual for a long while. How about the anatomical rarities in the Kunstkammer (or Kunstkamera) in St. Petersberg, Russia? More generally, Cabinets of Curiosities (or Cabinets of Wonder), beginning in the 17th century, emphasized the unusal, the surprising, the grotesque. I think these sorts of collections stem from intellectual curiosity, not a "I want to collect the most freaks ever" thing.

So I wish sideshows were still around as prevalently as they were back in the day; but at least we have Metafilter (and this post).
posted by Uncle Glendinning at 6:34 AM on October 27, 2005

awesome, where can i find other examples of truely evil website design?

seriously though, I'm into this stuff, and didnt see it posted previously. Good job.
posted by lemonfridge at 6:48 AM on October 27, 2005

I've just been a freakshow baby forever. When I was a child I was fascinated by the "abnormal" pictures in my father's anatomy textbook and the Guiness Book of World Records. From there I moved on to Ripley's and Edward Gorey. Macabre is me.

I found a kindred spirit in Harry Anderson (of "Night Court" fame) in New Orleans. In fact, his shop there is called Sideshow and I thought for a moment this might be about him. It uses many of the same illustrations he does.

I used to be embarrassed about it, Chunder, but I decided that there's nothing wrong with being xenophilic. It's not like I'm there to point and laugh.
posted by scyllacat at 7:45 AM on October 27, 2005

My fascination with this topic is not so much the people on display, as with the guys who stand outside the tent drawing the crowd. Those hucksters provided the welfare support for many disabled people at a time when society would not.
posted by mischief at 7:59 AM on October 27, 2005