That's not funny.

November 9, 2007 7:37 PM

Did you hire Silly the Clown for your kid's upcoming birthday party? Well, he may not be able to make it. And it's probably just as well.
posted by Kibbutz (40 comments total)

I wonder if he ever worked with Ouchy?
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 7:41 PM on November 9, 2007

Some of the charges seem pretty lame. Capturing nudity on a camera? *cough* Sure, nobody else has ever done that...that is why photo development facilities have binders full of the nudie shots. It sounds like he stole the District Attorney's parking space in 1982 and he's been gunning for him ever since.
posted by 45moore45 at 7:46 PM on November 9, 2007

This made me think of Just a Clown, a documentary short by the director of Capturing the Friedmans, about the son David Friedman (aka Silly Billy), who is a very successful clown.
posted by Poolio at 7:47 PM on November 9, 2007

More at 11...
posted by HuronBob at 7:48 PM on November 9, 2007

Book 'em, Bozo.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:59 PM on November 9, 2007

You know it's Wisconsin when the prosecutor, defense counsel, and accused all have surnames beginning in "Sch"....
posted by retronic at 8:02 PM on November 9, 2007 [2 favorites]

"...pretty lame. Capturing nudity on a camera? "

I take it you didn't read much of the articles.
I hate most clowns.
posted by eye of newt at 8:05 PM on November 9, 2007

Uh, yea, hence the word "some" in front of my post.
posted by 45moore45 at 8:11 PM on November 9, 2007

This made me think of Just a Clown, a documentary short by the director of Capturing the Friedmans, about the son David Friedman (aka Silly Billy), who is a very successful clown.

Yeah, that's actually how CtF got made. Jarecki was making a documentary about clowns when, I guess, he discoved what nutters that family was. And their amazing wealth of family footage.
posted by birdie birdington at 8:26 PM on November 9, 2007

Man, what is it about being a clown that attracts the sociopaths?
posted by hojoki at 8:28 PM on November 9, 2007

My Dad was a clown. He was a lot of things. Never a sociopath.

I was a mime once. I wasn't a very good mime.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:30 PM on November 9, 2007

John Wayne Gacy, King of sociopathic clowns.
posted by 45moore45 at 8:44 PM on November 9, 2007

"Silly the Clown"? Silly? The name alone points to a huge humor deficit. Too bad he didn't continue his education, he might have been "See-y the Optometrist" or "Assessy the Real Estate Assessor."
posted by maryh at 8:44 PM on November 9, 2007 [7 favorites]

To me, clowns aren't funny. In fact, they're kinda scary. I've wondered where this started, and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus and a clown killed my dad....Jack Handy
posted by sluglicker at 8:47 PM on November 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

I think the connection is that clowning is an acceptable public space in which to act out ritualized aberrant behavior. Makes sense nuts like it.

And that's OK, ZachsMind. Even the good mimes aren't really good mimes. The minute you stab one they're all like "Ow! Why'd you stab me?"... no commitment to their vow of silence whatsoever.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 8:49 PM on November 9, 2007 [4 favorites]

And we recently had the thread about Klutzo the "Christian" Clown who is "also up on charges."

It's getting to be like an old SAT comparison test:

Republican Congressman :: Closeted Hypocritical Seeking M4M Action

Adult Male Clown :: Closeted Pedophile.

posted by ericb at 8:59 PM on November 9, 2007

Tasteless joke time:

Q: What's the hardest part about being a child molester?

A: Getting the blood out of your clown suit.
posted by ericb at 9:00 PM on November 9, 2007

That sounds like something Yucko The Clown would say.
posted by hojoki at 9:02 PM on November 9, 2007

I have always hated clowns with the fire of a thousand suns. And then I found myself befriended by one... she's one of my very favorite drinking buddies in LA.

I'm so conflicted now.
posted by miss lynnster at 9:03 PM on November 9, 2007

Adult Male Clown :: Closeted Pedophile.

Err - 'wait-a-hold-it' -- in re-reading the FPP-linked articles the alleged charges against 'Silly the Clown' don't involve children, but his adult girlfriend.
posted by ericb at 9:05 PM on November 9, 2007

Oh, and one more thing... KISS ME, FAT BOY!
posted by miss lynnster at 9:06 PM on November 9, 2007

Err - 'wait-a-hold-it' -- in re-reading the FPP-linked articles the alleged charges against 'Silly the Clown' don't involve children, but his adult girlfriend.

From the second link:

"A further examination of the computer revealed child pornography."

And just for fun, from the first link:

"Silly the Clown allows flexibility of Ron's character and is very popular with younger children . . . For the birthday child or other guest of honor, there's a special routine that you will want to capture on film . . . In this style of entertainment, Silly fills his pockets with magic and mingles with the crowd . . . The magic is done close-up, and often right in their hands."

And the coup de grace, his lawyer's quote from the third link:

"I don't have any knowledge of him being a clown. It has never come up in the five to six years that we have represented him."

Schmidklofer insisted that Schroeder never mentioned being a clown, then added, "That doesn't mean he hasn't been a clown."
posted by Kibbutz at 9:26 PM on November 9, 2007

Why take a chance with just any clown pervert? Next kid's birthday party, hire only the pros: Porn Clown Posse. (ahem - nsfw)
posted by madamjujujive at 9:38 PM on November 9, 2007

Nobody likes clowns, especially little kids. It kind of boggles the mind that they get any business at all.

I guess clichés are just that powerful.
posted by Reggie Digest at 9:46 PM on November 9, 2007

(If only Gacy were still around to paint his portrait...)
posted by Reggie Digest at 9:51 PM on November 9, 2007

The best damn clown movie ever made.
posted by Sailormom at 10:19 PM on November 9, 2007

“A further examination of the computer revealed child pornography.”

Yeah, but nowadays that could mean that some investigators decided that a few Barely Legal photos were Not Quite Legal. I suspect that in these days of guys having tens of thousands of pornographic images collected from the Internet on their hard-drives, finding some where models aren't 18-years-old is probably pretty easy to do. And that's what the police and prosecutors do—find things to prosecute. That fact that child porn isn't mentioned in one of the two links make me suspect that this was a marginal charge, one that they dropped or never even filed because it was so iffy.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 11:24 PM on November 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

I loved the Cardinal Stritch "Help Children. Become a teacher" ad in the last link.
posted by sourwookie at 12:40 AM on November 10, 2007

"27 counts of capturing an image of nudity"

what
posted by tehloki at 12:58 AM on November 10, 2007

Sailormom, I think you're forgetting this.
posted by stavrogin at 1:17 AM on November 10, 2007

A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down the pants.
posted by mosk at 2:04 AM on November 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

Clowns, chimpanzees and dolphins are living a cultural backlash. At some surface level that no-one believes, they all are thought as funny, but everyone has more interesting stories about their dickish behavior. I'm waiting for the story that combines all three. It will be great and/or horrible.
posted by Free word order! at 2:47 AM on November 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

From his site
His costume is very cheery along with the make-up that covers his natural identity.

Sounds a bit odd. Just saying is all.
posted by mattoxic at 2:51 AM on November 10, 2007

I have to nominate this as the best clown movie.
posted by Zonker at 4:33 AM on November 10, 2007

Zonker: I thought you were going to say this movie.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:02 AM on November 10, 2007

I thought you were going to say this movie
posted by briank at 6:01 AM on November 10, 2007

Binky the Clown was Tom Kenny? I had totally forgotten. Damn, I need to see that movie again.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 6:45 AM on November 10, 2007

I thought I hated clowns til I saw some perform in Russia. (Technically the Soviet Union.) They were amazing. And not for kids. They weren't pornographic, they just covered some heavy subjects.

so now I'm biased, and if I see a good clown I think, "I wonder if they're Russian?"
posted by small_ruminant at 7:54 AM on November 10, 2007

Man, what is it about being a clown that attracts the sociopaths?

Being a sociopathic clown (or teacher or priest) attracts the news. That doesn't make all clowns, teachers, and priests sociopathic.
posted by pracowity at 11:41 AM on November 10, 2007 [2 favorites]

His lawyer, privately, "A clown? Yeah, guy's definately a fucking clown."

*total derail (zonker's fault)* I saw 'Quick Change' about two years ago and it kinda almost made me cry: Not because of anything about the movie itself, but because when they got lost driving around Brooklyn it's a great portrait of Brooklyn as it was then. Old, wild, and blocks upon blocks of god knows what going on. There was something sublime in the potential, the absolute blank-slate of the place back then. Lots of NYC, for that matter, the street where they filmed Serpico getting shot still looked exactly like that (no Brooklyn Industries store-front)... In that way the whole city was kind of supra-temporal, maybe just biding it's time until now, when it has shot forward again to some half-cocked notion of the future...
posted by From Bklyn at 1:51 PM on November 10, 2007