70 Fun Facts About Clown

Thanks to Joseph Grimaldi, the pantomime Clown role became known by what nickname?

The nickname stuck: British pantomime clowns are still called Joeys, and Grimaldi's make-up design remains the base of most clown faces.

Which pantomime catchphrase, still shouted from stages every Christmas, did Joseph Grimaldi originate?

Grimaldi introduced it in his pantomimes two centuries ago; his best-known song was 'Hot Codlins', about a seller of roasted apples.

Clowns in full costume attend Joseph Grimaldi's annual memorial at Holy Trinity Church in which London borough?

The service falls on the first Sunday of the month, and the park around Grimaldi's grave in Islington was later named after him.

Which famous novelist did Richard Bentley hire to edit and improve Joseph Grimaldi's memoirs?

The original manuscript by Thomas Egerton Wilks was considered so clumsy that Bentley wanted a bigger name to rescue it, and the Memoirs appeared in 1838.

The earliest known clowns have been traced to the Fifth Dynasty of which civilization, around 2400 BC?

Clowning kept its lowly associations for millennia: Greek theatre had its own rustic buffoons, the sklêro-paiktês.

When the English word 'clown' was first recorded around 1560, what did it mean?

Shakespeare used it in exactly this sense, naming rustic fool characters simply 'Clown' in Othello and The Winter's Tale.

Philip Astley added a clown to his 1768 London amphitheatre shows to fill time between what kind of acts?

Astley's ring is considered the birthplace of the modern circus, and the clown was there from the start as filler between trick riders.

Tom Belling's clumsy Auguste clown, developed around 1870, was the foil for which stock character?

In the classic double act the elegant one gives the orders and the Auguste botches every task, which is where the laughs come from.

In Auguste clown makeup, what is the term for the thickly outlined area around the mouth?

The Auguste's base is a pink, red or tan tone rather than white, with exaggerated red-and-black features on top.

Otto Griebling and Emmett Kelly are classic examples of which circus clown type?

It is a branch of the character clown family, which also covers eccentric butchers, bakers, policemen and housewives.

Emmett Kelly's sad-faced hobo clown, modelled on Depression-era drifters, was named what?

Kelly's signature bit was trying to sweep up the circus spotlight with a broom, and in 1957 the Brooklyn Dodgers hired him as their official mascot.

Which Ringling clown became, in 1966, the first living person to have his portrait on a US postage stamp?

He performed with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey for more than 60 years and is often credited with originating the red rubber-ball nose.

At which circus was the clown car routine first performed in the 1950s?

The trick is a gutted car: doors, seats, headliner and even the engine come out, and up to about 21 clowns squeeze into the shell.

In which year did Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College close?

The school was Irvin Feld's brainchild; it began in Venice, Florida and moved to Baraboo, Wisconsin, hometown of the Ringling brothers, in 1993.

Which magician, later half of a famous Las Vegas duo, turned down Ringling's job offer after Clown College in 1973?

Declining the offer prompted Ringling to add a rule that graduates must accept a contract if one was offered.

Which clown, Sesame Street's Mr. Noodle, was in 1984 the first performance artist awarded a MacArthur Fellowship?

He also won a Tony in 2005 for playing George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a long way from his Clown College roots.

The performer behind Sesame Street's Mr. Noodle helped found which San Francisco troupe in 1975?

The troupe is credited with helping spark the renaissance of American circus in the 1970s.

Britain's Clowns International records members' face-paint designs on what unusual object?

The register exists so that no two clowns end up wearing the same face, and the originals were real hen's eggs before ceramic ones took over.

What was Stan Bult, founder of Clowns International's face register, by profession?

Bult painted about 450 faces before his death in 1966, though most were broken and only around two dozen survive.

Which US president proclaimed August 1 to 7, 1971 as National Clown Week?

Congress had requested the proclamation in 1970, and clown groups have kept the first week of August as International Clown Week ever since.

The World Clown Association held its first convention in 1983 in which US city?

The group's first convention outside the United States came in 1991 in Bognor Regis, England.

What term is used for an intense fear of clowns?

The word is a recent coinage: the Oxford Dictionary of English only adopted it in 2010, tracing it to a Greek word for a stilt.

A 2022 survey of 987 adults from 64 countries found what share reported some degree of fear of clowns?

A University of Sheffield study of hospital decor had earlier concluded that clowns are universally disliked by children.

A photo of Conrad Veidt in which 1928 silent film inspired the Joker's grin?

The Joker debuted in Batman #1 in 1940 and is often credited with popularising the modern evil-clown archetype.

Joaquin Phoenix's 2019 film Joker won which top prize at the Venice Film Festival?

It went on to win two Oscars, for Phoenix and for its score, and became the first R-rated film to gross a billion dollars.

In Stephen King's It, Pennywise the Dancing Clown preys on the children of which fictional Maine town?

The 1986 novel is set across two timelines because the creature hibernates for roughly 27 years between feeding cycles.

Who played Pennywise in the 1990 television adaptation of It?

Bill Skarsgård took over the role for the 2017 film, its 2019 sequel and the HBO prequel series.

John Wayne Gacy became the 'Killer Clown' after it emerged he performed under what clown name?

His 1978 arrest is one of the reasons the friendly party clown curdled into a horror staple in the following decade.

Which US retailer pulled clown masks from its stores and website during the 2016 creepy-clown scare?

Sightings spread from the US to Canada, Australia, the UK and beyond, and McDonald's decided Ronald McDonald should keep a lower profile.

Which actor played Twisty the Clown in American Horror Story: Freak Show?

The season is set in 1952 Jupiter, Florida, and Twisty's casting was announced at San Diego Comic-Con that summer.

Bozo the Clown was created in 1946 by Alan W. Livingston for what purpose?

Pinto Colvig, the original voice of Disney's Goofy, portrayed him; Larry Harmon later bought the rights and franchised local Bozo shows nationwide.

How long did the waiting list for studio tickets to WGN-TV's Bozo's Circus eventually reach?

The show went national via cable and satellite in 1978 and was the most popular of all the local Bozo franchises.

Which actor purchased the rights to the Bozo the Clown character in 2021?

He introduced a female counterpart character the following year.

Which future Today weatherman played Bozo on Washington's WRC-TV and then the first Ronald McDonald in 1963?

The first commercials billed the character as 'Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy Clown', and McDonald's later admitted the mascot was derived from Bozo.

Which circus performer was hired in 1966 to create Ronald McDonald's now-familiar costume and makeup?

He was the son of Nicolai Poliakoff, the original Coco of Britain's Bertram Mills Circus, and was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1991.

In Japan, the burger chain's clown mascot goes by what name, because Japanese lacks a clear 'r' sound?

Chinese children, meanwhile, tend to call him 'Uncle McDonald' as a mark of respect.

After a 1959 traffic accident, Britain's Coco the Clown devoted himself to promoting what cause?

The campaigning earned him an OBE in 1963, and he kept working ringside at the circus into the mid-1960s in full costume.

Dan Castellaneta based Krusty the Clown's voice on which Chicago performer, who played Bozo?

Krusty was also partly inspired by Rusty Nails, a TV clown Matt Groening watched growing up in Portland, Oregon.

Which comedian won a Primetime Emmy for voicing Krusty the Clown's father, Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky?

The award was for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in the episode that reunited the estranged father and son.

Which performer, the first to play Clarabell on Howdy Doody, later became Captain Kangaroo?

Clarabell answered yes or no by honking a horn and specialised in dousing Buffalo Bob with seltzer.

What did the silent Clarabell the Clown finally say in the 1960 Howdy Doody finale?

A drum roll stopped, he whispered the two words, and a tear was visible in his eye as the picture faded to black.

What formal term began replacing 'rodeo clown' for the performers who protect fallen riders?

The change acknowledged the danger of the job; the purely comic half of the act became a separate entertainment role.

Which now-standard arena safety item did rodeo clown Jasbo Fulkerson introduce in the 1930s?

The idea took hold after bull riding began using ill-tempered Brahma bulls in the 1920s, giving the clowns something to duck into.

In the traditional pantomime love triangle, Columbine leaves the sad clown Pierrot for whom?

Pierrot performs unmasked with a whitened face in a loose white blouse, and his heartbreak became a favourite theme of poets and painters.

The commedia dell'arte servant Arlecchino is traditionally associated with which Italian city?

The first actor known to use the name performed it in France around 1584 and only later brought the character back to Italy.

Jean-Gaspard Deburau, called the most famous Pierrot ever, performed from 1816 at which Paris theatre?

His silent, melancholy Pierrot was later immortalised in the 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis.

Which composer's 1912 song-cycle Pierrot lunaire is regarded as a pinnacle of high modernism?

The work sets 21 poems by Albert Giraud about a moonstruck clown, delivered in the half-sung Sprechstimme style.

Who conducted the 1892 Milan premiere of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci?

It is usually paired with Cavalleria rusticana as the double bill opera fans call 'Cav/Pag'.

Circus clown Dan Rice, said to be a main model for Uncle Sam, ran for which office in 1868?

Rice was once a household name earning more than most politicians, but he died nearly broke in 1900.

'Jump on the bandwagon' is traced to Dan Rice inviting which candidate onto his circus wagon?

Rice is also credited with turning 'one-horse show', originally a jibe at his tiny circus, into a trademark.

The heyoka, a contrarian 'sacred clown' who acts backwards, belongs to which Native American people?

Only someone who has had a vision of the thunder beings may take on the role, and Black Elk described himself as one.

Grock, once the most highly paid entertainer in Europe, was a clown from which country?

Born Charles Adrien Wettach in 1880, he retired in 1954 to a 50-room villa in Imperia, Italy that now bears his name.

Which Soviet circus star, famous for his checked cap, was known internationally as 'The Sunshine Clown'?

He toured the world with the Soviet state circus, later settled in Germany, and died in 2016 while on tour in Rostov-on-Don.

Clown Charlie Cairoli performed every summer season for forty years at which British venue?

That run is claimed as a world record for performances at a single venue, and his name became British shorthand for 'clown'.

Slava Polunin's wordless Slava's Snowshow premiered in October 1993 in which city?

It went on to win the 1998 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment and has run on and off Broadway several times.

In 'Chuckles Bites the Dust', Chuckles the Clown dies dressed as Peter Peanut after meeting what animal?

Mary scolds her colleagues for joking about it, then dissolves into giggles at the funeral; TV Guide later ranked it the greatest TV episode of all time.

Which star plays Buttons, the clown who never removes his makeup, in The Greatest Show on Earth?

Buttons has a reason to hide his face: he is a doctor on the run, and the film was shot with the real Ringling troupe in Sarasota.

Which TV comedian's hobo clown, Freddie the Freeloader, debuted on his show in 1952?

He was also a prolific painter of clowns and once estimated his lithographs earned him $2.5 million a year.

Which actor played the real-life clown-doctor Hunter 'Patch' Adams in the 1998 biopic?

The real Adams still leads volunteers who dress as clowns to visit hospitals and orphanages around the world.

'Send In the Clowns' was written by Stephen Sondheim for which 1973 musical?

The character Desirée sings it in Act Two, and it has since been recorded by more than 900 singers.

Whose recording of 'Send In the Clowns' was named Song of the Year at the 1976 Grammy Awards?

Her single charted twice on the Billboard Hot 100, in 1975 and again in 1977, peaking at No. 19.

Will Sommers was court jester to which English king?

A jester's cap and bells and marotte deliberately mocked the monarch's crown and sceptre.

In Roman theatre the term for a clown was fossor, a word that literally means what?

Greek theatre had its own rustic buffoons, the sklêro-paiktês, long before the circus ring existed.

According to circus expert Hovey Burgess, which character clown is migratory but refuses to work?

The hobo travels and works but stays upbeat, while the bum neither travels nor works; attitude is the main difference between the three.

In circus slang, what is the comedic ending of a clown gag, bit or routine called?

Full clown entrées run five to ten minutes and 'side dishes' one to three; the brief fill-ins during rigging changes are called clown stops or reprises.

Stephen King imagined Pennywise as a sewer-dwelling troll from which children's tale?

He conceived the story while walking across a bridge in Colorado after finishing The Stand, and later called the book his 'final exam on horror'.

Which English actor was first cast as Pennywise for the 2017 film before Bill Skarsgård?

He left over scheduling conflicts and the departure of original director Cary Fukunaga; Tim Curry publicly wished him luck.

Ronald McDonald's first national TV appearance came in 1965 during which event?

More spots followed during that year's NFL Championship Game; a 2014 makeover swapped his jumpsuit for yellow cargo pants and a rugby shirt.

Ronald McDonald 'won' a Golden Raspberry for Worst New Star for a cameo in which 1988 film?

Squire Fridell played him, credited as 'Ronald McDonald as himself', in a birthday scene set at a McDonald's.

Krusty the Clown was partly inspired by which gentle TV clown Groening watched as a boy in Portland?

Groening found the name frightening; an abandoned early idea would have revealed Krusty as Homer Simpson's secret identity.