Characters / Insane Clown Posse

Violent J

Big Violent J, the Duke of the Wicked, is the first of the two wicked clowns.

Tropes that apply to violent J

• Acrofatic: At least until 2016. Now he's just a little chubbier than Shaggy.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In "Growing Again", which ends with him getting so big that he actually floats off into space.
• Bring My Brown Pants: In his autobiography, he recounts a humorous incident in which some thugs jumped him. That isn't the funny part. What's funny is that when one of them pulled out a knife and stabbed him, he crapped his pants. As J himself put it: "They must've hit a poop nerve or something."
• Evil Sounds Deep: Averted. He has the higher voice of the two, but usually plays the more evil role.
• Fat and Skinny: The fat to Shaggy's skinny.
• "I Want" Song: "I Want My Shit". He wants a rusty axe, a lesson in Voodoo, a fat woman named Bridgett and a sip of Faygo.
• Really 700 Years Old: At least according to "I Want My Shit." Given the liberties he takes with history, however, it's strongly implied that he's lying to get his shit.
• The Stoner: J sure loves his weed.

Shaggy 2 Dope

The Southwest Strangla is the second of the two wicked clowns.

Tropes that apply to Shaggy 2 Dope

• The Alcoholic: Just as J loves his weed, Shaggy loves his booze. It's gotten him in trouble with the law many times before, and now he has contracted cirrhosis of the liver.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: His facepaint invokes this.
• Fat and Skinny: The skinny to J's fat.
• Ironic Nickname: Despite what his name might suggest, he's had a shaved head throughout the majority of his career.

The Great Milenko

A soul from Shangri-La, The Great Milenko is a master of the mystic arts including, but not limited to, Necromancy, voodoo, casting illusions, and manipulating ancient talismans and relics.

Tropes that apply to The Great Milenko

• Affably Evil: He is polite enough to his victims, thanking them when they give him their tickets. He even apologizes to Mr. Bigot for not being able to show him an illusion, since they had already packed up the equipment to move on to the next town. He tries to make it up to him by... Slitting his throat.
• British Teeth: Doesn't make him any less intimidating though...
• Your Mind Makes It Real: He can cast illusions into a person's mind, but it is up to that person to act on them or not. If the person is just they will dismiss the illusion and it won't happen. If not...

Boogie Woogie Wu

A horrible monster mentioned in his self titled song on the fourth Joker's Card The Great Milenko

Tropes that apply to Boogie Woogie Wu

• Would Hurt a Child: All the time.

The Amazing Jeckel Brothers

Jake the just and Jack the sinister, together they form The Amazing Jeckel Brothers. They specialize in a juggling act in which the stakes are a person's immortal soul, with the balls representing the sins you've committed in life. Jake tries to juggle the balls between himself and his brother as best he can, while Jack tries to make him slip up by throwing him curveballs. If the brothers complete their act without Jake dropping a ball, the person goes to heaven, but if Jake drops even one ball, the person goes to hell.

Tropes that apply to The Amazing Jeckel Brothers

• Dark Is Not Evil: Jake looks almost exactly like his brother (an evil fire spirit/demon) but tries to save a persons soul by juggling their sins as best he can while his evil brother Jack tries to throw him curve balls and make him slip up.
• Palette Swap: The only major difference between Jake and Jack is that one is yellow with red flames and the other is red with yellow flames.
• Playing with Fire: They are often depicted doing this.
• Serious Business: They decide the fate of your immortal soul with a juggling act, with every ball representing a sin you've committed in life. If you manage to see the whole thing, you ascend to heaven, but if Jake drops a ball before it's over, you go to hell.
• Slasher Smile: Well, one of them anyway...

Mr. Happy

An odd serial killer who appears on the album Bizzar.

Tropes that apply to Mr. Happy

• Buffy Speak: "I'm Mr. Happy and I ride a bike, ching! / I don't have a seat I just sit on the pipe thing!"
• Dissonant Serenity: Terrifyingly so.
• Madness Mantra: "I'm Mr. Happy happy happy... I murder murder murder you..."
• Serial Killer: A rather disturbing one.
• Stepford Smiler: As indicated by his name, he is all smiles and cheerfulness... even when killing people.

Damien

A sinful soul who tries to escape his eternal torment and winds up taking a tour of the Echo Side instead.

Tropes that apply to Damien

• Body Horror: His arm and legs decay to the point he has to move by rolling around.
• Fate Worse than Death: His first torment in the Echo Side comes about by him trying to run. He runs so long that his legs decay. When his legs are gone, he tries crawling until his arms decay as well, and he's reduced to rolling around in puddles of blood.
• Here We Go Again!: For all his struggling and torments, Damien just winds up rolling right back into Hell's front doors at the end of the song, unaware until it was too late that his entire ordeal was completely unnecessary.
• Meaningful Name: Damien? Yeah, no way he's evil...
• Sanity Slippage: After a while, all Damien can do is laugh desperately while hearing the wails of the damned that he managed to avoid joining. Or so he thought.

The Wraith

Basically the grim reaper of the dark carnival. Appears on the album The Wraith: Shangri-La

Tropes that apply to The Wraith

• Dark Is Not Evil: He may look evil, but his job is to guide good souls into Shangri-La. It is true that he also sends souls to Hell's Pit, but only if they are wicked.
• Grim Reaper: Pretty much.
• In the Hood: Which obscures The Wraith's face...
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: He (it?) is more or less death incarnate.

The Witch

Tropes that apply to The Witch

• Boisterous Weakling: He is never shown to have any supernatural powers, relying solely on lies and trickery to get his way.
• Consummate Liar: Unfortunately for those the Witch tries to tempt, he is really good at lies and trickery.
• Satan: More or less.

Vera Lee

A tragic figure who appears in her self-titled song on the album Bang! Pow! Boom!

Tropes that apply to Vera Lee

• Together in Death: She is implied to want this.

Bang! Pow! Boom!

A constant all-consuming living explosion whose job is to "clean up" the Dark Carnival when it gets too full of souls.

Tropes that apply to Bang! Pow! Boom!

• Almighty Janitor: His powers are used to "clean up" the Dark Carnival when it becomes clogged with too many souls. Doesn't lessen his impact in the slightest.
• Badass Boast:
  "With a BANG! / Say goodbye to everything! / Your complete annihilation is the reason he came!"
  "And a POW! / He's wiping everything out! / Turn your whole fuckin' world into a mushroom cloud!"
  "And a BOOM! / It's your inevitable Doom! / Nobody escapes and everybody's consumed!"
• Calling Your Attacks: Plays with this trope.
• Lyrical Dissonance: Who knew a song about a sentient explosion repeatedly blasting rapists, abusers, racist cops, and other human trash into screaming chunks of burning flesh could be so...groovy.
• Ludicrous Gibs: At the end of his song you can hear the guts of his victims splattering on the ground. Some of which are still screaming a bit.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Just ask the thousands of people who got to meet him up close and personal.
• Nuke 'em: Does this to a gathering of bigots, child molesters and other Asshole Victims at the end of his namesake album.
• Stuff Blowing Up: He is a living explosion after all.

The Freeway Killer

A man in his late forties with "little to complain about" who suddenly snaps and goes on a killing spree down a crowded freeway.

Tropes that apply to The Freeway Killer

• Boom, Headshot!: He kills most of his victims by shooting them in the face through their own windows.
• Freudian Excuse: Subverted. As he says himself, he has "little to complain about", taking the time to mention that he has a big home and a loving family. He just kinda...lost it.
• Full-Frontal Assault: By the end of the song, he has stripped off all of his clothes, the song ends with him getting in a shootout with the police and presumably dying.
• Jump Scare: For anybody listening to the album for the first time, that crazy laugh at the start of the song will give you a fucking heart attack!!!
• Laughing Mad: He tends to laugh quite a bit, especially while describing each individual killing.
• Mid-Life Crisis Car: If only he had gotten that instead....
• More Dakka: Claims to have enough firepower to "suit a whole calvary".
• Police Are Useless: Surprisingly subverted, considering who sings it. The police are shown to be competent, hard-working people.
• Suburbia: Where he lives.
• Suicide by Cop: Possibly. At the end of the song, he slinks back home, naked and smelling like gunpowder, only for a whole mess of cops to spring from his house and the surrounding bushes. He screams out "The Freeway Killer is no longer at large!" and the sound of shouting and gunfire can be heard as the music trails off.
• Whole-Plot Reference: His being a man with no real problems who explodes and goes on a violent rampage is lifted from Falling Down, though he's significantly more destructive and it ends even worse for him than it did for William Foster.
• Your Head Asplode: "Her head exploded like a water balloon! Heh-heh!"

Rick the Dick

A recurring character in ICP's songs ("The Amazing Maze," "Go Shaggz") who is often the (justified) victim of the Wicked Clowns' brand of Comedic Sociopathy.

Tropes that apply to Rick the Dick

• Asshole Victim: You would feel pretty bad about all of the horrible crap he tends to go through, if he didn't usually bring it on himself by being...well..a dick.
• Black Comedy Rape: From Amazing Maze again. "Hello, sexy! I'm Grim Love. I'ma have a look at your, uhh...milk dud."
• Domestic Abuse: One of the reasons why he winds up in the Amazing Maze.
• Groin Attack: Suffers a particularly brutal one in "The Amazing Maze"
• Humiliation Conga: The Amazing Maze. Full stop.
• Meaningful Name: Two instances of this, surprisingly. The first, obviously, is that he's kind of a major dick. The second, a bit more subtly, is that it's usually his dick that gets him in trouble (especially prevalent in "Our Hero").
• They Killed Kenny Again: In his first appearance, he's suffering an eternal punishment in one of the Dark Carnival's attractions. In his second, he makes the stupid mistake of sleeping with Shaggy's girlfriend. How he came back to life is never explained.
  • Its mentioned at the end of "Our Hero" that Rick ends up on death row. The "Amazing Maze" probably either takes place after "Our Hero" or "Our Hero" is a flashback of sorts.
• Too Dumb to Live: Let's count the ways: 1. He listens to Violent J's directions while running through the Amazing Maze, even though it becomes apparent really quickly that J is intentionally leading him to various tortures. 2. He sleeps with Rebecca, Shaggy's girlfriend, even though he probably knows that Shaggy is an Ax-Crazy manic locked up in an asylum. And finally 3. He walks all through the house while Shaggy's sneaking around, having just killed Rebecca. This level of stupidity is apparently pathetic enough that even Shaggy allows him to live. Twice!
• Would Hit a Girl: See Domestic Abuse.

Jimmy

A punk who makes the mistake of pissing off the wrong person in "I Didn't Mean Ta Kill Em".

Tropes that apply to Jimmy

• Innocent Bystander: Even though he's kind of a douche, the only thing he was really guilty of was being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
• Improvised Weapon: The one hit Jimmy lands on J is at the hospital, when he hits him with his bed pan. This angers J enough to finish the job of killing him.
• Jerkass: Granted, J was at his house uninvited, and he was planning on having sex with his girl (not that he knew that), but Jimmy still didn't need to be so rude to him. Getting his ass kicked did little to improve his attitude.
• Neck Snap: J punches him hard enough to break his neck.
• Too Dumb to Live: So the short-tempered psychopath who just broke Jimmy's neck, worried that he had killed the poor kid, rushes into his hospital room and begs him not to die. How does Jimmy respond? "Fuck you! Your punches are weak!"

Willy Bubba

A new student from Kentucky. The clowns waste no time making his life a living hell. His eponymous song is on Forgotten Freshness Volumes 1 and 2.

Tropes that apply to Willy Bubba.

• Deep South: He moves from Kentucky to Detroit. He regretted it.

Unnamed Teenager

A 14-year-old kid who got hit by a truck while riding his bike home and was cursed to haunt his neighborhood forever, never moving on.

Tropes that apply to the Unnamed Teenager.

• And I Must Scream: Well, technically he does scream....a lot. It's just that nobody can hear him doing so.
• Downer Ending: At the end of the song, nothing is resolved. He's still just as lost as ever, only now he has the added misery of knowing that the people he loved are suffering as a result of his death. Poor kid.
• Lyrical Dissonance: Somewhat. The song's tune isn't exactly upbeat, but it isn't overly heavy and melodramatic, either. This just casts a dark shade of irony over everything when you hear the lyrics. Violent J himself sort of sounds like he's sighing as he sings.
• No Name Given: All that we know about him is that he's fourteen, he's dead, and he's very lonely.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Unlike some other ghosts, he is pretty much completely unable to manipulate anything in the world of the living to make his presence known. Cats seem only vaguely aware of his presence, and some people feel the faintest tinge of his presence, which gives him hope, only for that hope to crumble when they ignore the feeling. The crows seem very interested in him, however.
• The Peeping Tom: He finds some small comfort in spending several hours watching the neighborhood girls bathing. This quickly loses it's appeal for him, though, like everything else.
• Rage Against the Heavens: "What kind of Death would leave me lingering on?/Forever fourteen and forever alone."
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Even though he's not technically "living", it still applies. He's existing eternally, unable to do anything but watch the world go by. He's very lonely, very confused, and understandably heartbroken that he can't pass on no matter how much he wants to.

The Mighty Death Pop

The second Joker's Card of the second deck. Its role is to "pop" people who abuse their lives by playing with death and taking stupid risks that could end their life. However, it lacks the ability to actually judge the people it kills, presumedly leaving it up to the Wraith to send them to their afterlife.

Tropes that apply to The Mighty Death Pop

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: J mentioned in a recent Hatchet Herald interview that The Mighty Death Pop is white, pink, and yellow to make it seems as harmless as possible and hide its true nature.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Whould YOU go anywhere near something with a name that implies its some kind of explosive death force?
• Slasher Smile: Considering its role, could you really blame it?
• Too Dumb to Live: Every single one of its victims fall under this trope, each pulling some idiotic stunt to impress their friends and ending up dead as a result.

Mr. Johnson

A high school teacher who incurs the wrath of one of his students by hanging a rebel flag in the classroom. The student decapitates him and keeps his severed head in his book-bag. From the song "Mr. Johnson's Head" on Ringmaster.

Tropes that apply to Mr. Johnson

• Asshole Victim: He was apparently a bigot, and apparently not a very nice man even before that characteristic was revealed.
• The Conspiracy: The other teachers concoct a story about how Mr. Johnson is out sick with a virus so as not to upset the students. The kid mocks them for trying too hard.
• Creepy Souvenir / Battle Trophy: The kid keeps his severed head in his backpack, presumably for this reason.
• Dead Man's Chest: Inverted. The kid deliberately leaves his body in a place where it would be immediately discovered the next day.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Big time. The kid that did it wasn't too stable to begin with, and it's implied that the guilt of the act is haunting him.
• Never Found the Body: Subverted. The kid deliberately left his carcass lying in the middle of the hallway for the other teachers to find.
• Off with His Head!: An entire song is dedicated to the aftermath of this happening to him, from his killer's point of view.

Mr. Clark

A neglectful/abusive father from a trailer park who is apparently oblivious to the fact that his son and daughter are both on crack. He's shown an illusion where his daughter is doing well at college, his son is a doctor, they have families and kids and even coach Little League in the neighborhood before he finds out what his children are actually doing. He becomes one of the victims in "Halls of Illusions" on The Great Milenko.

• Abusive Parents/Parental Neglect:
  VIOLENT J: "When they were kids you'd beat em and leave em home
  And even whip em with the cord on the telephone"
• Asshole Victim: Yes.