Funny business is booming.
"You know how there's like three clowns? Happy, sad and scary? I'm seeing all of them! Should I laugh, cry or scream?"
—The Mulberry Gallows Project by Adam Marien
Clowns. They can evoke laughter and fun, sympathy and pathos, or fear and creepiness. They are the source of so many tropes.
Tropes:
Also see:
- Afraid of Clowns: How a character can be afraid or scared of clowns.
- Cartoon Juggling: How juggling, a common clown trick, is depicted in animation.
- Juggling Dangerously: A more dangerous variant where you can juggle from sharp knives to chainsaws to even flamethrowers!
- Clownification: Characters being turned into clowns or mimes, usually through a virus or magic.
- Clown School: Where you go down to learn to clown.
- Clown Species: Clowns are portrayed as being a humanoid species of their own rather than humans wearing costumes and makeup.
- Court Jester: An old-fashioned clown who entertains the king in a Medieval European setting. Usually not what he seems.
- Dreaded Kids' Party Entertainer Job: People who perform at kids' parties, especially clowns, tend to suffer a lot.
- Everyone Hates Mimes: Mimes are feared, hated, and/or constantly the butt of the joke.
- Fighting Clown: A Fighting Game character, who may either be a clown or overly silly, but no joke they are also into fighting.
- The Fool: A ridiculously lucky person with an overly cheerful attitude.
- Happy Harlequin Hat: The standard, multi-pointed jester hat.
- Magical Clown: A clown or jester with magical powers.
- Mistaken for Clown: Someone is mistaken for a clown or jester often because they're wearing an outlandish outfit.
- Monster Clown: A clown who is evil and scary.
- Enemy Mime: An evil mime.
- Practically Joker: A villain who is a clear imitation of The Joker, one of the most iconic Monster Clowns ever.
- Non-Ironic Clown: A clown who is happy and friendly, the way of any good clown.
- Sad Clown: Someone who masks their negative feelings by joking around.
- Sexy Jester: Attractive people dressed as clowns or jesters.
- Skin-Tone Disguise: For the clowns that need to pass as ordinary humans.
- Slapstick: Physical comedy.
- The Unwitting Comedian: The one who everyone laughs at even though they're trying to be serious.
- Villainous Harlequin: An evil clown who is silly rather than terrifying.
- Your Mime Makes It Real: When mime tricks actually produce invisible objects.
