Creepy Comedy: No More "Clowning" Around

I have a confession to make: I couldn't finish You Can't Cheat an Honest Man. I barely made it through fifteen minutes. The dummy REALLY gave me the creeps. I've had this sensation before when watching supposedly innocent films, particularly with Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

I know Willy Wonka is an adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel, which is, in itself, a little bizarre. But nothing scares me more than Gene Wilder; he's so clownish. Also, the Oompa Loompas are ominously orange. Moreover, I can't watch Wizard of Oz without having nightmares; all of the characters, with the exception of Toto, look like warped theatre masks. I will say, too, that Harpo's costume bothered me somewhat (though Groucho's undoing of cliches in Duck Soup and Horsefeathers compensated for my slight feelings of discomfort).

Nonetheless, I didn't think much of my aversion to the dummy until Dr. McIntire-Strasburg suggested we put audiences in historical context today, and it got me thinking about the nature of grotesque figures. Theorists like Bakhtin point out the celebratory, funny nature of grotesque bodies and figures. But, I would argue that, at some point, these "humorous" grotesque figures became disturbing. Films like Halloween render the disguised figure not one for celebration, but one of fear. It permanently ruined the clown for me. Not that I ever really liked clowns; Ronald McDonald's smile was always a little too friendly. Then we have Chucky...a film about an evil doll.

This trend of warping "fun" figures into evil ones seems to begin in the 70s with all of the slasher films (and real-life news cases) about teens and kids being stalked by some villain, and it still continues when applying the trend to practical situations. For example, in elementary school, many guest speakers visited our classes, warning us of overly friendly people who, though childless, hang around places with children to offer us candy and lure us to our cars. People and actors disguised as clowns and/or carrying dummy dolls seem, to me, to epitomize that creepy child predator...but they didn't always. I think, on some level, there is a generational disadvantage when watching "comedies" that incorporate clownish, exaggerated figures. Perhaps they remind younger viewers of their vulnerability--not in a celebratory, carnivalesque way but in a dark "It" the clown is hiding in the basement" sort of way...