Clown Town
Mid-Southerners were shocked when a man in white-face made racist remarks at the Delta Fair, which was supposed to be the “safe, family-friendly alternative” to the Mid-South Fair, before the Mid-South Fair also relocated to a “safer” and more “family-friendly” location. The antagonistic “dunk tank clown” heckled Tanya Jones, describing the woman’s hair as “unbeweavable.”
To address several media biases in one ridiculous interview, Fly on the Wall contacted pro-clown Larry Clark, who’s worked with Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey, and Cirque Du Soleil, to ask how this reflects on a clown culture torn apart by fast little cars, painted women, and clown-on-clown violins.
Fly on the Wall: How does this incident reflect on a clown culture torn apart by fast little cars, painted women, and clown on clown …
Larry Clark: Ugh! Here we go again!
Fly: I was going to say “violins.” Like violence only …
Larry: Okay, quick question Chris. I have a computer. Does that make me a newspaper columnist? No! So just because some toothless Tilt-a-whirl operator put on a $12 Halloween mask, that does not make him a real clown!
Fly: Is the media painting all clowns with the same wide, mostly white brush?
Larry: The dunk tank guy’s job is to heckle you, to say the rudest, uncool things to get you riled to gladly shuck over $20 for three softballs to hit a small metal target to knock him into a barrel of rusty water.
Fly: You’re just defending this guy because he really is a clown.
Larry: I am not saying it’s okay to be racist. He should get what’s coming for saying those things.
That is disappointingly reasonable.