As a child, I was completely terrified of horror movies. The idea of being scared was too profound for my child brain to cope with and I always freaked myself out before I could muster the courage to watch one. I would make an excuse or find a way to distract myself. This carried on for many years, until one fateful day when I visited my friend, Steven.
Steven’s dad was someone who did like horror movies. He was subscribed to the 'horror channel' which, as the name implies, showed non-stop horror films. Once, I was staying with Steven for a sleep over. His father told us that he was putting on a horror film called Leprechaun: In Space. (Leprechaun 4: In Space, 1996) Familiar worry boiled inside me, and I remember turning to him and saying, “Is it scary?” Steven’s father replied, “It's about a leprechaun in space, what do you think?”
He was right. The film was not the least bit scary. It is actually one of those 'so bad it's good' films, and is the fourth in the Leprechaun series starring Warwick Davies. Leprechaun: In Space allowed me to wash away any fear of horror, and retrospectively was incredibly formative in developing my sense of humour. Thanks to the Steven’s father and the ridiculous Leprechaun: In Space, I am now a proud horror film fan.
At such sleepovers, I was also introduced to two television shows I am yet to meet anyone else who has seen; Monkey Dust and the brilliantly named Podge and Rodge: A Scare At Bedtime. Podge and Rodge is a bizarre little show broadcasted on the horror show after midnight. Each episode was about ten minutes in length and would follow the same basic structure: one of the two Irish puppets (Podge and Rodge) would say something fairly inconspicuous such as, “I might go for a bath!” The other would say “A bath? That reminds me of the tale of…” before regaling us with a spooky tale vaguely connected to the topic at hand. These tales typically ended with somebody’s death.
On the other hand, Monkey Dust could only be described as the darkest of dark comedy. Monkey Dust was a cartoon sketch show with elements of political satire throughout. The show, and rest of this paragraph, certainly required more modern content and trigger warnings, as few topics were off-limits within show. It discussed such matters as murder, paedophilia, terrorism and suicide to name but a few. There was one particularly gruelling sketch where a child and their newly-divorced father struggle to emotionally connect, so realizing all is lost the father commits suicide. However, the punchline was that the child did want to connect to their father. Viewers, in full discomfort of dramatic irony, hear the child call out “Dad?” just as the scene changes.
This deeply unpleasant sketch has stayed with me even now, and informs the word of horror and comedy. In the text Comedy-Horror Films by Bruce G. Hallenbeck, the writer says says, “Comedy in the horror film? Horror in the comedy film? It seems like a strange combination; one moment a scream, the next moment a laugh. And yet comedy and horror are not strange bedfellows at all. They've been around almost as long as movies themselves.” (Hallenbeck, 2009). From my own experience, this has always been the case.
I think back to 2019, watching Midsommar in the cinema surrounded by people all trying not to laugh during a certain ceremony. If you've seen the film, then you will know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, well strap yourself in for a wild ride! Horror and comedy seem irrevocably linked in this ceremonial scene, as the reaction of the ‘victim’ contrasted with the feral singing and dancing of the other characters is truly bizarre. This distinction is made comic by the surreal and absurdist nature of what is going on in the context of a horror film.
Which leads me to ask the following: why is horror funny, and what has this to do with Clown? Specifically, I am looking at Lecoq’s version of Clown, and John Wright’s examples of ‘pathetic’ and ‘tragic’ clown. I am not meaning to ask if Clowns are scary, as we all know they are. I am asking how the world of horror and of clown can function together. The incredible Peta Lily as written many blogs about Dark Clown, so any reader wishing for more detail on clown would certainly enjoy reading and would gain much from her work.
From Sigmund Freud saying “the phenomena of comic, wit, and humour were united...as attempts to regain the euphoria of childhood, forever lost by the growth of mental activity” (Freud, 1905 in Chapman and Foot, 1995) to Hannah Gadsby's powerful speech in Netflix’s Nanette discussing her own use of self-depreciating humour “... It’s not humility, it's humiliation. I put myself down in order to speak, in order to seek permission to speak.” (Hannah Gadsby 'Nanette', 2008). For me personally, Professor Peter McGraw's definition of humour is most fitting: “Humour only occurs when something seems wrong, unsettling, or threatening, but simultaneously seems okay, acceptable or safe.” (McGraw, Warren, Williams and Leonard, 2012) This puts into words a traditional horror set up. A group of campers are happily sitting around a camp fire laughing and drinking, while we sit comfortable in the audience know that the killer is watching them from the bushes.
Clown explores this dynamic, as when we watch a clown everything seems within a ‘normal’ understanding. However, we know the Clown does not follow our traditional rules and conventions. Things could be disrupted at any time. Of this spontaneity, Clown teacher Eli Simon says, “Clowns know best [...] I frame evolving scenes by speaking in general terms [...] and then see what the clowns are inclined to do' (Simon, 2013) This sense of surprise can create a dark edge for clowns. Clowns always come with a feeling of dread that anything could happen which is prevalent in many horror films. For example, the blood test scene in John Carpenter’s The Thing (The Thing, 1982). The characters are trapped on an arctic base and are being stalked by an alien who can mimic and disguise themselves as humans in order to kill them. The characters have observed that the alien reacts negatively to heat and so, in order to seek out the intruder in their midst, all character test their own supposedly human blood in search of this negative reaction. I have seen The Thing many times, but despite knowing the conclusion the sense of dread remains. Any one of the characters we’ve grown attached to could be the alien, and a multitude of awful possibilities could come from different results. Clowns illicit this same reaction when they do not play by the rules. Your safety is compromised before you even know it. You should be laughing, and then BAM you're caught in a saw trap!
The unpleasant father-son sketch in Monkey Dust previously mentioned has stayed with me for many reasons, but I believe George Carlin puts it best when he said “Humour is based on surprise, and surprise is a milder way of saying shock. It's surprise that makes the joke.” (Carlin, 2020) I was completely surprised by this scene, but it was more than that. I was shocked. This was something I didn't think was possible. I was so shocked that the impact has never truly left me.
Another form of clown known for evoking reactions outside of our normal comfort zone is Tragic Clown. In the book Serious Play by Louise Peacock , it states that “tragic clown connects not with the notion of making us laugh but with the idea of extending play as far as it will go” (Peacock, 2009)
I have found this clowning notion is evident in effective horror films. A film will toy with the audience until the final act. Having taken the piece as far as it will go and pushing viewers to a certain limit, the playing stops and we are confronted with the grim reality of it all. For example, in the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, we watch as Donald Sutherland tries to escape the body snatchers - a group of aliens intent on taking over the planet. They do this by ‘duplicating’ human bodies and taking their place. In the penultimate scene, Sutherland heroically destroys the alien base in what should be a wonderfully cathartic ending. However, in the final scene, we see him reunited with an old acquaintance who is glad to see Sutherland has not been duplicated. Sutherland suddenly lets out a hideous and doubtlessly alien scream. His attempt to defeat the aliens was ultimately futile as he has also been duplicated himself. The game has suddenly ended, and in the most unpleasant way.
Once you combine horror and clown, there is often a sense of 'unfairness'. This creeps in just as the audience begins to empathise with the characters. When we watch Clown, we know that we get to play games with them, thus establishing a playful and carefree relationship with their character. However, Tragic Clown snatches any sense of play from us just as the Monkey Dust sketch did to me. Monkey Dust had been playing with me in a set of rules I understood. Suddenly, that rule was broken in the horrific, comedic moment of the reveal.
The ending of the 1973 The Wicker Man had exactly the same effect. The audience is lead to believe we have finally understood the mysteries, but suddenly everything is pulled from under our feet. Our expectations are turned on their heads in the eleventh hour, when all is revealed in the horrific denouement. Clown and Horror are always playing with expectations in this way, as they are both taking audience expectations and subverting them.
Another vital aspect of the relationship between horror and comedy is questioning, “Should I be laughing at this?” This is evident in many different films and TV shows known for pushing the audience and scenarios to their limits, leaning more into the surreal and grotesque. In the case of Podge and Rodge, over the numerous episodes we grow comfortable and familiar with the lead characters through who’s eyes we see the very unpleasant scenarios and from which humour is then born of. This allows them to create a slightly extreme world, and allows the more outlandish parts of horror come to light. In the book Clowns: In Conversation With Modern Masters, Slava Polunin says “the word, ‘grotesque’, has something to do with exaggeration. But exaggeration does not seem to be strange in the grotesque. It actually feels very organic...” (LeBank and Bridel, 2015)
An example of the grotesque managing to feel organic is Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991), who although ‘grotesque’ manages to feel at home in the world he lives in. In that sense, Buffalo Bill could be considered a Clown version of a serial killer. He follows own rules, for example there is a scene where he wears makeup and says provocatively to the camera, “Would you fuck me? I’d fuck me, I’d fuck me so hard.” This is deeply unsettling moment as he appears to be speaking directly to the audience, but as we are seeing this moment through his own eyes it still feels like organic. It allows us to further understand his character and motivations.
The idea of ‘slapstick’ is well known in comedy as where characters are trying to complete a simple task but their own incompetence makes the situation worse. This also occurs in horror, but the term used to describe this is 'Splatstick'. In the essay Deadites VS. Adaption by Valerie L. Guyant, she writes that “Splatstick is a combination of slapstick comedy and extreme violence and over-the-top gore associated with splatter films. While horror comedy has existed for some time, what makes splatstick unique is its pacing level and the off-the-wall ways it bends reality.” (Guyant in The Many Lives Of The Evil Dead, Sartain and Riekki, 2019) Just as Slava writes of the grotesque becoming organic, so does the gore in splatstick. Rather than a pie, it's a knife to the face. And, most importantly, when done right it is very funny. In the horror film Final Destination 3 (Final Destination 3, 2006), there is a death in a gym which provoked such laughter from the audience in the initial screening that the directors had to add an extra moment to the next scene because the audience kept laughing over the plot exposition. The death was obviously grotesque, but was a moment of splatstick leading to a bloody payoff.
In addition to the grotesque, Pathetic Clown has much to add to the world of horror. Pathetic Clown is described by John Wright as a “credible emotional engagement with the dramatic situation in hand.” (Wright, 2006) In essence, whilst a normal clown would simply play regardless of scenario and potentially ignore the seriousness of the situation, the Pathetic Clown would be aware of the seriousness but try to keep light and playful during the situation. I recently partook in a John Wright Pathetic Clown exercise where a clown is playing with their pet (in actuality, an inanimate object prop) and whilst playing with their pet, they accidently end up killing it. However, as a Pathetic Clown they have to keep playing with the pet and show the audience that this is actually a good thing. During the exercise, I had one clown playing with a pet, who was a pillow. They accidentally killed it and then decided to take off the pillowcase and wear it as a scarf. The effect was, once again, absolutely horrendous but doubtlessly very funny. A similar effect is made in The Walking Dead scene (The Walking Dead, “The Day Will Come When You Won't Be”, 2016) with Negan and his baseball bat, Lucille. In the scene Negan, who feels wronged by the main characters, decides that he is going to beat one of the main characters to death to set an example. To decide who he is going to kill, Negan does 'eenie meanie minie mo' and then proceeds to beat the unlucky person to death with his bat. The Pathetic Clown emerges when he realizes the pain he is causing and even apologies, yet this doesn't stop him being playful and making jokes. After he hits someone, he says “God Damn, took it like a champ!” The joking makes the scene even more horrific, but still feels organic.
It can therefore be seen that comedy and horror have more in common than may initially be thought. There is a doubtless connection between how the grotesque operates in both comedy and horror, exacerbated in the style of Pathetic and Tragic Clown. There is a mutual level of discomfort, a thread of shock and excess, and overt playfulness that combines the two genres. In both horror and comedy, there are bold choices, often that evoke disgust and laughter from one moment to the next. Under this lens can we examine how horror and clown can be combined and be used as useful tools when teaching students.
References - Leprechaun 4: In Space. 1996. [film] Directed by B. Trenchard-Smith. USA: Blue Rider Pictures.
- Monkey Dust. 2003. [DVD] Directed by A. Foulkes and A. Smith. UK: TalkBack Productions.
- Podge and Rodge. A Scare at Bedtime. 1996. [DVD] Directed by J. Hills and D. Farrell. Ireland: Double Z Enterprises. - Hallenbeck, B., 2009. Comedy-Horror Films. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., p.1.
- Midsommar. 2019. [film] Directed by A. Aster. USA/Sweden: A24. - Freud, S. and Strachey, J., 2001. Jokes And Their Relation To The Unconscious. London: Vintage.
- Chapman, A. and Foot, H., 1995. Humour And Laughter: Theory, Research And Applications, Ed.. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, p.314. - Hannah Gadsby 'Nanette'. 2018. [film] Directed by J. Olb and M. Parry. Australia: Netflix.
- McGraw, A., Warren, C., Williams, L. and Leonard, B., 2012. Too Close for Comfort, or Too Far to Care? Finding Humor in Distant Tragedies and Close Mishaps. Psychological Science, 23(10), pp.1215-1223. - Simon, E., 2013. The Art Of Clowning More Paths To Your Inner Clown. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. - The Thing. 1982. [film] Directed by J. Carpenter. USA: Universal Pictures.
- Carlin, G., 2020. George Carlin Quote. [online] A-Z Quotes. Available at: <https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1296975> [Accessed 28 July 2020]. - Peacock, L., 2009. Serious Play. Bristol: Intellect Books, p.36.
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 1978. [film] Directed by P. Kaufman. USA: Solofilm.
- Wicker Man. 1973. [film] Directed by R. Hardy. UK: British Lion Film Corporation. - LeBank, E. and Bridel, D., 2015. Clowns: In Conversation With Modern Masters. Abingdon: Routledge, p.49. - The Silence of the Lambs. 1991. [film] Directed by J. Demme. USA: Strong Heart/Demme Production.
- The Evil Dead. 1981. [film] Directed by S. Raimi. USA: Renaissance Pictures. - Sartain, J. and Riekki, R., 2019. The Many Lives Of The Evil Dead: Essays On The Cult Film Franchise. Jefferson: McFarland, p.168.
- Final Destination 3. 2006. [DVD] Directed by J. Wong. USA: New Line Cinema. - Wright, J., 2006. Why Is That So Funny?. London: Nick Hern, p.226.
- “The Day Will Come When You Won't Be .” The Walking Dead, created by Frank Darabont and Robert Kirkman, performance by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, season 7, episode 1, American Movie Classics (AMC), Idiot Box Productions, Skybound Entertainment, 2016