Send in the Clowns

Send in the Clowns

Clowns mostly seek to provoke, and this can be healthy.

Now everyone in Argentina thinks the clown initiative is a great idea.

The thing about clowns, though, is that few have any aspirations to rule their countries.

I hate clowns and I hate hospitals, how perfect that the law now brings them together Not

He was one of the most popular clowns in the Soviet Union during the second half of the 20th century.

Institute has taken clowns into the war zones in Bosnia, refugee camps in the Republic of Macedonia, as well as South African orphanages.

The legislation states that hospitals will employ as clowns people who specialize in the art of clownery, who meet the conditions and requirements of working in public hospitals.

The Buenos Aires senate recently approved legislation mandating the use of clowns in hospitals treating children recovering from trauma.

It is no surprise, then, that for the last 400 years Don Quixote and Panza have bred many relatives and successors, including countless buffoonish boss and servant couples.

The chant became so tedious that inevitably, the class clown would ask if the incantation would end up turning us all into asthmatics, as Che was.

This nonsense on stilts is articulated by some zany candidates who enjoy the support of the Tea Party, a reference not to the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, which would be fitting, but to the Bostonians who rebelled against colonial Britain s imposition of taxes in the eighteenth century.

That the Syrian regime warplanes are analogous to poor flying elephants? That the rebels in Syria are a bunch of ragtag buffoons going around trying to kill even the poorest creatures?

The dream of improving the world disguised a farce that affected not only a single life, as in Cervantes story, and affected not only the misleading army of buffoons believed to be missionaries.

They are less likely than members of the professional political class to allow political calculations to influence their views. And, sometimes, they actually say things that are uncomfortable but true, and that need to be said.

The thing about clowns, though, is that few have any aspirations to rule their countries. Before his death, Fortuyn is said to have been terrified of the prospect of becoming Prime Minister.