Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Circus shuts down

good night, America

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/15/509903805/after-146-years-ringling-bros-and-barnum-bailey-circus-to-shut-down

the long national nightmare is over.

Wow.

I've never been to a circus. Am I missing out? Even as a kid I thought it seemed lame.

I would've guessed Ringling Bros ended decades ago, tbh.

The same weekend they debut the first female ringmaster in their 146 year history, they also announce they're ceasing operations in four months. Thanks Trump!

I've never been to a circus. Am I missing out? Even as a kid I thought it seemed lame.

― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Sunday, January 15, 2017 11:32 AM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I went to one of these as an adult. Can confirm it was lame.

no

The only cool part was the motorcycles in the steel sphere.

I'm partial to contortionists, but arenas are the wrong venue...

over a century of torture and abuse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECspj0daAlE

Circuses are great ! But the animal mistreatment is horrifying, and Ringling is doing the right thing to rehabilitate the elephants – even if it means folding up the tents.

I've never been to a circus. Am I missing out? Even as a kid I thought it seemed lame.
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Sunday, January 15, 2017 11:32 AM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I went to one of these as an adult. Can confirm it was lame.

― how's life, Sunday, January 15, 2017 11:49 AM (fifty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Maybe you just went to shitty circuses? Good circuses are wondrous.

i went to some circuses as a kid. it was pretty rad. high wire acts are cool af, crazy athletic weirdos pulling off death-defying stunts hundreds of feet in the air. no video screens tho so yeah i can see it being considered totally lame to some kid who never got to go.

sad to see them go, but there's always been some varieties of underlying bad energy to a circus.

Seeing that the parent company is also behind Monster Jam/Moto Cross because of course they are.

Oh, and the Live Marvel & Disney stuff--The Wave of The Future!

Just glad the unicorn never lived to see this day.

http://i.imgur.com/jCs63B7.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ntk97oc.jpg

it me

I think my childhood experiences of circuses left an impression of being seedy and smelly.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/bc/b3/f6/bcb3f640388dc60902b87dbbe4f80fac.jpg

http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/401176/slide_401176_4960802_free.jpg

Your neighborhood streets just got a lot unsafer with these unemployed freaks, pawing for the sound of children's laughter, but with no place to go.

http://i.imgur.com/0KfKShi.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/60/39/c8/6039c83f9d28b3c9e5b24520cb2c2479.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/nYE2osy.jpg

I think I see "Kevin" from "The Office" in there!

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/23/c0/7c/23c07c530a9fd450e960ffd26783509c.jpg

Good Lord, these poor creatures.

http://i.imgur.com/XSh1ChK.jpg

I went to the Ringling Bros. circus once in California when I was a little kid. I have very vague, but positive, memories. In 1990, I went to see Madonna's Blond Ambition tour and there was a carnival on the other side of the arena parking lot, so after the concert my friend and I climbed over the fence and snuck into the carnival. Almost everything was closed up already, but the freak show was still going, so we went in and saw The Girl Who Turns Into A Gorilla. That was awesome.

http://www.cultofweird.com/sideshow/girl-gorilla-grind-show/

http://i.imgur.com/6xKuIh3.jpg

https://www.otrcat.com/images/clown-and-billy.jpg

http://www.altmanphoto.com/PrincePaul.fr.jpeg

Checked out the Shriner Circus page to see if they were prepared to fill the void and

http://i.imgur.com/iWqDxNj.jpg

looks like we're in for a national circus vacuum, folks.

Can we applaud the evident increasing gender equity for clowns, before their most desired workplace shutters?

http://files.vividscreen.info/soft/36606c51282a43b3b447a50b6eb703ed/Sad-Clown-1920x1200.jpg

Tempted to just bomb the thread with "sad clown" GIS results and Puddles Pity Party youtubes.

looks like we're in for a national circus vacuum, folks.

And yet fucking Cirque de Soleil continues on unto the end of time.

Goodbye and good riddance.

I went to the circus once, almost 20 years ago now, and I never thought I would be so moved by it, but I was. Not the animals and god knows not the clowns, but the acrobats and aerialists and dancers...it's like they've become something better than human. Plus I know a couple of ppl who do that professionally. I think that part of the circus will be missed.

were these acrobats and aerialists and dancers somehow different from cirque du soleil? and yes, there are circus arts communities now in lots of cities, with annual performances at things like seattle's moisture festival.

were these acrobats and aerialists and dancers somehow different from cirque du soleil?

Cirque du soleil are the marvel universe movies of the circus arts world.

yeah, i think there is a definitely an olde-tyme acrobatic circus thing going on now a la swing revival/roller derby/cabaret/gypsy jazz. these guys are near me. small but fun for the whole family and no sad animals. lots of summer circus camps for kids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piz_z9DOSy4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEEFP_Yu7mI

The old-timeyness of it is tiresome but I'm not gonna lie I would be mesmerized.

a circus came to my town when i was a kid. just set up in a field off of route 7. it was amazing to me that they could just show up and do that. it wasn't like a carnival or fair. it was an actual circus just like the old days.

everything worthwhile in American showbiz history is seedy and/or smelly

Not Doris Day!

she smelled like a rose.

Doris Day had b.o.

she is present tense at 92 btw

and starred in a circus movie called Jumbo

anyway is that all there is to a circus?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sWTnsemkIs

she is present tense at 92 btw

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Monday, January 16, 2017 10:34 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no she got rid of the b.o. is what he means

Everybody was up in arms about Doris Day's b.o.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/bc/b3/f6/bcb3f640388dc60902b87dbbe4f80fac.jpg

In the bottom row, I wonder what was so "freakish" about the first, second, third, and fifth person from the right? Gangster? Moor? Dominatrix? Suffragette?

thank fucking god

RIP