Mexican Fixation on Clowns

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http://lowrider.it/store/images/homies/homiesgiganteclownprincetattoo.jpg

What's the deal?

― Mattattack (matt attack), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 05:48 (nineteen years ago)

I mean, what. Is. The deal? Am I right, people?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 06:00 (nineteen years ago)

Esteban to thread!

― Jena (JenaP), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 06:02 (nineteen years ago)

I mean COME. ON.

[/ corddry ]

― giboyeux (skowly), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 06:03 (nineteen years ago)

backs of t-shirts and homies figurines, catchall halloween costumes, maybe even in general.

― Mattattack (matt attack), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 06:07 (nineteen years ago)

Dude, TOTALLY.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 06:21 (nineteen years ago)

(Sorry, I am acting like a dick because it's my default response when I have no idea what someone's talking about.)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 06:22 (nineteen years ago)

wondering if anyone else has noticed the intense mexican obsession with clowns, be it on the backs of t-shirts you'd buy at the flea market or painted on a lowrider or something. maybe you'd need to be in california for a while to get what i'm talking about at all.

http://www.homies.tv/homieclowns/clowns/skitzo.jpg

― Mattattack (matt attack), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 06:46 (nineteen years ago)

I always thought of it more as a comedy/tragedy mask thing but I guess the clown thing is a part of that as well.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 07:06 (nineteen years ago)

They like thrashy speed death metal quite a lot, too. Those damn Mexicans.

― Fire Stealer, Wednesday, 2 November 2005 12:03 (nineteen years ago)

it's not a "Mexican" thing, it's a Chicano thing. Clowns figure prominently in Chicano prison gang tattoos and thus clown images are loaded with badass connotations on the outside. It's not a cultural thing though, and not that widespread. Fixation?

― mucho, Wednesday, 2 November 2005 18:54 (nineteen years ago)

yeah it is a chicano and lowrider culture thing. someone must know the origin of it but the origins of things like this get kind of murky, I suspect.

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 21:48 (nineteen years ago)

http://cinemexicano.mty.itesm.mx/imagenes/cantinflas_libro.jpg

Mexico's greatest film star Cantinflas was essentially a clown. Whether that's the chicken or the egg, I don't know.

(Incidentally, does anyone know why his bullfighting scene in 80 Days Around the World is like 15 minutes long? I swear, they used 85% of exposed stock for the final in that film, they didn't edit at all.)

― andy --, Wednesday, 2 November 2005 22:03 (nineteen years ago)

should i go to the dia de los muertos festivities tonight in sf?

"ritual and ceremonies"

http://www.somarts.org/content/view/299/26/

it's not clowns, but could be enjoyable.

― nein Socken (nein Socken), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 23:48 (nineteen years ago)

i was thinking it has something to do with the 'laugh now/cry later' thing. someone has to know where it came from.

― matttattack, Thursday, 3 November 2005 18:30 (nineteen years ago)

morrissey must dress up like a clown and become king of mexico

― Stuh-du-du-du-du-du-du-denka (jingleberries), Thursday, 3 November 2005 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

morrissey must dress up like a clown and become king of mexico

this is the only post here that is of any worth

but i think moz can be king of mexico even without putting on the red nose and floppy shoes

― ESTEBAN BUTTEZ~!!, Sunday, 13 November 2005 12:31 (nineteen years ago)

seven years pass...

Gunman in clown suit kills former Mexico drug cartel leader who was member of notorious family

MEXICO CITY - A gunman in a clown costume killed the oldest brother in one of Mexico's most notorious drug trafficking families in the resort of Los Cabos, authorities said on Saturday.
Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, 63, a former leader of the Tijuana Cartel, was shot in the head late on Friday at a family gathering in the southern tip of the state of Baja California Sur, a spokesman for state prosecutors said.
"A person dressed as a clown took his life," he said.

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 21 October 2013 00:27 (eleven years ago)

As to the original question: After Cordoba failed to make headway and was killed by the Mayans he found there, Cortes, in 1519, landed at present day Veracruz wearing a clown mask, which began 300 years of clown mask hegemony over the region. That's why.

― andrew m., Monday, 21 October 2013 16:28 (eleven years ago)

Cepillin! My favorite Mexican clown/singer of the 70's. I still have my Cepillin doll.
Looking back, it was pretty low production value and creepy, but I have no clown phobia.
hhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnJqmjMKMVU

― *tera, Monday, 21 October 2013 22:01 (eleven years ago)

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

― *tera, Monday, 21 October 2013 22:02 (eleven years ago)

https://www.facebook.com/payasos.mexicanos

― *tera, Monday, 21 October 2013 22:14 (eleven years ago)

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