CLOWNING AROUND

Tomorrow is NATIONAL CLOWN DAY and also marks the start of INTERNATIONAL CLOWN WEEK (August 1-7).  Clowns have a long and interesting history, as chronicled in this scholarly(?) introduction to the subject:

No doubt you noticed in the above video (unless you were clowning around while it was playing) that the first clowns were court jesters.  In the Middle Ages — as can be seen in this scene from the middle of a bygone century — THE COURT JESTER* typically played the fool and looked uncannily like Danny Kaye:

Who knew film — technicolor, no less — existed way back then to record such scenes? But nowadays, clowns have a farcical role model who is an amalgamation of Court Jester, Bozo the Clown, and Tyrant-osaurus Rex:

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/77899773/Donald-Trump-Clown

The moral of the amoral story is that, if you asspire to the highest office in the land, you could hardly do worse than pattern yourself a-Round-Old Mc-Donald Trump. All Hail to the Cheat —  er, Chief!

….so BE A CLOWN!

*THE COURT JESTER is a 1956 feature film starring Danny Kaye as a fatuous faux court jester (co-starring Angela Lansbury, Basil Rathbone, and Glynis Johns, among others).

 

HOLD THAT NOSE!

When I remarked, in a comment to my last post, that some mugwump Republicans would “hold their noses” while voting for you-know-who, it brought to mind (who nose why?) the old college football exhortation, HOLD THAT LINE!….which, in turn, suggests a catchy campaign slogan for the GOP’s Offensive Lines Man: HOLD THAT NOSE! VOTE FOR TRUMP!

The nose, it seems, has long been a useful appendage when it comes to exhortations:

KEEP YOUR NOSE OUT OF MY BUSINESS
DON’T BE A HARD NOSE
KEEP YOUR NOSE CLEAN
DON’T CUT OFF YOUR NOSE TO SPITE YOUR FACE
KEEP YOUR NOSE TO THE GRINDSTONE
DON’T GET YOUR NOSE OUT OF JOINT
Etc.

I don’t nose about you, but I find people with noses fascinating — especially thoses with long noses….especially thoses whose noses made them famous.

On the other hand, I don’t think it’s fair that animals with big noses are often seen as having faces only a mother could love:

Animals with Big Noses

Did you notice that several humans managed to horn their way into that mix of pix, one of whom seems bent on cutting off his nose to spite his face?As Jimmy “Schnozzola” Durante used to say, “Everybody wants to get into the act,” but that guy is apparently trying to take a short cut. Oh, well, it’s no skin off of my nose.

Of course, not everyone is blessed with a big nose, otherwise mistermuse might be known as misternose. HAHAHA!  The point is that you don’t have to have a natural big nose to clown around and be a big hit with the young at heart:

GRUMPY MUSE

As I reported in my August 2 post CONTORTIONISTS AND DUMMIES, a congressional election in Brazil several years ago was won by a lowly professional clown named Grumpy, who ran on the slogan “It can’t get any worse.” This logic proved so unarguable that the fat-cat political clowns who ran against Grumpy lost by over a million noses.

Now I see that another Grumpy has become a celebrity, this time an author: Grumpy Cat by name (this cat’s real name is Tardar Sauce, but I suppose if humans can have pen names, why can’t cats?). According to USA Today, Grumpy Cat is just two years old and is currently on tour promoting her second book, THE GRUMPY GUIDE TO LIFE: OBSERVATIONS BY GRUMPY CAT.

Frankly, I’m jealous. I’ve been making life observations for decades longer than Grumpy Cat; even this site (called The OBSERVATION Post, need I remind you) has been petulantly observing life years longer than Grumpy — yet I labor in obscurity, while this upstart feline stars in Friskies and Honey Nut Cheerios TV commercials and gets her puss pixeled on Youtube to millions of viewers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilZQ4xM5gY8

So, what am I going to do about it? If a clown and a cat can become Grumpy-famous, why shouldn’t a Muse? Am I a muse or a mouse? Or a mouse eating mousse? Or a mouse-eating moose eating mousse? It’s no use. I’m a wuss.

Send in the clowns.