Talk:Clown

Semi-protected edit request on 2 November 2024

Could someone please revert this edit from October last year, and return the lead to its previous version.

The linked edit replaced the start of the article with a bunch of ChatGPT generated waffling, which uses a lot of words to say not very much - the older version of the lead is much more concise. 86.23.109.101 (talk) 14:37, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. M.Bitton (talk) 00:55, 5 November 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 November 2025

Significant amounts of information should be added to cover the larger spans of clowning throughout the world. This article is so far only covering American clowns, and are not delving sufficiently into their history to include the histories with Jim Crow and Minstrel shows (see "Understanding Jim Crow : using racist memorabilia to teach tolerance and promote social justice" by David Pilgrim, https://archive.org/details/Understanding_Jim_Crow_9781629631790/mode/2up). Minstrel shows were the origin of the modern American clown, popularizing the big lips, big feet, and afro hair, as well as creating the circus.

This article also does not properly feature North American Indigenous cultural clowning, such as trickster spirits, dances and ceremonies to represent to rights and wrongs within the culture, and what these clown forms mean for their cultures. See "Clowns" by John Towsen https://archive.org/details/clowns0000tows_c9j6/page/10/mode/2up "Trickster" from the Canadian Encyclopedia https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/trickster

Other forms of clowning must be researched to create a well-rounded article. American clowns are not the only clowns worldwide, and other cultures are not being fairly represented. CatMayhaps (talk) 21:32, 29 November 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. NotJamestack (✉️|📝) 21:40, 29 November 2025 (UTC)

Incorrect information

“the term "clown" may be used synonymously with predecessors like jester, joker, buffoon, fool, or harlequin.”

This is not correct. A clown and a jester are two very different things. There is some crossover, they are both at times funny, but the terms should not be used interchangeably. A fool is more closely linked to a jester, but even these two things are separate in that a jester was higher status than a fool.

A harlequin, too, is not a clown. It is a comic character, but they have their own identity and history.

The terms joker and buffoon are words that could be used to describe a clown’s act, possibly. But they are not words that are used interchangeably with the word clown.

This needs to be edited, as does the page at large, but it has been locked and therefore I cannot do anything with it. Flyingclog (talk) 07:46, 28 August 2026 (UTC)

Incorrect Caption

There is an image captioned "Zombie Clowns" but the picture actually shows one Zombie Clown and someone esle dressed as Harley Quinn, a character from DC Comics. ~2026-42873-21 (talk) 10:50, 31 August 2026 (UTC)