The circus is already in town. Why not join it on purpose?
Create to Liberate Idea No. 28
Maybe clowns are the answer to what is going on in our world today.
Not the clowns in office, the real ones. The ones who purposefully trip and fall to show us how absurd it all is. The ones who carry truth in slapstick, courage in chaos, joy in rebellion.
In a world drowning in bad-faith arguments, spectacle politics, and algorithm-driven outrage, the clown—of all characters—might be best equipped to cut through the noise.
Especially on April 19 for Create to Liberate.
Here’s why clowning could have a bigger, bolder role today.
The clown as disruptor of spectacle
Politics today is often theater. But it’s bad theater—scripted, cynical and flat. Clowning breaks the fourth wall:
- It exposes performance as performance—like a clown following a police riot line while mimicking their movements in exaggerated pantomime.
- It injects joy and absurdity into spaces that are often joyless and controlled.
Disarming power with humor
Authoritarians and bureaucrats don’t know how to handle being mocked. A clown doesn’t fight power head-on, they:
- mock its absurd rituals.
- disrupt its language games.
- reveal its fear of looking ridiculous.
Nothing unsettles rigid systems like joyful unpredictability.
“That, of course, is the great secret of the successful fool – that he is no fool at all.”
Isaac Asimov
Emotional truth in an age of spin
The clown speaks not to statistics, but to the gut. In a time of disinformation, people don’t just need data, they need feeling, presence, vulnerability.
A clown:
- falls to get back up.
- wears their heart outside their costume.
- makes mistakes on purpose—and in doing so, invites us all to laugh at ourselves.
A new form of protest
We’ve seen how pundits and politicians can easily dismiss or co-opt traditional protests. Clowning:
- breaks scripts and expectations.
- is nonviolent but confrontational.
- creates memorable, viral, emotionally resonant moments.
Imagine a town hall meeting where rebel clowns stand and silently sob every time an elected official mentions corruption. Or a faux media scrum where clown reporters ask questions in gibberish, making the politician’s evasive answers look even more absurd.
We need more play in politics
People are burned out. Clowning reintroduces imagination and play—not as escapism, but as resistance:
- to authoritarian control.
- to political despair.
- to the myth that we must always be “serious” to be sincere.
So … what’s the opportunity?
Maybe it’s time for:
A new clown vanguard—artists, activists, everyday people using clowning to confront corporate greed, environmental collapse, digital manipulation.
A clown bloc at marches—not just as comic relief, but as a strategic force of disruption and storytelling.
A rebel clown training ground—teaching physical theater, media jamming, street improvisation.
The world is absurd. The fool has always been the one who could speak truth to power—because power never saw the punchline coming.
So, if you’ve got a wig, a nose, a broken heart, or a little leftover glitter… this might be your time!
And what a great activity for friends and/or family for Create to Liberate on April 19.
We invite individual visual and performing artists, writers, bookstores, book clubs, brave non-profit or government organizations and other individuals or groups across the USA to independently “flood the zone” with creativity, for Create to Liberate, Saturday, April 19, 2025.
Think of the idea above as a pilot light for the creative fire within you (if yours needs to be lit.)
Follow Abbetuck on these social media platforms as well as on Substack.
IMAGE AT TOP
“Five Circus Clowns,” photo via Smithsonian Folklife Festival and courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
SEE ALSO
- American Clowns: Performance, History, and Cliché
- Laugh in the Face of Extinction (LiFE) [Financial Times paywall] “No soup thrown: meet the rebel clowns reinventing protest: Is there a better way to win support for your cause?”
- Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army
- Trickster
- Shakespeare’s Clowns and Fools
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