Clowns are creepy. Or, as in the case of the one we met yesterday, cranky.
Yesterday our local YMCA had a free kids day. We don’t belong to the Y, but we decided to check it out with one of our friends. They had a free fingerprinting service, where they create a CD with your kids picture, fingerprints and stats so you have it in case the worst happens and they go missing. They gave out freebies from local businesses, and had a bouncy house set up in the gym. Around the perimeter of the gym they had more table with freebies, and this clown making balloon things.
“You can have a balloon dog or a balloon sword, those are your choices” says the clown.
“I am just picking colors from a bag, randomly. You get whatever color you get” says the clown.
It was like watching your cranky Uncle Leo at a party. The only thing missing was a smelly stogie and a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
There was a significantly long line, because inexplicably kids LOVE balloon things, and most have not yet been profoundly disturbed by a clown yet, so they all want to talk to this guy and get a balloon thing. And yet, while there is a long line of kids, who have all been running like lunatics, jumping in the bouncy house and generally being crazy, Mr. Cranky Clown keeps stopping his balloon making efforts to do things like fiddle with his ipod which was being piped into an speaker and was blasting, at a kids event, Jimmie Hendrix of all things.
Every parent standing there was thinking the same thing, I am sure. “Stop fiddling with your ipod and get busy making either a dog or a sword for the kids, you creepy, cranky clown guy.” Really, clowns are not right.
midlyfemama 
When I was 7, our elementary school had a carnival with all of the typical crap you’d expect, including a clown who decided that after an hour or so, he needed a break.
So he went into the parking lot and lit up a joint. A friend of mine told me that the clown was doing something “funny” and we went to check it out. The clown saw us, chased our asses across the parking lot, then got in his car and burned rubber out of there.
Ummm, background checks, anyone?
Clowns creep me out, that one looks really annoyed, too!
Huh. He even looks like a crummy clown. Where’s his clown makeup? And is it just me, or does it ook like e’s wearing a hooker wig?
That wig is TOTALLY a hooker wig! He was totally lame. His schtick was being sponsored by a local bank, so he kept telling everyone, after he handed over the balloon thing “Go see them. They sponsored this.” And I am SURE they were happy about that relationship too.