The clown is back. He has a name - Mr Khairin Rasoh, 24. He said he has been dressing as a clown for the last three years doing roadshows at various locations to entertain kids and all.
Anyway, you may have heard the news a few days ago. Clowns were spotted outside Tao Nan School and Angsana Primary School. Complaints were also lodged to the police concerning clowns popping up at various primary schools.
“Members of the public are advised to stay away from strangers and to report any suspicious persons or activities to the police.”
In today’s news, Khairin spoke out. He was admittedly one of them clowns. Or, the only one going around to rally publicity. He works for Speech Academy Asia, which guides students in public-speaking skills. It was part of the company’s outreach program.
The director Kelvin Tan said: “There was no evil intention behind the costumes, and we sincerely apologise for it. We will not do it again.” Tan also denied that his clown had asked the kids to follow them. “Our employees wouldn’t go around saying such things.”
This led to the ire of another Tan. This time, he is a member of parliament, and it was not funny business for him. Not by a long shot. Tan Chuan-Jin said: “Whoever is doing what I assume to be some viral marketing nonsense, stop it! I trust the police are investigating this. It is not amusing and just plain dangerous.”
Kelvin Tan said that it was part of the company’s roadshow and the team members were asked to dress as “cute mascots”. He said he was not aware that they would go as clowns. “Maybe the clowns were too scary. It is wrong, and we won’t do it again.”
Khairin was apologetic. He said: “All we do is to give our brochures, free mask and stickers and we never approach children alone. We usually approach the parents first, and only children if they are in a big group.”
“I dress like this just to try and entertain kids. I was shocked and disappointed to learn that people were scared.”
Lesson? I guess we have Stephen King to thank for putting the evil in clowns. His IT movies (1990, 2017), about a killer clown, has terrorised young and old movie goers all over the world. Not to mention the recent hit Joker, which won Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar for best actor last year. It is about a clown who had gone bat-crazy, on a self-gratuitous killing spree.
I know Speech Academy Asia does not have evil intention to scare school going kids, since they are their target market. But in their enthusiasm for business publicity, they may have overlooked how the idea of a party clown has culturally mutated from someone doing magic tricks, making balloon animals and miming to make kids laugh to someone who stalks, haunts and chases kids and adults in movies.
My god, even Pixar movies have turned party clowns into daylight scarecrows or nightmarish bogeyman. Recall Inside out (2015)?
Well, there was Jangles the Clown, who was one of Riley's darkest fears. In Riley’s dreamscape, joy and sadness stumbled upon Jangles and woke him up. The next scene was a scary chase, out of Jangle’s dark cave that even sent chills down my spine.
Another cultural mutation was Toy Story 3. In that widely popular Pixar hit for kids, there was a clown named Chuckles, and he was clearly downcast and depressed. Not exactly the fun and hilarious clown we all grew up with.
So, regardless of Kelvin’s and Khairin’s intention, they get no star-sticker for comic timing. And I would hazard a guess to say that even if Khairin were to dress up as Barney the Purple Dinosaur, Donald Duck or Peppa Pig, and go at it alone, without a carnival-like entourage, greeting unsuspecting kids outside their schools with brochures, sweets and masks, his employer, Speech Academy Asia, will still scarce kids (and especially their parents), well, speechless.
If any lesson is to be learned here, it is captured in the word C-L-O-W-N.
C - Context. Even Thor with a hammer and superman in his bright red underwear would be shocking and scary if they stand all alone at the bus stop, winking and smiling at you. To compound matters, the danger for kids, who are too young to understand, is stranger-danger. And dressing up as their superheroes make for perfect baits for child-abductors.
L - Levity. To treat a serious matter with humour often backfire. Emotional and cultural sensitivity were clearly lacking here. And it reminds me of an advertisement of a product, Mr Clean, which blitzed on Mother’s Day, to imply that a woman’s duty is to clean the house.
And then, there is the Dove advertisement, which juxtapositioned an African-American lady in a bathrobe and a white American lady in the same bathrobe side by side, with the caption “Before-After”. You figure for yourself what’s wrong with that.
O - Overkill. Clearly, this clowning about near primary schools qualifies. It is over the top, and ideas like that either wins big or flops big. But, if it were free publicity that was the collateral intention, then it’s anyone’s guess the effect it has on the Academy’s bottomline.
W - Warning. MP Tan Chuan-Jin had already issued it - “Whoever is doing what I assume to be some viral marketing nonsense, stop it!” But I am using it as an advance notice to schools. If early preparations were made, and a day was fixed for such carnival-like event for publicity, then in that disarming context, the clowns will not be a killjoy, but a harbinger of joy.
And finally,
N - Normal. It is anything but. Speech Academy Asia has apologised in good time, and promised to heed Chuan-Jin’s admonishment - “stop the nonsense”. That is returning things back to normal.
I guess it would take some time for parents to trust clowns who stand near school’s gate again. Theirs is not a shocker, reel time, but one that is in-your-face, real time.
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