History Main / TheFreakshow

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/SkinDeep'', [[http://www.skindeepcomic.com/characters-2/exchanges-cast/ Mr. Finn and his friend Django]] once spent a few years working at a circus, Django in the freakshow. Since Django is actually a [[PantheraAwesome Bohemian Lion]], his [[PartialTransformation midform]] would be perfect for the role.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* One ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' comic had Garfield and Jon go to the circus. Jon started talking about the freakshow he was looking forward to. Garfield gestured to the assorted weirdos also waiting in line at the ticket booth and told Jon to save his money.
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*** A story in ''Detective Comics'', again featuring Two-Face had him trying to resolve one of Harvey Dent's unfinished cases which involved a circus. The circus just happened to have ConjoinedTwins in the freak show, who Two-Face alternated between feeling a connection to and despising, and who had differing opinions about Two-Face's brand of "justice".

** In the first ''[[Comicbook/GhostRider Ghost Rider]]'' series from the 1970s/1980s, the Quentin Carnival where Johnny Blaze lived and worked as a stunt-rider included a sideshow with several freaks. A multiple-issue story arc featured [[BigBad a nasty villain called Freakmaster]] who took normal people and ''turned them into'' freaks, then put them in his sideshows.

* The Sword Swallower

* ''Music/TomWaits'': In "Lucky Day Overture" from ''Music/TheBlackRider'' Tom plays a circus promoter promising "human oddities" such as a three-headed baby, [[BrainInAJar Hitler's brain]], the human pincushion, a seal boy with flippers for arms, the man born without a body, and more!

* Music/{{Silverchair}}'s second album, Freak Show, has the overall theme of this trope.

* AbnormalDentalGrowth

* The {{Armless|Biped}} Wonder

* The Fat Man/Woman (typically far heavier than a typical fat person--especially by the standards of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when freak shows were at the height of their popularity)

* The Fat Man/Woman (typically far heavier than a typical fat person[[note]]Especially by the standards of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when freak shows were at the height of their popularity.[[/note]])

Also compare ComeToGawk, which comes up frequently in works about Freakshows, as well as the PointAndLaughShow, which is the TV version of this trope. Not to be confused with Sideshow Bob of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' infamy, who's [[AxCrazy freaky in a different way]].

A Sideshow Act is a special show that involves people with strange or dangerous talents, and people with odd physical deformities or features.

* The Fat Man/Woman (typically far heavier than a typical fat person)

* StageMagician

Also compare ComeToGawk, which comes up frequently in works about Freakshows, as well as the PointAndLaughShow, which is the TV version of this trope. Not to be confused with Sideshow Bob of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' infamy.

Also compare ComeToGawk, which comes up frequently in works about Freakshows, as well as the PointAndLaughShow, which is the TV version of this trope.

* HollywoodNatives

* StageMagician
* TheStrongman (often billed as the WorldsStrongestMan)

* [[ExtraDigits The Guy with 11 Fingers or Toes]]
* [[TattooAsCharacterType The Tattooed Woman or Man]]
* [[LittlePeopleAreSurreal The Dwarf Or "The Tiny Man/Woman"]]
* The Sword Swallower
* [[BreathWeapon The Firebreather]]
* [[KnifeThrowingAct The Knife-Thrower]]

* The FortuneTeller

* The ConjoinedTwins (which in the olden days were called "Siamese Twins" after the most famous example, Chang and Eng Bunker).
* The {{Armless|Biped}} Wonder
* The {{Albino|sAreFreaks}}

* ''Film/TheElephantMan'' focused on John Merrick being part of a sideshow, due to the fact that parts of his body were horribly disfigured, giving him the nickname of the Elephant Man. Merrick was being exhibited in the squalid Belgian freak show. (In real life, ''Joseph'' Merrick entered these shows voluntarily for the sake of his own livelihood. He was actually treated pretty well ... until a new manager stole his money and abandoned him in Brussels, forcing Merrick to try find his way back to England.)

* The TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness crossover game ''Midnight Circus'' has a freakshow of its very own in the form of a pressboard building known only as Freak City. The freaks on display are a rather varied bunch, including victims of birth defects, magical creatures, and even full-blown [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse fomori]]. Dog-faced detectives, hermaphrodites, midget families, animated scarecrows, and two-headed monsters are just some of the creatures that can be encountered here, the undisputed master of the place being a nine-foot-tall blob of foul-smelling blubber known only as the Cone of Flesh. Of course, given the [[CircusOfFear overall malevolence of the Midnight Circus]], visitors to Freak City run the risk of suffering cumulative deformities for every minute they stay there; lingering long enough will result in your character being transformed into one of the freaks and joining the show.

* Franchise/TheDCU:

*** One storyline on ''Tales of the Dark Knight'' had Two-Face trying to rally up 'freaks' to fight back at society. At the end, [[spoiler:it turns out they were actually very reluctant to follow him, and generally get along fairly well]].
*** A story in ''Detective Comics'', again featuring Two-Face had him trying to resolve one of Harvey Dent's unfinished cases which involved a circus. The circus just happened to have cojoined twins in the freak show, who Two-Face alternated between feeling a connection to and despising, and who had differing opinions about Two-Face's brand of "justice".

* Franchise/MarvelUniverse:

*** The Blob started out this way. His act consisted of a dozen men trying to budge him without success, and then a marksman using a rifle with live ammo on him. While he had never considered himself anything more than "an extra strong freak", the revelation that he was a mutant made his ego get the best of him, turning him into the villain he is now.

-->'''Bo''': Fae {{hiding in plain sight}} as circus peeps. That's pretty clever.
-->'''Zael''': Well, it was the circus back in the 1800s. Then sideshow freaks, vaudevillians. Nowadays, we're more industrial performance artists. It's a great way for our kind to pass out in the open.

* ''Series/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'' adapts the novel, now with a VillainSong by Count Olaf as the ringmaster, and a RunningGag of the Hook-Handed Man taking part in the overall evil plan, but acting indignant whenever ''anyone,'' in or out of the ring takes him to be one of them.

** In their comic book, [[Characters/JusticeLeagueOfAmericaPostZeroHour the Wonder Twins]] were adopted after their parents' death to a plague; because of their special powers, they were subsequently adopted by the owner of a Space Circus. He only wanted them as part of their freak show.

* ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'': the Baudelaires join a freakshow in the 9th book, "The Carnivorous Carnival", which feature a hunchback, a contortionist, [[TheRuntAtTheEnd and an ambidextrous man]]. The thing is, the ambidextrous man considers himself a freak because ambidextrous people are not a common thing and yet people really do consider him a freak no different than conjoined twins.