Line #8 Main/ClownSchool


1	[[quoteright:249:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clown_school.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:249:Will you major in Juggling, Pie Throwing, or [[AfraidOfClowns Phobia Inducing]]?]]
3	->''"That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough! I'm going to ''clown college''!"''
4	-->-- '''Homer Simpson''', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E15HomieTheClown Homie the Clown]]"[[note]]'''Bart:''' "I don't think any of us expected him to say that."[[/note]]
5
6	Do clowns need an education? Well, at least in fiction they do.
7
8	A Clown School is where people go to learn circus comedy roles and skills. They're usually staffed by Clowns -- the jokey, {{non ironic\|Clown}} variety. The classes there usually range from developing a character, makeup and costuming, using props, [[PieInTheFace pie throwing]] to {{Pun}}s to other forms of jokes (But never the practical mean-spirited ones). Sometimes used as a punishment for something or other (usually bad grades), or maybe the character thinks that it might happen for that reason.
9
10	Not to be confused with ClassClown, though they may get decent grades there. Also not to be confused with the DisneySchoolOfActingAndMime. Also unrelated to {{Monster Clown}}s and {{Sad Clown}}s, thought they might be dropouts. [[UsefulNotes/BritishUnis Clown Colleges]] are related in name only.
11
12	----
13	!!Examples:
14
15	[[foldercontrol]]
16
17	[[folder:Comic Books]]
18	* Pinkie Pie's issue of the ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyMicroSeries'' ends with her suggesting her idol Poniacci teaches one as his retirement from being a clown.
19	[[/folder]]
20
21	[[folder:Fan Works]]
22	* ''Fanfic/TheMountainAndTheWolf'': One of the (many) insults the Wolf throws at Euron is asking if he's naturally inept or needed to be taught.
23	-->Were you born this clumsy or did you take lessons? Give me the name of your teacher in idiocy so I can congratulate him on the summits his pupil has reached in the art of being a clown!
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Literature]]
27	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has the Fool's Guild, where young men are apprenticed to become court jesters and the like. Depicted as a terrible place where comedy is SeriousBusiness. A RunningGag is to compare the Fools' Guild to the Assassins' Guild, which it is directly next to, and [[BaitAndSwitchComparison make the Fools' Guild sound worse]].
28	* The ''Literature/FoolsGuild'' book series by Alan Gordon stars Theopholus aka Feste the Fool from ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'' and his wife as fools ''cum'' secret agents. The Guild is also a training school for young fools to become Fools and agents.
29	[[/folder]]
30
31	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
32	* ''Series/{{Baskets}}'': Protagonist Chip attended The Académie de Clown Français, a serious and prestigious clown school in Paris to pursue his ambition in clowning but failed miserably upon returning to the States at the pilot.
33	* On an episode of ''Series/TheWestWing'', [[Creator/PennAndTeller Penn Jillette]] makes an insightful defense of his flag burning trick. He's asked if he had gone to law school. He responds, "No, clown school."
34	* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'': After Cody is blamed for turning the daughter of a strict college recruiter into a wild party girl, her father insults him by saying that not only will he not be going to his college, but that he'd be lucky if he got into clown college.
35	* In an episode of ''Series/Teachers2016'', Principal Pearson reveals that he spent a year at a French clown college.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Video Games]]
39	* In ''VideoGame/BraveHeroYuusha'', Horace the CourtJester apparently went to one and got a masters in "Clownonomics".
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Webcomics]]
43	* ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'': [[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/03/12/episode-1104-informal-poll/ This exchange:]]
44	-->'''Thief:''' What did they ''teach'' you in clown school anyway?\
45	'''Black Mage:''' Nothing! I mean... It wasn't for clowns only, it... Shut up.
46	* ''Webcomic/ThePerryBibleFellowship'' gives us a skeleton who goes into debt to become a clown. The result? MonsterClown.
47	* Jokerella from ''Webcomic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella'' claims to still be in college. The AltText explains "Clown College".
48	* ''Webcomic/ClownCorps'' combines this with HeroAcademy, where Clowns are specialized crimefighters who learn clowning "routines" as fighting techniques, including [[TrickArrow multipurpose throwing pies]].
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Web Videos]]
52	* ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'': "Jeffy the Clown" has Jeffy going to clown college only for it to be run by the failed clown Screwball, who is too talentless and lazy to properly teach him, telling him not to bother trying to juggle because it's too hard and that the only balloon animals he needs to make are a snake and a worm, which just consists of inflating a green or pink balloon.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Western Animation]]
56	* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', Steve attends a clown class, but finds out that Roger is the teacher, which is no surprise.
57	-->'''Steve''': ''(to another clown student)'' The teacher here is supposed to be the most intense and demanding instructor in all of clowning, and -- [[GenreSavvy shit, it's Roger, isn't it? It's going to be Roger.]]
58	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
59	** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E3HomerGoesToCollege Homer Goes to College]]", when Homer announces that he has to go to college to keep his job, Bart asks "Barber or clown?".
60	** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E15HomieTheClown Homie the Clown]]", Homer goes to clown school to become a Krusty impersonator. The episode was made possible because Homer and Krusty look alike with the exception of the green hair sported by Krusty, as seen in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E12KrustyGetsBusted Krusty Gets Busted]]". The clown is seen without white makeup in some scenes.
61	** Subverted in this exchange between Sideshow Bob and his brother Cecil in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E16BrotherFromAnotherSeries Brother from Another Series]]":
62	--->'''Bob:''' You wanted to be Krusty's sidekick since you were five! What about the buffoon lessons, the four years at clown college.\
63	'''Cecil:''' I'll thank you not to refer to Princeton that way.
64	** Krusty founds ''another'' clown school in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS34E21ClownVBoardOfEducation Clown V. Board of Education]]", this one aimed at elementary-school-aged children. Besides performance, the Herschel Krustofsky School for the Clowning Arts teaches standard grade school subjects, though using unconventional methods (i.e., physics taught by calculating the trajectories of thrown pies), and proves far more effective at educating Bart and his BookDumb friends than the SuckySchool they typically attend, to the point that they handily beat the three highest-achieving students from said school in a Science Bowl.
65	* Bobby from ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' attends a clowing class at the local college. He's disappointed to learn that the class teaches CommediaDellArte-type clowning instead of circus clowning, and the teacher takes it ''very'' seriously. Hank has to save Bobby from going to a talent show with his new act because he knows that nobody will find that "jester crap" to be funny, just weird.
66	* Acme Looniversity on ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' is essentially this. Along with normal high school courses, the students also study how to do {{Wild Take}}s and other ZanyCartoon tropes, taught by the original ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' cast.
67	* There is an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CatDog'' where the titular duo go to clown school. It's played like a [[BootCampEpisode boot camp,]] with a drill instructor and parachute jumping.
68	* A fighting variation appears in ''WesternAnimation/YinYangYo''. Yin and Yang spend the episode learning Clown-Fu, a martial arts based on clowning around. Yo was a former practitioner and Yang excels at it. However, the techniques do not the work on humorless foes (here, the accountants) resulting in the kids using their Woo-Fu to defeat said accountants.
69	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' has Clyde mentioning that Giggles is Luan's clown friend from clown school, which was mentioned and never seen.
70	* The basic premise of ''WesternAnimation/JoJosCircus'' is [=JoJo=] and her classmates all attending kiddie clown school. Their parents are graduates.
71	[[/folder]]
72
73	[[folder:Real Life]]
74	* Clown Schools actually exist, and some theater colleges have majors made with clowns in mind.
75	** Dell'Arte International, in California.
76	** Center for Movement Theatre, in Washington DC
77	** Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, which closed in 1997
78	* Yoshimoto New Star Creation is a Japanese and non-college level example.
79	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ClownSchool