Clowns in Classic Car Ads: Big-Top Madness!

Fun or Creepy? You decide.

I don’t know when it was that stand-up comics began telling clown jokes. I want to say I was fully an adult before it was brought to my attention—by those stand-up comics—that the whole clown thing is pretty weird. I recall a local shock jock dedicating considerable attention to the whole clown-as-a-career thing.

Within the confines of a circus, clowns sort of make sense, if only because the entire atmosphere is borderline surreal. Outside of the circus venue I find clowning a little strange, and a lot unnecessary.

I may not be the only one a little squeamish about clowns. It took me a while to find a gallery’s worth of car ads featuring clowns, and some of these are really just circus-focused—my apologies.

Oh, and for the record, there is a clown hall of fame, though the organization’s website does not actually list inductees on its website. Not that it matters much, as Emmet Kelly and Chicago’s legendary Bozo are the only professional clowns I can name. Anyway, please enjoy the ads:

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