As you didn't get proper replies, let me try.
Parents are usually busy, and wrapped up in all kinds of Earthly responsibilities, their mind is almost never where they are. Whenever they can relax, they like to just forget all the worries and just drown themselves in alcohol or whatnot, or 'enjoy adult company'.
This clown was probably not scrutinized by a relaxed, 'being-in-the-moment' parent, who can afford to compare this clown to 20 other clowns or entertainers before deciding on the best one, after weighing pros and cons of all of them.
This clown was most likely just quickly hired as a SMALL part of this whole unnecessarily extravagant birthday party preparations. There are the balloons, the guests, the other parents, catering, allergies, nap times, adult dynamics, the dishes, decorations, cleaning up, and all that other stuff to consider - entertainment is a matter of just hiring someone from some listing you can quickly get on a given date, and trust that the entertainment is delivered as promised.
The clown was most likely having an off day, after having to entertain so much, and mentally checked out having to be within a group of noisy kids who don't really understand to critique between quality entertainment and awful entertainment all day every day. So he's going through the motions, because who cares, it's good enough.
The parents aren't going to pay much attention - after all, they're always busy - as they arrange and prepare for everything and see that everything goes well and that the kids don't destroy the house. The clown can do any kind of performance as long as it's appropriate, and the kids don't complain too much. The parents aren't critics, so they don't a) know about 'clown performance criteria' and b) care too much as long as the kids are 'happy' (= not bothering the parents).
The woman is a single parent, so she basically has taken the majority of the workload, and Jerry is just helping here and there (I assume).
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avortac4 (3676)
3 years ago
All this leads to the unfortunate dynamic we see, where the audience suffers, the kids are oblivious (the can enjoy anything, because they have no clown-experience (in this incarnation) to use to critique and compare - the same way kids can enjoy the STUPIDEST movies and cartoons that adults couldn't even watch long enough to feel the gag reflex), the adults are too busy to really pay attention and prioritizing too much other stuff to care, even if they did pay attention.
Therefore, the ONLY people that really realize just how TERRIBLE this clown and the whole clown act is, is the audience.
In my opinion, this scene is actually poignant, as it tells all this so well with just one word repeated over and over. Because it's a "good word", the kids get tingles and the adults feel like it's a safe act.
This scene expresses how adults are too busy and wrapped in their own problems to TRULY see, hear and realize what's going on with theid kids, even if it happens in the front of their very eyes (and ears). It shows how people slip into bad parenting even if their intentions are good (the birthday party is WAY too extravagant for a kid that age, but moms try to buy their kids' affection this way, overcompensating for the lack of father figure in their life, and perhaps guilt drives them towards this destructive path that will inevitably scar the kids and damage them psychologically in the long run).
This scene is brilliant, because it makes you basically hate the stupid adults that not only put up with this kind of crap, but actually HIRE this kind of clown (and I am not referring to his job now), without ever taking a moment to pause, reflect and look at their choices. It also makes you hate kids that swallow this shallow crap as entertainment without demanding something better, something more, something meaningful. The movie makes the audience the only immediate victim of all of this, all the while making audience think about parenting and how stupid kids really are.
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avortac4 (3676)
3 years ago
To look at this from the clown's perspective, the clown probably started as an actually enthusiastic, happy entertainer that developed and cultivated a routine, checked what works and what doesn't, and optimized it into a really successful, nice kids' entertainment show. Over the years, however, the enthusiasm waned off, and what was once energetic and very well intonated and expressed show - including funny and wacky facial and bodily expressions - became, little by little, more and more dull and soulless 'going through the same routine over and over again' dullness, until it devolved into what we see on the screen.
You can easily imagine the same song sung with much more happy intonation, lots of energy, bouncing around while doing 'funny faces' and all that. It must've been something like that in the past, but since the less energy-consuming and easier-to-perform dull version works just as well (for all intents and purposes), the clown sees no point and has no energy to do it the way he once used to. Just an easy gig to get money so he can go drinking tonight. I think many performers and entertainers fall to this trap - if the audience swallows any ol' crap, why bother giving them your finest self with all your energy and effort? Why sweat it..?
I think THAT's up with that clown.
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