Clowns Pt. II

From my previous article, you may have somewhat retained a meager history of clowns. As you may or may not have recalled, clowns harbor a rich history that today has been condensed into a largely horrific caricature in pop culture. From this you may believe that clowns are a thing of the past: a character that lived its historical hay day and has become increasingly obsolete in function. However, this is incorrect. Clowns may be more important than ever. Let’s take a journey into a hysterical world of medicine…let the true clownage begin. 

Clown Doctors

Anyone familiar with the show Bojack Horseman may recall Todd Chavez’s recurring clown dentist (‘clentist’) business, which wreaked havoc on the public in intimidating yet hysterical ways. Although the very premise is absurd, it is surprisingly not far from reality. 

Clown doctors or medical clowns are clowns who work in healthcare settings, forming clown care units consisting of one or two clowns. They can be found in myriad settings and garner a wide audience of children, adults, the elderly, relatives of patients, and healthcare staff. Clown interventions in healthcare use humor to promote well-being, with many studies providing evidence that clowning in healthcare settings can serve as a beneficial alternative/complementary approach to improving the emotions of patients and their relatives. 

However, a meta-analysis of 28 studies concluded that more detailed research had to be conducted to truly determine the effectiveness of clown interventions. The study sought to test whether hospital clowning significantly alleviated anxiety and pain in younger patients; they found that compared to parental presence, clowning significantly lowered anxiety levels. There was no difference in effectiveness between clowning and medication/other interventions. Although clowning interventions were found to be generally more effective than standard care, more detailed research focusing on comparing clowning interventions with other interventions was recommended. 

Yet another study analyzed the effects of hospital clowns on trait cheerfulness, a metric that indicated “individual differences in experiences and behavioral responses in various humor experiments and settings” to determine whether trait cheerfulness influenced the effectiveness of hospital clowns on the emotional state of patients. 42 adult patients in rehab were visited by clowns and had their trait cheerfulness measured via coding their facial expressions. The use of hospital clown intervention yielded more Duchenne smiles (genuine smiles that crinkle the eyes) than non-Duchenne smiles and subsequently more positive emotions. In this case, hospital clown intervention was concluded to be generally beneficial. However, the study noted that Duchenne smiles alone may not influence trait cheerfulness, although they are strongly associated with higher trait cheerfulness and positive emotions.

Conclusion

I apologize for the brevity of this article, as it only has covered one aspect of clowns in the modern age. Although clowns are shown to exhibit potential for a worthier cause in the realm of healthcare, comedy on its own is a powerful force. No matter the era, regardless of how the art of clowning has changed, there have always been ways to make people laugh. Now more than ever in this chaotic world, moments of joy and laughter become more valuable. Comedy (and by extension, clowning) is art, and as the saying goes “ars longa, vita brevis”: art is long and life is short. So please, whenever you can, take the time to create (however stupid or silly it is)! You may also engage with more clown-related content while you’re at it. I personally recommend the web series Big Top Burger, which I find to be a uniquely lighthearted, funny, whimsical take on the clown character in this modern age of scary clowns. I hope you have a wonderful spring break, and as always, stay tuned for whenever I manage to get another one of these out.

Sources

Auerbach, S. (2017). Are Clowns Good for Everyone? The Influence of Trait Cheerfulness on Emotional Reactions to a Hospital Clown Intervention. Frontiers in Psychology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5693907/

Caci, L., Zander-Schellenberg, T., & Gerger, H. (2023). Effectiveness of hospital clowning on pediatric anxiety and pain: Network meta-analysis. Health Psychology, 42(4), 257–269. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0001285

Dionigi, A., & Goldberg, A. (2020). Highly sensitive persons, caregiving strategies and humour: the case of Italian and Israeli medical clowns. The European Journal of Humour Research, 7(4), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.7592/ejhr2019.7.4.dionigi