Stereotypes

General
21

i have only been unicycling for about amonth and a half but i have heard plenty of remarks about unicycling and clowns. i have to say before i unicycled i did associate clown with unicycles. the first time i saw a clown he was actually on a unicycle soo… i guess that makes sense.

one thing i think that definitly makes people make this connection is childrens cartoons. you will always see people on unicycles in cartoons.

one of my moms friends saw me on my unicycle and asked my mother if that was me on that “circus bike”.

22

it frustrates me when people are not properly informed…but what can you do?

23

usually small kids like that think of all circus performers as clowns. (I blame television) And usually kids that age only get to see unicyles when they go to a circus or see something on tv that has to do with a circus.

24

I was at a Medieval Fair in a wee town near my hometown recently dressed as a knight and juggling my knives and clubs and rolling about on my unicycle (not at the same time!)

Nobody called me a clown, but that might have been down to my costume.

In the wee town I saw a poster for the circus, which was coming to town soon. On this poster was a BMX-er pictured just after taking off from a jump.

So people think unicycles are circus bike have been wrong all along.

Its the guys on BMX’s who ride circus bikes, I saw it on a poster.

T.

25

Re: Stereotypes

Mikefule wrote:
> Most clowns do not ride unicycles.

Most of the clowns that I know do. We must mix with different clowns.

> Most unicyclists are not clowns.

I wonder how true that is. A lot of jugglers ride unicycles, to most of
them it’s just another prop. Many of them are professional clowns.
There seems always to have been a divide between two communities of
unicyclists, those who regard it as a sport (the majority of posters to
rsu) and those to whom it is just another performance tool. I would
guess that you tend to associate within only the former of those two
communities.

I offer as examples a couple of friends of mine who have never been
sport unicyclists (well, I believe Kev played a few games of hockey
years ago), but are quite definitely unicyclists and professional clowns:
<URL:http://www.topperispink.co.uk/>
<URL:http://www.akardo.co.uk/>

I’ve worked with both of them as unicycling clowns, BTW. Here’s Kev
being one:
<URL:http://www.topperispink.i12.com/photo06.html>

> In
> other parts of my life, I am a bit of a street performer, but today, I
> am dressed as an athlete, and attempting (with little success) to ride
> like one.

What sort of athlete? If you’re dressed in typical cycling team kit
then I reckon people could be forgiven for mistaking you for a clown,
unicycle or not :wink:

> So, where does this stereotype come from? I blame the greetings card
> industry. Should we picket a card factory?

I’ve got a really nice postcard on my kitchen wall. It shows a clown
riding a giraffe atop a walking globe, while juggling fire and balancing
a spinning plate on his chin. A child is walking past completely
oblivious to all of this, engrossed in an electronic game. The caption
is: “The Audience”.

–
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” - Thomas Paine