The entire reason I kicked off my own website was to combat the false sense of snobbery on Rotten Tomatoes. I was sick of seeing low scores for films like Showgirls (1995), Staying Alive (1983), Grease 2 (1982), y’know, basically anything even remotely fun. I’ve written about some, will eventually write about others, but it isn’t a trend I had initially planned on carrying out. Exemplifying this, a couple weeks back I was gifted a blu-ray release of Shakes the Clown (1991), yeah? It is a dark comedy about a bunch of alcoholic clowns that I loved when I was a tater tot, despite being incapable of understanding the content to the fullest extent – I had no idea what a hangover was, let alone how hellacious and debilitating they are. I began flirting with the idea of contrasting my viewing experience now versus then, until I hopped onto Rotten Tomatoes… Surprise! The fun-hating critics hated this movie too, and of course they did. Because who doesn’t hate messy, degenerate clowns? Uh, people that know how to have a good time, you assholes!

“What do you mean by ‘you assholes’?” – If you go outta your way to read my garbage, you likely have just as bad of taste as I do therefor not you. Now that we’ve squashed any potential misinterpretations of stray dialogue, lets dig into this goofy beauty. Shakes the Clown, as aforementioned, is a black comedy written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. He also stars as Shakes, our lead mess whose problematic drinking has become a cause for concern among the clowns closest to him. Literally, pretty much everyone in this film is a clown – The few exceptions being his girlfriend, a professional bowler named Judy (Julie Brown); A couple of dummy cops; And the mimes who get beaten mercilessly by the clowns whenever they are happened upon.

Now, I know what you must be thinking – How could this get anymore bonkers? Well, it does. I could likely write a hefty textbook on this film, but I’ll just get into the opening scene for now. The first shot you see is a dog wearing a party hat mowing down on some discarded pizza, shortly followed by the line “Mom, who’s the naked clown in our bathroom?”

After he arises headfirst into a stream of piss, I feel confident stating that we as an audience gain an understanding of who Shakes is. Though the tone was already ruefully distasteful, in walks the embodiment of trash – The mother serving as Shake’s one night stand is cameoed by none other than Carol Brady (Florence Henderson) herself, and shes in an satin nightgown with grease-paint crudely smeared all over her. A literal bottom-of-the-barrel-garbage-fantasy realized, and I am absolutely here for it.

If this sounds vulgar to you, well… It is. I can’t really come up with another word to describe this film, ’cause it isn’t really all that raunchy, just… Really strange. Maybe I’m just garbage, but I love that this took me into such a niche lifestyle that I wouldn’t have even thought of otherwise. I know nothing about clown culture. Is it even a thing? Probably, I certainly hope so. But seeing all these dudes decked out in obnoxious outfits, hitting their local watering hole (a bar called The Twisted Balloon), and relentlessly beating up mimes whenever they cross paths… Come on, people! This is legitimately fun personified!

I think we’ve gotten the comedy part nailed down, so lets get into why this film is considered to be so dark. It all starts with Binky (Tom Kenny). Binky is basically the creepiest clown you can imagine – His grease-paint is fixed with sharp points, in fact they derived inspiration from serial killer John Wayne Gacy’s, if that gives you any inclination to how uncomfortable this shit gets. And unlike your average alcoholic clown, Binky seemingly has a pretty bad cocaine problem. Forgive me if this is a spoiler, but long story short, Binky snorts some gnarly shit from some rodeo clowns and ends up murdering Mr. Cheese (Paul Dooley), the boss of all the party clowns. What does he do? Blames it on Shakes who just so happened to be in a drunken slumber at the time. There is your plot, and it is a mighty fine one if ya ask me!

Maybe you’re still not convinced, I suppose that is alright. But perhaps I could persuade you a little further by mentioning a couple of things. Firstly, the cast – You’ve got an all-star lineup of comedians including Blake Clark, Adam Sandler, and Robin Williams. Truth be told, Williams as a verbally abusive mime instructor is likely my favourite part of this entire movie. You also get to see Tom Kenny, y’know, the dude who is the voice of Spongebob, snort a bunch of coke and act like a homicidal maniac while wearing terrifying clown makeup. I don’t want you to continue depriving yourself of this experience, I simply won’t allow it.

Ignore the box office numbers. Ignore the fact that people walked out of the premiere in droves. Think about the alcoholic clowns. This is their story. Do it for them.