Clown Hour

For once Jacob was the one wanting to record a new episode of this podcast we "ended" months ago. I spat out my cranberry-juice-soaked Frosted Flakes when I saw his message. In all honesty, it feels like years ago since we started recording this podcast in February in a podcast studio at the University. Back when things were "Man, I'm sure glad we're not China right now. But now I haven't even seen Jacob since early March. Yet I responded: "sure, I'll come up with something." Well, here's "something" for your listening pleasure. Our top clownish moments all from this long, hellish year ranging from fat bears to COVID challenges to the always humorous state of politics. Here's to a new year, hopefully it's better than the last.

Clown Hour may have reached a conclusion, but these clowns haven't. Far from it actually. Not unlike clowning that goes back for millennia, which while they, as well as the world, might have changed since their first outing, the idea of a clown hasn't. Or has it? Well, Jacob and Alex did some research for once to find out. From clowns serving as heads of religion in Egypt in 2000 B.C to the beginnings of clowning in Shakespearean to the 2016 Clown Scare that led to the banning of clown costumes in stores, to the racism perhaps inbredded in modern-day clowning, all will be clowned upon. This podcast will challenge people's perceptions of clowns, and make them realize that maybe clowns are more complex and only slightly less creepy than they thought.

To celebrate the fact that at the end of the day they can still be clowns, Alex and Jacob decided to create this special celebrating the week of August 1 through 7. Or more specifically International Clown Week. So -- always ahead of the curb and innovative in their comedy -- they published this podcast two weeks after it. To quote Alex: "Since Out last podcast, we've been able to reevaluate what our podcast is going to be. And the thing is our podcast is going to be nothing. So what that means is that we'll just do a history of clowns or something, because of International Clown Week."

Sorry, but we had to do it. We had to end the podcast. The pathway to becoming a chart-topping podcast was becoming narrower and narrower and a clown doesn't want to lose their audience or go through the pain and discomfort of realizing that their audience doesn't find them funny anymore. Maybe that is the true core of humor . . . . Nonetheless, clowns are known for having a tremendous final act, so in this episode we try to fit six episodes into one with six guests. It starts out with one guest, Nick Mitchell, and then another, Meagan Owens, and then another, Zachary Owens, and then another, Brandon Mitchell. As more guests come on, the conversation becomes more distorted, more chaotic. And then another, Flint Bonners, and then another, a vaping panda-mask-wearing person. Take off the mask! Shouted repeatedly, but if it is one thing clowns must know, is that they must never show defeat or give up their act. After the guests are kicked off, it ends with Alex 'singing' "Clown Days are Over," and Jacob reading a soliloquy offering a different perspective on what it means to be a clown. A lot happens in this episode, just like a lot has happened during Clown Hour. Until a new circus arises . . .

After having all their gigs canceled due to the world not wanting to interact with them anymore, Jacob and Alex recorded this episode from their homes of clownish origins over one glitchy video call. It's on slang, and slang is discussed, among other things. Slang words discussed: "poggers," "hooning," "dogging," "hey there, guy," "stanky leg," "big chungus," (yeah . . .) "lit af," "evom," and "spicy." That's quite a lot of dumb words, and to get through that "dense" subject, the clowns call upon Chandler Canant and Louis Gonzalez, different flavors of engineering majors, who have engineered much of the modern syntax, apparently. Umm, this podcast is poggers and lit af . . . (sorry, just gagged, there's a reason why Alex rarely uses slang.)

You can be talking about the most interesting topic ever, but if you fail to explore it properly, you will undoubtedly look like a clown to all parties involved. That isn't a good type of clown either. Chemistry between the two hosts prevent that, we think. So, aspiring scientist and dentist Aidan McCloy was dragged into the podcast on one jumbled midnight during midterms week to dig into these two clowns' chemistry.

Listen, we need to have a consistent audience tuning every week to see what these clowns are all about and to maintain their gained popularity. So how does one do that when they aren't humorous or engaging enough? Well, by psychological manipulation of course. Tyler Grina, a psychology major, a philosophy major, a biology major, or a whatever major, manifests in this podcast and offers some advice and insight on something like that. In the process, these clowns get deep.

Part of having an entertaining chart-topping podcast is the element of comedy and humor interspersed throughout it, but that raises the question: What is comedy? Well, with the help of the lively Kegan Morris, and with a couple of stories along the way, these clowns try to define comedy.

Alex Mitchell and Jacob Owens begin their mission to create a chart-topping podcast, but first things first, they need to create a chart-topping podcast theme that represents what they want to do. So these clowns get help from Christian Lastname, a music major at the University of Montana.