Side-Splitting Amusement: On comic scientists - the sciency type of violent clowns?

Abstract

Focusing on comic scientists in the popular cultural matrix around 1900 and the early 20th century, the heyday of circus arts, this paper explores an ongoing aesthetic tradition of comic pathological body aesthetics emerging from comic mad scientists and violent Frankensteinian clowns in literature and film. It clarifies that in circus contexts the Frankenstein-theme is terribly (morbidly) funny, and explores the reasons that make it so. Investigating a mosaic of historical examples, it builds on and extends Roslynn Haynes's analysis of a raft of scientist stereotypes and their impact on a Western cultural imaginary that feeds back into how the workings and operations of science are generally received. Rounding up a number of cultural connections and texts featuring scientist characters within the general framework of popular entertainment, the paper introduces the cultural stereotype of the comic scientist and further explores its attributes and characteristics.