To be called a clown is no compliment.

Like the silly circus performer, a clown turns ordinary actions — like watering a flower in a pot — into something exaggerated and often grotesque, while engaging in dangerous actions — like walking on a tightrope — with nonchalance.

As Shakespeare, whose clowns were called ‘fools,’ put it, "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."

I can’t tell you which politician was first called ‘a clown,’ but these days, you hear it all the time.

But clowning has a rich tradition.

And the term means different things in different contexts.

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