At race tracks across the country men have turned the past time of betting on the races into a veritable art form. This sport is unlike any other form of betting as it is genuinely tangible to play the odds, study form and know the participants and the conditions well enough to have a talent for the gamble.
The Horse is as an important an individual in this focal point of public interest as the jockey or the trainer. Huge sums of money are invested in the purchase, breeding, training and maintenance of these beasts and often in the minds of the participants the Horse has become more revered and more beloved than the people.
This is just one example of how the common horse is held in such high regard. Show jumping, Polo, Rodeo's etc. Areas of police work rely on horses, soldiers across the globe have changed the shape of battles consequently the political map with careful usage of the Horse. What of Gengis Khan had he not had a Horse?
This fascination with the animal is so significant that some groups of people are actually referred to as 'Horsey'.
The Horse is without a shadow of a doubt a symbol of success, power, beauty and its absence would have profoundly changed the world and large swathes of social interaction, self perceptions and recreational activities.
How can it be then that the term 'Horsing around' is utilised with so similar a meaning as the term, 'Clowning around'?
After all, the current status of the average clown is far from prodgious and one might struggle to recall the last time a Clown changed swayed the pendulum of world political power (George Bush aside). There was even a BBC documentary on Clowns which exposed the sad state of the Clowning industry for what it has become. One Clown in question, Tommy Tickle displayed the rotting underbelly of being a clown in its rawest form, as quoted in the Times Tommy is,
'A plump, bald man with a voice as crusty as Krusty's, he even thought his own daughter “vile”. Kids these days, they had no moral boundaries. He always wore a cricket box, because you can tell a child 100 jokes but there is none as funny as punching a clown in the nuts. '
To put it bluntly, you wouldn't kick a Horse in the nuts.
Presumably, both Horse and Clown were once of equal ilk? Both often seen messing about, inducing hilarity but essentially ignoring the rigours of the day to day bind of a job in adminstration perhaps. The intimation of, 'Clowning' or 'Horsing' around is that it is a harmless though unproductive activity, the cyncisim in the statements is tapered with an endearing quality and unlikely to escalate to full reprimand or actual disdain.
How fortunes have changed for the Clown and the Horse. Horses have put in the hard graft, they are as reliable as a Horse for example. The key for the Horse is that they have retained a sense of independence despite becoming humourless grafters. This independence seems to have saved them from the pitfalls of team bonding. You never see a group of Horses out in a bar leering over a barmaid and downing pints of lager whilst standing on their heads.
The Clown has also retained an independence, but it is perhaps more an enforced lonliness that has slowly lead to an increasing alcholoism and hatred of Children. This personal abuse has since undermined the very essence of their point, to bring joy and to raise spirits. Instead they have been raising spirits in a darkened room all alone, in a glass....dressed as a clown.
A sorry demise for Clowns, a heroic rise to fame for Horses. What could possibly have lead to a situation where these two could have gone in such different directions?
The likely protagonist would appear to be the enemy of the people, the nemisis of the intellectual and the oppressor of the female race. Vanity. Quite simply, during those pivotal socially embrionic days of the latter Teenage years, who would it be less embarrasing to be seen with, a Clown or a Horse?
This is what the Clown must endure, as children of younger and younger ages learn to love horses and kick Clowns in the balls, Clowns lose their sense of fun and with every declining step lurch further toward extinction. As for the Horse, i fear their motives. After all, never trust a Trojan Horse.
The Horse is as an important an individual in this focal point of public interest as the jockey or the trainer. Huge sums of money are invested in the purchase, breeding, training and maintenance of these beasts and often in the minds of the participants the Horse has become more revered and more beloved than the people.
This is just one example of how the common horse is held in such high regard. Show jumping, Polo, Rodeo's etc. Areas of police work rely on horses, soldiers across the globe have changed the shape of battles consequently the political map with careful usage of the Horse. What of Gengis Khan had he not had a Horse?
This fascination with the animal is so significant that some groups of people are actually referred to as 'Horsey'.
The Horse is without a shadow of a doubt a symbol of success, power, beauty and its absence would have profoundly changed the world and large swathes of social interaction, self perceptions and recreational activities.
How can it be then that the term 'Horsing around' is utilised with so similar a meaning as the term, 'Clowning around'?
After all, the current status of the average clown is far from prodgious and one might struggle to recall the last time a Clown changed swayed the pendulum of world political power (George Bush aside). There was even a BBC documentary on Clowns which exposed the sad state of the Clowning industry for what it has become. One Clown in question, Tommy Tickle displayed the rotting underbelly of being a clown in its rawest form, as quoted in the Times Tommy is,
'A plump, bald man with a voice as crusty as Krusty's, he even thought his own daughter “vile”. Kids these days, they had no moral boundaries. He always wore a cricket box, because you can tell a child 100 jokes but there is none as funny as punching a clown in the nuts. '
To put it bluntly, you wouldn't kick a Horse in the nuts.
Presumably, both Horse and Clown were once of equal ilk? Both often seen messing about, inducing hilarity but essentially ignoring the rigours of the day to day bind of a job in adminstration perhaps. The intimation of, 'Clowning' or 'Horsing' around is that it is a harmless though unproductive activity, the cyncisim in the statements is tapered with an endearing quality and unlikely to escalate to full reprimand or actual disdain.
How fortunes have changed for the Clown and the Horse. Horses have put in the hard graft, they are as reliable as a Horse for example. The key for the Horse is that they have retained a sense of independence despite becoming humourless grafters. This independence seems to have saved them from the pitfalls of team bonding. You never see a group of Horses out in a bar leering over a barmaid and downing pints of lager whilst standing on their heads.
The Clown has also retained an independence, but it is perhaps more an enforced lonliness that has slowly lead to an increasing alcholoism and hatred of Children. This personal abuse has since undermined the very essence of their point, to bring joy and to raise spirits. Instead they have been raising spirits in a darkened room all alone, in a glass....dressed as a clown.
A sorry demise for Clowns, a heroic rise to fame for Horses. What could possibly have lead to a situation where these two could have gone in such different directions?
The likely protagonist would appear to be the enemy of the people, the nemisis of the intellectual and the oppressor of the female race. Vanity. Quite simply, during those pivotal socially embrionic days of the latter Teenage years, who would it be less embarrasing to be seen with, a Clown or a Horse?
This is what the Clown must endure, as children of younger and younger ages learn to love horses and kick Clowns in the balls, Clowns lose their sense of fun and with every declining step lurch further toward extinction. As for the Horse, i fear their motives. After all, never trust a Trojan Horse.
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Not only are you nearly a year behind with this content, you seem to have missed the point of a documentary you don't seemed to have watched. Onward ho!
ReplyDeleteI'm fairly certain i just used the documentary as a point of interest to jazz up an idle observation about how interesting the English language is. Fairly certain.
ReplyDelete