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From the Book of Le Clown...
Clowning

Aesop was a Bozo

Before we start, let’s read one of Aesop‘s fables. Fine, go grab a coffee first.

The Wild Ass and the Clown [Aesop was never Freshly Pressed, obviously.]

A WILD ASS and a Clown entered into an alliance so that they might capture WordPress with greater ease. The Clown agreed to assist the Wild Ass with his magnificence, while the Wild Ass gave the Clown the benefit of his greater looks. When they had taken as many blogs as their necessities required, the Clown undertook to distribute the readership, and for this purpose divided it into three shares. “I will take the first share,” he said, ”because I am Le King: and the second share, as a partner with you in the chase: and the third share (believe me) will be a source of great evil to you, unless you willingly resign it to me, and set off as fast as you can.”

Obviously, the clown in Aesop’s fable was a douche. Thank you, Aesop, double douche… clowns are people too. Good people. As a matter of fact, as a show of gratitude for your loyalty, for the coffees we share together, each morning, sitting in front on our respective computer screen – eyes red, skin radioactive green, weak bladder – I made you, my Carnies, badges to add on your blogs – one for those on my blogrolls, one for the winners of the Blogroll Contest, and one neutral – for the sake of Switzerland.

Blogroll Alumni

Winners of the Blogroll Contest

Neutral as Fuck

Of course, there is no obligation to use these badges… After all, they’re only a gift from me to you, a benevolent gesture. But why would you throw a fortune out the window? Exactly. These badges take their full splendoUr when linked back to my site, obviously (obviously was brought to you by Sesame Street, and the makers of I’m too lazy to Thesaurus a synonym). If you browsed through A Clown on Fire lately, you might have also noticed:

Not Featured on Freshly Pressed

How many times have you seen this badge on the blogosphere? Damn right! It’s Le Clown trademarked. Here’s more magnanimity: take it. For free. Eat your decomposed heart out, Aesop. Thus ends two weeks of shameless self-promotion.

About these ads

About Le Clown

Founder and CEO of everything I write. Author of A Clown on Fire, Black Box Warnings, and The Outlier Collective. Important guy™.

Discussion

134 Responses to “Aesop was a Bozo”

  1. Somehow, I don’t think the shameless self-promotion has actually come to an end. I’m a bit of a psychic.

    Posted by meizac | September 8, 2012, 07:06
  2. I have died and went to funny heaven.

    Posted by wuzzman | September 8, 2012, 07:35
  3. can’t wait to dress up my “sash” with a new badge of (dis) honor … smile thanks Le Magnificooo Clown

    Posted by unfetteredbs | September 8, 2012, 07:51
  4. Dear Le Douce,

    As I sit sipping (guzzling) very strong FRESHLY PRESSED coffee, I am dragging a Le Clown badge to my desktop where I will then place it directly under my FRESHLY PRESSED badge. I have indeed accumulated quite a few new followers as a direct result of your crazy fucking contest. Now, I have a bone to pick. I am STILL anxiously awaiting, with baited breath, on the edge of my seat, in my FRESHLY PRESSED shirt, for the TRUTH OR DARE CHALLENGE to be posted. You are slower than a blind one-armed line cook at Denny’s. Let’s get this show on the road ERIC. Your readership awaits you.

    My salutation is to be imagineered as follows:

    I am happily riding a unicorn over a rainbow. On the ground below me there is a field full of kittens frolicking with balls of brightly colored yarn in the sunshine. The clouds are made of cotton candy and I am eating an ice cream cone and wearing a unitard made of glitter and gumdrops. There is a clown below with a pot of clown noses at the end of the rainbow. He is smiling and handing them out to passers by, inviting them into his brightly colored circus tent to see his Amazing Show. I watch a crowd gather inside, and wait and wait, and then I witness a sad and disappointed crowd leave, feet shuffling, heads bowed, because there is no show, as promised. The kittens stop playing with yarn and start mowling. The sunny sky turns dark and stormy, the rainbow disappears. The horn falls from my unicorn and alas it is just a horse. As I ride to escape the storm I stop so that my non-unicorn can shoot ejaculate on your clown tent of broken dreams.

    Love,

    Tracy

    Posted by tracy fulks | September 8, 2012, 08:10
  5. I am trying desperately to work out why anyone would start a blog other than for self promotion. Even in my case, with it being for the rescue animals, I will shamelessly animal promote, if not self promote. Go ahead, you are expected to do so! Love the Not Freshly Pressed – definitely think I might steal that!

    Posted by Long Life Cats and Dogs | September 8, 2012, 08:21
    • LLCD,
      You’re right… And this has been my shtick: the ever so ego inflated character of Le Clown, by over the top content, and playing with the WordPress medium and its tools. I’ve told you this before, but the work you do is important, and I thank you for it.
      Eric

      Posted by Le Clown | September 8, 2012, 09:11
  6. Le Clown,
    I would tell you I love the badges….but I am afraid your ego won’t be able to fit on my screen any more if I did.
    THAM

    Posted by the howler and me | September 8, 2012, 08:28
  7. I have got to get rid of the clutter on my blog and have a special place for all these things. Le Clown, if you ever want to begin a marketing firm that is American/Canadian based, (notice I put America first because A goes before C, except after B — which of course, B would always come first for BRIGITTE) then I’m your man (woman). You can be President, Ringmistress will also be President and I will claim a spot as Vice President. I was in marketing for quite some time and with your guerilla marketing tactics and my vivacious and winning personality, we could have something here. We need a good name and a catchy tagline.

    Now, have your people contact my people for a sit-down.

    Posted by Brigitte | September 8, 2012, 08:28
    • Brigitte,
      What a great comment! I like the ABC, and the American/Canadian marketing collaboration… I was looking at the different WordPress templates yesterday, and I have to say that yours is the one I appreciate the most after Twenty Eleven. It has another certain je ne sais quoi…
      Le Clown

      Posted by Le Clown | September 8, 2012, 09:08
  8. I love the ‘not featured on freshly pressed’ badge! That’s the kind of thing that appeals to hipsters. Although, you are starting to go mainstream now

    Posted by MissFourEyes | September 8, 2012, 08:42
  9. Your brilliance is amazing…Wordpress needs to hire you ASAP

    Posted by boomiebol | September 8, 2012, 08:45
  10. “Thus ends two weeks of shameless self-promotion.”

    I especially love that part. It gives the impression that the shameless self promotion does ever actually have an end.

    Posted by Ruby Tuesday | September 8, 2012, 08:56
    • Ruby,
      You’re right, and as Meizac said something similar above, I’m asking myself… Why stop?
      Le Clown

      Posted by Le Clown | September 8, 2012, 08:59
      • I know, shame on me for not reading the other comments. But I have (in all seriousness) discovered that reading white type on a black background causes my eyes to have problems with focus. I thought initially it was just the sheer volume of reading that went along with the contest, but I have since discovered it’s actually the white-on-black, and not just on your site. So pretty much a post is read, sometimes a comment is made, and thanks to that handy new thing WP has where you can comment in a little box instead of on the blog, I don’t have to lose my eyesight over it.

        Posted by Ruby Tuesday | September 8, 2012, 09:16
  11. It freaks me out that we have never met yet you have described me perfectly…especially the radioactive green skin.

    Posted by speaker7 | September 8, 2012, 08:56
  12. Also, I’m definitely psychic and I see lots more shameless self-promotion in our future…

    Posted by Cathy Ulrich | September 8, 2012, 08:57
  13. Well the neutral one does look good on my blog :)

    Posted by Bruce Ruston | September 8, 2012, 09:13
  14. These look really good! All of C’s footie pajamas have similar badges on them. They say things like “Mommy’s Cutie” and “Sweet Tummy” on them. Maybe if you ever want to reach out to all the mommy bloggers in the world, you can make similar badges. And then the world would implode. Yay!

    Posted by The Waiting | September 8, 2012, 09:14
  15. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that the red badge matches perfectly with my blogs banner? I haven’t got enough time to be clowning around this morning, but I will try to get it up later on today. Thank you for allowing us to promote you in all sorts of magnificent ways. If only I had more graphic design talents….

    Posted by Brother Jon | September 8, 2012, 09:35
  16. Things I’m bad at: self promotion, blog award posts, writing my own acceptance speeches, figuring out how to put badges on my blog, focusing on any of that stuff long enough to make it happen. If you see your badge on my blog, you will know I am very fond of you.

    Posted by misslisted | September 8, 2012, 10:34
  17. I shall go add it to my blog now. The other award badges on the page will salute in respect, I am sure.

    Posted by Carrie Rubin | September 8, 2012, 11:02
  18. More clowns … I feverently hope you don’t mime as well.

    Posted by Rutabaga the Mercenary Researcher | September 8, 2012, 11:06
  19. Let me get this straight. You’ve ended two weeks of shameless self-promotion and are now starting fifty weeks of shameful self-promotion?

    Posted by Curmudgeon-at-Large | September 8, 2012, 12:07
  20. These are adorable — I’ma put these on my refrigerator.

    Posted by Sword-chinned bitch | September 8, 2012, 12:21
  21. Aesop is my dead home boy Clown, don’t you be taking his name in vain! hee hee, I love his fable of two goats on a log, I’m reminded of it every time I watch something political… or anytime I see two goats (read, “men”) arguing ha ha ha. Obviously you DO have a thesaurus, as you found the word “magnanimity” I’ve found this word before. I describe great mountains, GOD, the negative balance on my credit card…. Very Nice, I’m sure you appear incredibly smart to some, but I love you for being a smartass, because it gives me free reign to do the same. Should that be rein or reign? Do you give free rein to a horse or a king in this analogy? Crap, I wish I was smarter…

    Posted by kzackuslheureux | September 8, 2012, 12:56
  22. Cher M. Le Clown,
    Shameless self-promotion is simply a redundancy, for self-promotion is, by definition (I don’t remember whose) shameless. While I’m shameless, having given up shame for Lent many decades ago, I do have much to learn about promotion – self or otherwise. So glad to have found a master at whose knee I may learn! xoxoM

    Posted by Margarita | September 8, 2012, 13:05
  23. You are awesome! Can i stalk yah?

    Posted by Archana | September 8, 2012, 14:21
  24. My first reaction is to say – BADGES!? We don’t need no stinking badges. Yet that would be a lie – for Le Clown your badges are inspiring. They make me weep and want to cavort covered in nothing but your badges. I am so moved and inspired that I have had your badges tattooed onto my very own ASS in constant reminder of your awesomeness. Strangely my ASS now looks like a Badger.
    I may even place on one my blog if I can find the right spot after I consult my blogging Feng Shui expert.

    Posted by merlinspielen | September 8, 2012, 14:22
  25. I would if I knew how, but I don’t so I won’t. Although the magnificent badges have made me want to learn I can’t figure it out so I shan’t have my neutrality posted on my blog. Oh cruel wordpress why do you vex me so!

    Posted by scienerf | September 8, 2012, 14:29
  26. I put the badges on my fridge, in my bathroom, and on my cat. Eating, washing my parts, and petting my pussy – Clown is there.

    Posted by mabukach | September 8, 2012, 14:40
  27. My Circus will now have a unicorn! And even more shameless self-promotion! . . . For you. I guess this is what I exchange for my shameless self-promotion during Le Clown’s uber-shameless-promotion blogroll contest.

    Posted by Angel Fractured | September 8, 2012, 15:17
  28. Oh, My Clown, you make me laugh! SplendoUriferous! (Another approach to being too lazy to “thesaurus” a word: make one up!)

    Posted by Kana Tyler | September 8, 2012, 15:19
  29. I’m takin’ the NOT freshly pressed one…. :-)

    Posted by writerwendyreid | September 8, 2012, 16:03
  30. Le Clown, I love all your badges. It’s only a matter before you’d be Freshly Pressed only now I don’t think it would be really that cool for you. You know what I’m saying? Le Clown, you rebel you. I plan to put them on my blog, but it’s awfully cluttered at the moment.

    Posted by The Bumble Files | September 8, 2012, 16:40
  31. Is it weird that I’m a devoted groupie? I’ll be adding these badges to my site when I’m at a computer.

    Posted by Jen and Tonic | September 8, 2012, 17:39
  32. Well, the self promotion is truly shameless. Thank God your posts are somewhat entertaining!
    ;)

    Posted by workspousestory | September 8, 2012, 18:29
  33. Wow, I begged for a badge and was told Noooo, no badges, and now this! I am so happy I’m like – that post with the kittens and rainbow ponies and crap. I mean, it’s a golden freaking unicorn. It is so on my blog and I am the specialist blogger ever.

    Unicorn!

    Posted by aliceatwonderland | September 9, 2012, 00:12
  34. Thank you so much for creating the Not Freshly Pressed Badge. Those of us that are Unfreshly Pressed appreciate it.

    Posted by Carolina Courtland | September 9, 2012, 11:11
  35. What ever you’re taking Le Clown please send some my way – I need it ;)

    Posted by kenthinksaloud | September 9, 2012, 12:47
  36. Yesssss. I’m going to have way too many clown badges on my blog.

    Posted by Shannon.Kennedy | September 10, 2012, 11:41

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