The Funny Business

• Author: Evelyn Hudson
• Position: B.A. University of Kentucky, J.D. Cornell University Law School
• Pages: 235-258

The Funny Business

EVELYN HUDSON*

ABSTRACT

Good attorneys are clowns. Or, at least, they should be. In this Article, I com-

pare clowning and legal ethics. In so doing, I review elements of the ethics of

clowning and the clown rules, and the lessons those provide to attorneys. I also

consider aspects of clowning, such as world-creation, norm-inversion, clown

logic, and the mythical matrix, all of which are instructive for the legal profes-

sion. Each of these elements contributes to an understanding of lawyering as a

clown-like narrative project. This project provides a better lens for ethical anal-

ysis and reflection than past attempts at analogizing the lawyer’s role.

I therefore conclude that clowning offers the best comparison for Law as nar-

rative, rather than acting or writing. Lessons from clowning provide attorneys

with a provocative example by which they may address various issues in legal

ethics, as well as engage more intimately with semiotics in practice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

I. NARRATIVE AND LEGAL ETHICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

A. CLOWNING, LAWYERING, AND CREATING A WORLD . . . . 240

B. IMPULSE SIX AND HYPER-ZEAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

C. AUDIENCE AND NORMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

D. ABSURDITY AND CLOWN LOGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

E. THE MYTHICAL MATRIX AND MICRO-NARRATIVES . . . . . 253

II. SEMIOTICS AND IDENTITY IN CLOWNING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

* Evelyn M. Hudson, B.A. University of Kentucky, J.D. Cornell University Law School. I currently work

as a staff attorney for Hon. Michelle M. Keller on the Supreme Court of Kentucky. I am incredibly grateful for

Prof. Bradley Wendel, without whom this paper would never have been possible. I would also like to thank

Adam Patterson for his unending encouragement of even my silliest of research interests. Finally, thank you to

Prof. Brian Foley, a king among clowns and a clown among kings, for planting a seed that has grown to be a

lifelong interest in creating joy. All mistakes are my own. © 2022, Evelyn M. Hudson.

235

CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

I. THE RULES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

“St. Genesius is the patron saint of clowns and lawyers . . . Clearly, the Lord

doesn’t always work in mysterious ways.”

John Alejandro King

1

The Cover Comic (@covertcomic), TWITTER (Sept. 25, 2020, 7:48 PM), https://twitter.com/covertcomic/

status/1309640980002463744 [https://perma.cc/QS2F-AYHE].

“The clown is not a hero, but she is heroic in her courage,

in being available to the possible,

no matter how absurd and unlikely.

Pleasure, joy, and fun in this context are not spectacle or escape,

but rather the deadly game of living with loss,

living despite failure,

living even despite the humiliation of trying endlessly.”

Julie Salverson, Clown, Opera, The Atomic Bomb and The Classroom (2009).

2

INTRODUCTION

Attorneys are clowns. At least, they should be.

Regrettably, the legal world often uses the term “clown” derogatorily to

demean practitioners and judges alike.

3

There is an entire category on Above the Law, a popular legal blog and journalism site, called “State

Judges Are Clowns.” It contains tens of articles about judges behaving badly because they are incompetent or

bad. State Judges Are Clowns, ABOVE THE L., https://abovethelaw.com/state-judges-are-clowns/page/3/

[https://perma.cc/R9MU-Q8TG] ((last visited Feb. 2, 2022).

These criticisms ignore the parallels

between attorneys and clowns, and what those parallels mean for ethical practice.

Clowns exist in a remarkably similar professional space to attorneys. Both work

through generating, rather than rehearsing or meaning; both integrate their audi-

ences into their performance; both wrestle with similar ethical questions; and

both function within a pre-existing framework that dictates the limits of their per-

formance. Beyond the comparisons in overall narrative and performance, attor-

neys and clowns share similar semiotics: both must grapple with having “two

faces,” and both function simultaneously as commentators/critics and participants

within their cultural frameworks.

1.

2. Julie Salverson, Clown, Opera, the Atomic Bomb and the Classroom, in THE APPLIED THEATRE READER

38 (Tim Prentki & Sheila Preston eds., 2009).

3.

236 THE GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF LEGAL ETHICS [Vol. 35:235