It’s a sad day for those who are down with the clown, as a federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Insane Clown Posse to try and stop the FBI from labeling the group’s fans—Juggalos—as a “loosely-organized hybrid gang.” The rap duo initially filed their lawsuit a few years ago, but a judge threw it…
Few could have predicted the comeback the Insane Clown Posse and its fans are enjoying in 2017. Juggalos have mostly been punchlines for more than two decades, but thanks in large part to September’s Juggalo March, they seem to have captured America’s heart. So we’re celebrating the unlikely resurgence of Insane Clown…
Abraham Lincoln. Martin Luther King Jr. Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope.
At long last, the Juggalo March on Washington has arrived, with fans of the Insane Clown Posse streaming in to Washington D.C. today to protest the government’s classification of their group as a “hybrid” gang, a distinction that can be used to make it harder for Juggalos to find work, housing, and access to social…
Tomorrow marks the Juggalo March On Washington, an event that will see fans of the Insane Clown Posse descend on the U.S. capitol in order to protest the government’s classification of them as a “hybrid gang.” But the Juggalos and Juggalettes marching tomorrow for their right to avoid discrimination on the basis of…
The time of the Dark Carnival is finally upon us: This Saturday will see the Insane Clown Posse’s personal fan army—a.k.a., the Juggalos—march on Washington D.C. for a political rally to protest their treatment by the federal government. And while there was a time once when seeing a group of clown-makeup wearing…
On 1997's seminal masterwork, The Great Milenko, Insane Clown Posse itself tried to get to the bottom of an increasingly profound question with the track, “What Is A Juggalo?” Frustratingly, even the two sages responsible for creating those very same legions of soda-spraying, face-painting fans have a hard time…
Sean O’Neal: In the topic of “Worst Music Year,” 1997 is a frequent contender. Some of this can be attributed to distaste for a single genre—boy bands and the Spice Girls, mostly, whose dominance was complete anathema to anyone who’d spend the earlier part of the decade convinced the alt-rock “revolution” was anything…
Two years after warring electronics companies competing to develop high-capacity CDs declared a truce, their compromise format, the DVD, first went on sale in the U.S. in March of 1997. (Twister, The Mask, GoodFellas, and The Road Warrior were among the first batch of titles.) DVDs didn’t hit major retail chains like…
It’s been more than 20 years since Disney dropped ICP from its Hollywood Records label, ushering in the golden years of people being offended by the Insane Clown Posse. Hell, the golden years of people making fun of ICP are arguably in decline. But Juggalos are still out there, still representing their…
Those hunting around for some sort of cheap guidance and surface-level connection to community—preferably equipped with low-level mysticism and an affordable price tag, to boot—have a couple of options available to them, based on their opinion of rapping murder clowns. If they fall on the good side of the killer clown…
In October, Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J announced that he and “the Juggalo family” were planning a march in Washington D.C. to protest the Department Of Justice classifying the Juggalo community as a “hybrid-gang” in 2014. The protest was penciled in for September 16, 2017, and now that we’re only a few months from…
Note: A previous version of this story claimed no one had died as a result of the current string of clown incidents; upon further investigation, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Every year, fans of clown-based rap music, executives from the face paint industry, and pop-culture aficionados who ride the line between ironically liking something and actually liking something look forward to the Gathering Of The Juggalos. It’s the one chunk of the year when the outcasts of the world can truly…
For the past year or so, The A.V. Club has used its 11 Questions feature to ask celebrities about their first jobs and worst living situations. Part of that feature—the 12th question—also asked the interviewee to come up with a question for the next interview subject without generally knowing who they were. Those 12th…
The Dark Carnival has hit an unfortunate, beverage-related hiccup, with the Insane Clown Posse announcing that they were forced to cancel a show last night owing to “a dispute over Faygo.” Specifically, over the group’s right to douse any venue at which they perform in showers of the Detroit-based carbonated elixir, a…
The word “family” is ubiquitous at the Gathering Of The Juggalos, the infamous yearly festival of arts and culture thrown by Detroit’s notorious Insane Clown Posse. It is used by Juggalos only slightly less frequently than Smurfs use “smurf” and Jews employ “shalom,” and serves a similarly vast array of purposes.…
Time travel, how does it work?
In 11 Questions, The A.V. Club asks interesting people 11 interesting questions—and then asks them to suggest one for our next interviewee.
Summer is just around the corner and you know what that means: The annual Gathering Of The Juggalos. Insane Clown Posse, its horde of fans, and other musical acts will descend upon the small town of Thornville, OH from July 22-25 and will likely leave behind a mess of blood, sweat, and empty Faygo bottles. But, before…
