Do you include court jesters and king’s fools?
I am looking for counterparts to all those evil clowns on the small and large screen. Once again- clown face paint, and multi-coloured standard clown clothing.
Y’know, the first thing that comes to mind when somebody says, “I hired a clown to entertain at my daughter’s birthday party!”.
Colibri: Good god, I had no idea you were such a clown scholar! My hat is off to you. But I want to hear your origin story.
There’s the Seinfeld episode where Eric the Clown puts out a fire with his oversized shoe, after George runs away.
Baptiste in Children of Paradise (1945) has a heroic moment early on as he saves the beautiful Garance from an accusation of theft. While he remains a sympathetic character, by the end he is not really a good guy because he betrays his wife to pursue an affair with Garance.
Krusty on the Simpsons can be a real jerk, but he also has moments of deep abiding kindness to others. But then goes back into being an arsehole.
I seem to recall a TV-movie with Dom DeLuise, in a rare dramatic role (ironically) enough, playing a clown who witnesses a bank robbery. Every other witness said the robber was a black man, but Dom contradicted them, correctly identifying him as a white man wearing makeup. “I’ve been doing makeup for twenty-five years – I know the difference between a black man and a white man wearing blackface.”
I don’t remember the rest of the movie, but it basically involves him solving the crime.
Not heroic, but there was a Barney Miller episode where the detectives helped a clown who had been mugged.
I used to watch it faithfully. It was the reason I used to daydream about having my own pet elephant that I would ride up and down our driveway (in our suburban Ozzie and Harriet type neighborhood, no less). The theme music has stayed in my head all my life.
This Perry Mason episode has a good clown and an evil envious clown played by Gunsmokes Ken Curtis.
Toby Tyler; or, Ten Weeks with a Circus. The clowns are supporting characters, but they are there.