# How do they fit so many clowns in a clown car? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892 "2003-06-23T23:04:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/1 "2003-06-23T23:04:10Z")
You know this circus gag where a little clown car comes driving along, stops, and about two dozen clowns come out? How do they fit so many clowns in there? Is it a prespective thing? (the car being much larger than the audience perceives it to be) My best guess is there is simply a hole in the bottom of the car, and the driver drives it over a trapdoor on stage where a bunch of clowns climb out. But perhaps they have a more creative way of doing this act? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/2 "2003-06-23T23:13:23Z")
Nope. You got it exactly. Just trapdoors an that’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/3 "2003-06-23T23:15:47Z")
Maybe, but isn’t a circus ring usually sawdust on top of beaten earth? Perhaps it is just a car with no seats inside and the clowns are all packed in like sardines. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/4 "2003-06-23T23:43:46Z")
They’re dehydrated. A midget in the car adds water to them one at a time and they reconstitute just before popping out of the door. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/5 "2003-06-23T23:50:03Z")
**Mangetout** has it right. No trap doors. Just totally empty cars and people who know how to squeeze together. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/6 "2003-06-23T23:54:40Z")
They talked about it on Car Talk a couple of weeks ago. They said it’s just a combination of contortion and stripping down the car. If you remove the seats there’s a lot of room - you can even get into the trunk if the rear seat is removed. If the car is pushed rather than driven, you don’t even need the controls. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2003, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/7 "2003-06-23T23:57:21Z")
I’d prefer the wood-chipper method of stuffing clowns into cars, but that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/8 "2003-06-24T01:34:51Z")
Just never be a clown in a clown car when some clown farts … 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/9 "2003-06-24T02:19:54Z")
Once you have been caught in a run way with six (six, count ‘em, six) flatulent elephants, no number of farting clowns would be intolerable–even packed into a stripped down 1963 VW Beetle. TOOT! TOOT! ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2003, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/10 "2003-06-24T07:17:15Z")
I really like **Purd Werfect** s suggestion 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@Jim\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/11 "2014-07-07T01:48:21Z")
“It’s the most requested clown gag ever,” asserts Greg DeSanto. “Everyone wants to see a lot of clowns come out of a really small car.” Considering DeSanto’s position as the executive director of  the International Clown Hall of  Fame and Research Center in the consistently  hilarious burg of Baraboo, Wisconsin, this is an assertion that needs to be taken almost somewhat seriously. “There’s no trick to the clown-car gag,” says DeSanto, who matriculated in the hallowed halls of  Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College and performed with the self-proclaimed “Greatest Show On Earth.” “There are no trap doors in stadium floors, and the cars are real cars.” In fact, a clown car is fully functional. “We remove all of the interior,” explains DeSanto, “including the door panels and the headliner, and paint the windows except for a small slot for the driver to see through. The driver sits on a milk crate. We remove any interior barrier to the trunk, and we beef up the springs so that the car doesn’t seem to be riding on its bump stops. Then it’s a matter of shoving in the clowns.” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/12 "2014-07-07T01:54:28Z")
> [@Purd\_Werfect](#): > > They’re dehydrated. A midget in the car adds water to them one at a time and they reconstitute just before popping out of the door. Or inflatable, ---
**Author:** ![DingoelGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/13 "2014-07-07T01:59:04Z")
They ain’t no big guys in the group. The fat lady is another whole show. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/14 "2014-07-07T02:09:14Z")
I’m disappointed in the 2003 Doper crowd for letting this go without a request for more details: > [@Spavined\_Gelding](#): > > Once you have been caught in a run way with six (six, count ‘em, six) flatulent elephants, no number of farting clowns would be intolerable–even packed into a stripped down 1963 VW Beetle. TOOT! TOOT! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/15 "2014-07-07T02:47:45Z")
> [@](#): > > Or inflatable, Probably not entirely inaccurate. Clowns traditionally wear pretty baggy clothes, which makes them look bigger, but in the car all that bagginess is going to be squished down. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/16 "2014-07-07T03:02:53Z")
> [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](#): > > I’d prefer the wood-chipper method of stuffing clowns into cars, but that’s just me. No, it’s not just you. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/17 "2014-07-07T03:20:52Z")
zombie clowns or no they blow up their inflatable body parts as they exit appearing much bigger. ---
**Author:** ![donkeyoatey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@donkeyoatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donkeyoatey)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/18 "2014-07-07T03:31:55Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > zombie clowns or no WTF is with your zombie or no shit ---
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/19 "2014-07-07T03:32:13Z")
I used to take my daughter to this small circus that wintered in our town. There was one ring, the ticket taker was also the acrobat, the lion tamer had one lion - that sort of tiny. For the clown act, they drove into the ring in a VW bug and clown after clown kept coming out of the car. Of course everybody could see it was the same four clowns running around and getting back in the car on the other side. It was hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892/20 "2014-07-07T03:56:47Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Or inflatable, They float. And you’ll float, too. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-fit-so-many-clowns-in-a-clown-car/183892.md?page=2)