# Where did mime hatred come from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 13, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964 "2004-07-13T21:47:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/1 "2004-07-13T21:47:02Z")
How did miming somehow get to be THE bad joke profession? It’s okay to make jokes about hating mimes, killing mimes, beating mimes, excluding mimes, etc. Yes, yes, I know – they don’t complain. But was there a comedian or someone who popularized mime-bashing? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/2 "2004-07-13T21:52:31Z")
Mimes are like morris dancers – calculatedly contrived to inspire rage. ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/3 "2004-07-13T22:00:13Z")
Mimes are kind of entartaining, until you run into one that wants to make you part of the act and won’t leave you alone. I suspect that this was the source of “mime hate”…overzealous street performers who gave their compatriots a bad name. By the same token, I don’t know of anyone who hates Marcel Marceau… ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/4 "2004-07-13T22:16:01Z")
The movie that started it all…Shakes the Clown. > **[Shakes the Clown (1991) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102898/)** > > Shakes the Clown: Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. With Bobcat Goldthwait, Julie Brown, Bruce Baum, Steve Bean. Shakes is good at his job as party clown - when he's sober and shows up. Five druggy clowns frame him for the murder of his boss. OK, I made that up. I have no idea. But its a really funny movie, if you think alcoholism and extreme lisping is funny, which I do. Also, I love the “Its a mime! Let’s kick his ass!” scene. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/5 "2004-07-13T22:23:26Z")
Back in the 1970s Albert Brooks (and I’m sure others) had a routine with the worst mime in the world – he talked through the act, explained that he was trapped in a box, did really lame pantomime, etc. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/6 "2004-07-13T22:58:01Z")
Am I the only one who read the title as “where did _mine_ hatred come from?” I thought it was kinda poetic. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/7 "2004-07-13T23:38:46Z")
It also doesn’t hurt that mime outfits look decidedly french! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/8 "2004-07-14T00:15:27Z")
Robin Williams (pre-Mork, when he was coked-out loose cannon) used to do a savage anti-mime bit. Billy Crystal has a cameo in Spinal Tap as a bad mime (“hurry up man, mime is money!”). I think both of these are pre- Shakes The Clown. For my 2 cents (and for those with a looooong memory), it comes from a crappy variety show hosted by a married couple called Shields and Yarnell (mimes). I think Doug Henning and Donny and Marie and That’s Incredible and Real People and Brooks and Schrieber and Stiller and Meara were on during the same period, and we were meeting Fonzie’s nephew Chachi on Tuesday night. When punk rock came along and killed disco and art-rock, the natural resulting backlash was to shy away from ALL the cheesiness that had infected culture in the past few years. Crappy mime show? Rebel against it. Anyone else remember this chain of events the way I do, or is it time for a new tinfoil chapeau? ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/9 "2004-07-14T00:18:38Z")
One of my favorite _The Far Side_ gags involved a hunter on safari in Africa. He and his guide are facing a water buffalo, which is about fifty yards away. But! Between the hunter and the water buffalo, there is a mime standing in the grass. The hunter says to his guide, “The situation has changed. Take my buffalo gun, and hand me my mime rifle.” ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/10 "2004-07-14T00:34:31Z")
I hate mimes because so many of them are so very, very bad. Also, I used to see a lot of street performers doing mime work…and trying to engage other people in their performance. To me, this goes beyond trying to do a performance and into the actively annoying other people at random area. I don’t LIKE people who are actively annoying people, I don’t think it’s funny or interesting. It’s one thing to see a skilled mime doing a polished routine. However, a lot of people seem to have a grossly inflated sense of their skill at miming, and insist on performing for an unwilling audience. Fortunately, this fad seems to have faded. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/11 "2004-07-14T02:49:58Z")
What the hell, NO ONE is going to cop to seeing ‘Shields and Yarnell?’ I thought it was a breakthrough post. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/12 "2004-07-14T03:55:04Z")
> [@stockton](#): > > What the hell, NO ONE is going to cop to seeing ‘Shields and Yarnell?’ > > I thought it was a breakthrough post. I vaguely remember the names. Were they BOTH mimes? A mime couple? Uggh! ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/13 "2004-07-14T04:04:28Z")
I remember [Shields and Yarnell](http://arthurshafman.com/artists/shields/), and I kinda liked them. They were not bad mimes at all. I think **Lynn** and **Kilt** are right about the source of the hatred: being humiliated by street performers and/or the prevalence of bad mimes. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/14 "2004-07-14T04:07:47Z")
> [@Ghanima](#): > > The movie that started it all…Shakes the Clown. Nah, as others have said, it dates at least from the 1970s. I recall a friend of mine started a group called “DAM” (Destroy All Mimes) when Boulder, Colorado suffered an invasion of the creatures after completion of a pedestrian mall downtown in the late about 1980. A large part of annoyance at mimes was their habit of trying to incorporate passers-by into their routines. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/15 "2004-07-14T04:23:04Z")
> [@stockton](#): > > What the hell, NO ONE is going to cop to seeing ‘Shields and Yarnell?’ > > I thought it was a breakthrough post. I remember them. I don’t recall their show, but I remember their appearance on _The Muppet Show_. They might seem cheesy now, but as a 7-year-old in the 70’s, I thought they were the coolest, funniest thing I’d ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/16 "2004-07-14T04:28:36Z")
[QUOTE=Lynn Bodoni] I hate mimes because so many of them are so very, very bad. …QUOTE] This is exactly what I was looking for. You don’t say you hate BAD mimes, but you hate ALL mines because there are so many crappy mimes. I wonder if you’d be willing to make such sweeping statements about cops or insurance salesmen? Or if you prefer to equate mime more to a hobby or artistic expression, would you say “I hate oil painters because so many of them are so bad” or “I hate ceramic duck collectors because they have such shitty taste”? Lynn, I don’t mean to bust your chops over your reply, I’m just curious is to why one can make disparaging mime comments with a pretty strong sense of invulnerability, that you wouldn’t expect someone to come back with a challenge to your remarks. I’d have to say that a very few – er, perfessions?, social roles? – have such a universally recognized “low” places in society. About the only ones that immediately comes to mind are used car salemen, or life insurance salesmen. And all these roles seem to be laden with moral judgemnt, or even more likely, something to dehumanize the individuals. like Phase 42’s “mime rifle” comment. 🙂 What I’m trying to get at is where this short list came from. What else is on it? Is it simply that they don’t have lobbyists or anti-defamation leagues yet? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/17 "2004-07-14T04:41:42Z")
I can see this is heading into another forum. Now serious, am I being whooshed here? Because this is a much harsher response than what I expected. What I am reading is, Well, we make jokes and trash mimes because, basically, they deserve it, they really ask for it." I know that the temptation ro make mime jokes in a thread like this must be almost overwhelming, so I’m thinking maybe I’m reading them in a more serious vein than intended. It’s not at all something I would expect to read here. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/18 "2004-07-14T04:43:05Z")
Because all those mimes look alike anyway. Seriously, though. Most insurance salesmen try to stand out as individuals, if for no other reason than commissions. Mimes, on the other hand, typically use a standardized costume and makeup that eliminates most differences in individual appearance and makes them look much less human. Basically, they go out of their way to look like nonhuman clones of one another, so that they’re freakishly identifiable as a group, but not distinguishable from one another as individuals. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/19 "2004-07-14T04:43:53Z")
Their voice is yet to be heard. OTOH, I haven’t seen any hostility toward those incresingly ubiquitous “living statue” performers, who are when all’s said and done just a new breed of mimes. Perhaps because they’re so passive and pretty to look at. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964/20 "2004-07-14T04:57:34Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Their voice is yet to be heard. > > OTOH, I haven’t seen any hostility toward those incresingly ubiquitous “living statue” performers, who are when all’s said and done just a new breed of mimes. Perhaps because they’re so passive and pretty to look at. I lived in Washington when one of the early practitioners of that started in Union Station, I can’t recall his name, but he wore full body makeup and imitated the statues scattered throughout the place. I think he still does it periodically, but he started back in the 80’s, IIRC. I rather liked it, and I went through there often enough that I could pick him out very quickly when he was “on duty”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-mime-hatred-come-from/254964.md?page=2)