In French culture, clowning is the serious lament of the bitter sunset of ennui.
Do you have an example? Because when I think of “Quebec” and “humour”, I think of stand-up comedians like Yvon Deschamps (who, I’ll grant, does a different kind of stand-up than most English-language comedians), not really of physical humour.
On a croissant
I have never really been a fan of clowns in general. However, I thought the clowns in Cirque’s O and Zed shows were pretty good.