# Why the hate for mimes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 22, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396 "2009-01-22T02:47:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/41 "2009-01-22T18:22:00Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I can’t speak for others, … Well, they sure can’t speak for themselves. They’re mimes! Didn’t the Geneva Convention ban mime warfare? ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/42 "2009-01-22T18:48:24Z")
Obligatory [Terry Tate mime video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei7RuxX8u24). Starts about 1:30 in. “Your ass trapped in my box now baby! Terry’s pantomime box of PAIN!” ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/43 "2009-01-22T19:09:20Z")
I’ve never seen a live mime. I’d like to see one, just to see what the hate is all about. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/44 "2009-01-22T19:10:12Z")
They’re creepy ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/45 "2009-01-22T21:33:55Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Really? More pretentious than Harlequins or Pierrots? Well, clown systematics have been in a state of flux since the cladistic revolution. According to the modern synthesis, clowns are thought to have become pretentious many times throughout their taxonomic history. This evolution of similar characters independently of ancestry is known as homoplasy, exemplified by the convergent development of such structures as the wing and eye in widely diverse lineages. Similarly, pretentiousness has been developed repeatedly at various points on the clown phylogenetic tree. Like most vermin species, mimes are highly generalized scavengers which are readily able to exploit a variety of niches, and are far less sensitive to ecological disturbance than other species of pretentious clown. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/46 "2009-01-22T21:40:42Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > The mime is the most pretentious clown subspecies. They evoke a deadly combination of fear and paranoia, because they are interact with an occult world of unseen forces and objects invisible to the viewer/victim. Their verbally uncommunicative demeanor only adds to their secretive, spiderlike quality. In addition, their stereotypically monochromatic appearance mimics the corpse’s pallor while simultaneously evoking the stark oft-colorless environment of nightmares on a subconscious level. Also, they are all willing minions of Satan, which can’t help. And don’t forget the common mime’s reproductive strategy: knocking its victim down, pinning the victim to the ground, piercing the victim’s belly with its ovipositor, and laying several thousand eggs in the victim’s abdomen. Eventually, the eggs hatch, and consume the victim from the inside, after which thousands of baby mimes swarm from the dessicated corpse. Oh, wait, maybe that was a beetle. Or something. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/47 "2009-01-22T21:58:23Z")
Well you know how mimes are always trapped in that box? Well what If I somehow get stuck in that box? I’m not getting out, I don’t have years of specialized invisiable box escape training. I could die in that thing! ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/48 "2009-01-22T22:10:55Z")
Mimes are panhandlers that bug you in a passive aggressive way on the street, when you just want to be left alone, and they smugly think they are entertaining when they most definitely are not. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/49 "2009-01-22T22:29:14Z")
\*Buffy: "So then Kathy’s like, ‘It’s share time.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh yeah? Share this!’ (She punches at the air.) Oz: “So, either you hit her, or you did your wacky mime routine for her.” Buffy: “Well, I didn’t do either, actually. But she deserves it, don’t you think?” Oz: “Nobody deserves mime, Buffy.” Buffy: “Kathy does. She deserves to be locked in an invisible box and blown away by an imaginary wind and… and…” Oz: “Forced to wear a binding unitard?” Buffy: “Yeah, the itchy kind, it’s perfect.” Oz: “Just here to help.” \* [http://www.billiedoux.com/buffy4x2.html](http://www.billiedoux.com/buffy4x2.html) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/50 "2009-01-22T22:50:24Z")
> [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](#): > > I realize I may regret this, but… Cite? Request for cite seconded. I already heard of this (along with the practice of deliberately deforming young children), but I’ve wondered if it were true. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/51 "2009-01-22T23:07:55Z")
Do a search on “comprechicos” or “comprequeros”. Or go read a The Man Who Laughs. Are the stories of child mutilation true? I dunno. But they do seem to date back a few centuries. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/52 "2009-01-23T01:04:10Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > I’ve never seen a live mime. I’d like to see one, just to see what the hate is all about. [Ever been to Disneyworld?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awBzrC0SAtQ) Have Mickey steal your nose, or Goofy diss your handshake? You laugh, but Furries are actually the height of current mimeographic technology and art. ---
**Author:** ![LorieSmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a587f6/32.png) [@LorieSmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LorieSmurf)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/53 "2009-01-23T01:39:19Z")
Fun fact: Richard Dean Anderson used to be a mime. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/54 "2009-01-23T03:20:56Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > [Ever been to Disneyworld?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awBzrC0SAtQ) Have Mickey steal your nose, or Goofy diss your handshake? No, but I’ve seen mascots at sports events, who do that sort of stuff. It’s not the same. I want to see a _traditional_ mime, with a white face and suspenders, doing traditional mime things. I never have, and people have poured so much scorn on them that I probably never will. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/55 "2009-01-23T03:22:09Z")
[Mummenschanz](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eazq_8jCOg) Mime in the Germanic Expressionist bent. Worthwhile art, or the hubris of snark cynicism? ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/56 "2009-01-23T03:24:59Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > You laugh Right there is where your argument breaks down. If people are laughing, mimes aren’t involved. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/57 "2009-01-23T03:30:02Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Do a search on “comprechicos” or “comprequeros”. Or go read a The Man Who Laughs. Are the stories of child mutilation true? I dunno. But they do seem to date back a few centuries. I found only a couple references, one being a wikipedia page that presents it as a myth. IOW, nothing much convincing. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/58 "2009-01-23T03:30:44Z")
> [@Terrifel](#): > > If people are laughing, mimes … :)😕:eek::mad::rolleyes:🆒:D:dubious::smack: ---
**Author:** ![dmatsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@dmatsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dmatsch)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/59 "2009-01-23T20:39:34Z")
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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396/60 "2009-01-23T20:44:37Z")
\*[McClane and Zeus are speeding through Central Park] \* Zeus: Are you aiming for these people? John McClane: No. Well, maybe that mime. [QUOTE=Stephen Wright] If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer? [/QUOTE] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-hate-for-mimes/482396.md?page=4)