I really love Metalocalypse, Brendan Small's Cartoon Network show. Of all the great things I've seen on that fine program, by far the best is the episode Dethclown, in which Toki of the heavy metal band Dethklok befriends 'the rock and roll clown' Dr. Rockso.
The rest of the band, which hates clowns and Dr. Rockso, even though clowns are statistically the most hated of all creatures and therefore 'metal', subjects Rockso to a brutal beating. Dr. Rockso becomes an agent for whoever those guys who hate Dethklok are and attempts to infiltrate the Dethklok compound while showing Dethklok his video 'I'm just a rock and roll clown'. This is one of the greatest ever distillations of why fun is bad.
By which I mean that fun, the distillation of that which makes human beings happy, is, in inappropriate doses, not good for us. And by which I also mean that we modern human beings can only access fun in doses which border on inappropriately large.
Why does Rockso constantly talk about cocaine and yet when asked (it would seem) why his nose is bleeding he says "I fell down." It's all about sheer childish self-indulgence, the Rockso raison d'etre.
The brilliant thing about the introduction of this character is that it allows us to see something that both Dethklok and the shadowy conspiracy that is out to destroy them hate equally: frivolous, childish self indulgence. Dethklok may be a ridiculous heavy metal band, but at least they have visions and values. All Rockso has is his cocaine and the eyes of others judging him.
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