I hate clowns. Next to mimes, they scare the living piss out of me. The scary makeup, the bucket of toxic confetti they whip at you; no wonder John Wayne Gacy used them as his alter ego of torture. It was a relief to see that I’m not the only one who feels this way. “Operation: Rednose” goes behind the rubber nose to truly find the evil secrets behind these makeup men of madness.
Done in a “In Search Of…” fashion, “Operation: Rednose” plays like a previous quest to find the urban legend Big Foot, but in this case, it’s close examination is a freak with a painted face and size 28 shoes. Are they real? Do they exist? Where do they buy their pants? We follow one researcher as he goes on a manhunt (or in this case, clown hunt) to find the inner truths of these so called, “Men Of Mirth.” From molds of 23 ½ sized shoes to traps set with corn dogs and rubber noses deep within the forest of Canada, our man of science waits for the great, yet mysterious face-painted buffoon.
There must be a gene inside every Canadian that gives them the gift of laughter. Kids In The Hall had it. So did SCTV. Even sissy soundtrack singing Bryan Adams is funny to laugh at, although I don’t think that was the reason for his sappy song writing (Yea, I know, he used to be pretty good in the 80’s until Kenny Loggins passed the soundtrack torch to him, but that’s another story). And now Dave Alexander and Colin Landry have it. This short plays better than most episodes of SNL and does it within a smaller time frame. Making fun of clowns is serious business and Alexander and Landry keep the yuks coming at a steady rate. Until they release the Jerry Lewis cult classic The Day The Clown Cried, this will just have to do.
