I hope he invoked his right to remain silent, because I don’t see any crime here…

Cidu Bill on Jan 16th 2012

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Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Dave Blazek, Loose Parts, comic strips, comics, humor | 27 responses so far

27 Responses to “I hope he invoked his right to remain silent, because I don’t see any crime here…”

  1. Elyrest Jan 15th 2012 at 11:34 pm 1

    Doesn’t matter what he did, he’s guilty of mimes against humanity.

  2. James Pollock Jan 15th 2012 at 11:42 pm 2

    Don’t do the mime if you can’t do the time…

  3. rain Jan 15th 2012 at 11:47 pm 3

    “…and then this penguin came out of nowhere with an olive loaf…”

    “Are you sure it wasn’t a puffin?”

  4. Jeff S Jan 16th 2012 at 01:34 am 4

    I believe someone called Mimestoppers.

  5. MollyJ Jan 16th 2012 at 02:11 am 5

    Take a bite out of mime.

  6. MollyJ Jan 16th 2012 at 02:12 am 6

    On second thought, maybe he was evoking his right to remain silent.

  7. Ooten Aboot Jan 16th 2012 at 06:17 am 7

    The prejudice against mimes is a mystery to me. I first encountered it among cartoonists, then among stand-up comedians. In both cases I put it down to jealousy of the mime’s ability to tell a story, or put across a joke, without words. That is indeed a rare talent among cartoonists and virtually non-existent among stand-up comedians. But why such fear and loathing among the general public? I suspect that, as the song from South Pacific says, it has been carefully taught.

  8. George P. Jan 16th 2012 at 08:34 am 8

    While a good mime may be able to tell a story, most mimes can’t, unless the story is the one in the comic.

    We don’t know what crime has been committed; we just know what the mime has “said” during interrogation.

  9. Arseetoo Jan 16th 2012 at 08:43 am 9

    I hope he’s not going to be up for the death penalty, because (groan) a mime is a terrible thing to waste. (/groan)

    On a more serious note, think of people like Charlie Chaplin. He had to tell the story entirely in silence. The only thing the folks got in those days was a pianist and the occasional “text” card thrown up on the screen. He was a master of a VERY difficult craft.

  10. John Small Berries Jan 16th 2012 at 09:19 am 10

    @Ooten Aboot #7: I think the prejudice comes from street mimes who mimic passers-by and make them the target of ridicule; the mimes who practice their craft in the tradition of Marcel Marceau, alas, get tarred with the same brush.

    Fun fact: Richard Dean Anderson, of MacGuyver and Stargate: SG-1 fame, worked as a mime before he broke into acting. (He claims that he was so bad at it that he had to speak and tell people what he was supposed to be doing.)

  11. mitch4 Jan 16th 2012 at 09:28 am 11

    There is also the tradition (among some styles of mime) of characteristic heavy make-up, resembling circus clowns (who come to think of it are also mimes of a sort). Currently there is a popular trope of “people fear circus clowns” so mimes may suffer by association.

    There is also the tradition of mockery against passers-by, particularly the fat, bourgeois, or pompous. While most viewers might not want to identify with those traits, almost anyone could be made a victim of ridicule by a busking mime for some vulnerability or other.

    There is also the American streak of anti-French prejudice. Accurately or not, today’s mimes are seen as descended from Marcel Marceau. The prejudice goes back to reaction to the Beat Generation and their embrace of Existentialism. Non-hip observers then see all that relates to the French — berets and loaves, say — as pretentious.

  12. mitch4 Jan 16th 2012 at 09:31 am 12

    (Wrote my #11 without benefit of seeing JSB’s #10. Glad to note we found some of the same threads to pull.)

  13. Dan W Jan 16th 2012 at 11:44 am 13

    No mime or reason to this comic.

  14. Pinny Jan 16th 2012 at 12:48 pm 14

    Be careful what you comment, it’s a mimefield out there!

  15. Lola Jan 16th 2012 at 01:35 pm 15

    I know an actor who has one parent from the US and the other from France. At one point he went to mime school in France (do we even have any here?). Ignorantly, I asked why the heck he would do that, that mimes were universally despised. Turns out not to be so. Pretty much a US thing.

  16. Jeff Lichtman Jan 16th 2012 at 02:15 pm 16

    Hey, Bill,

    Did you really intend to make this a CIDU? The joke seems pretty obvious to me, and it also partly answers the question of why people hate mimes. The typical mime act is very limited - a mime walks against the wind, leans on an invisible object, pulls on an invisible rope and finds himself trapped in an invisible box, all while wearing the typical mime costume. Things that are amusing the first time you see them become wearisome after seeing them hundreds of times.

  17. Cidu Bill Jan 16th 2012 at 02:31 pm 17

    Mitch, I never understood the whole “afraid of clowns” thing. I can understand how anybody might be afraid of anything, but the clown thing has become, as you say, a trope. Last year at our town’s July 4 parade, we were with a neighbor’s daughter, and when the clowns marched by us, she said “I’m afraid of clowns.”

    But she just stood there with us watching them. Now I may be missing something… but when you’re afraid of something, don’t you, you know, act afraid?

  18. Paperboy Jan 16th 2012 at 02:39 pm 18

    The “hate mimes” thing is a trope, just like “fear of clowns”. It’s just kinda fun to join in the running gag. I mean, I can see being indifferent, but HATING mime? That’s funny.

  19. Mark M Jan 16th 2012 at 03:57 pm 19

    The whole “fear of clowns” thing might have started with this:

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095444/

  20. Elyrest Jan 16th 2012 at 04:07 pm 20

    I don’t know where/when the hatred of mimes started as I remember Marcel Marceau being a beloved character. I saw him in the early/mid 70’s and don’t remember experiencing anything negative about mimes at that time. Then in 1982 Dustin Hoffman pushed over a mime in Tootsie followed a couple of years later by Diane Chambers, in Cheers, being mocked for taking mime classes. Somewhere in those 10 years something changed, but I don’t know why.

  21. Dan V Jan 16th 2012 at 04:38 pm 21

    Having worked as a clown at numerous parades, I think “afraid” may not be exactly the right word. Small children often can be freaked out by clown makeup, especially if one gets too close. Instead of the clown walking up to a child, it’s better get down at their level and let them approach (or not). Irrational fears often result from traumatic childhood experiences, so I try not to be the freaky in-your-face clown.

  22. sjelly Jan 16th 2012 at 05:02 pm 22

    Thank you, Dan V, for your sensible remark. As an adult who is still afraid of clowns (not doing it because it a “trope”, actually shaking when one gets near me), let me tell you it was no joke having some white-faced garishly made-up stranger getting in my face even after I started screaming. I frigging hate clowns.

  23. Mark in Boston Jan 16th 2012 at 06:07 pm 23

    Forget about silent pantomime. In Great Britain they have something which is much more fun. It’s anything BUT silent — imagine Gilbert & Sullivan, Monty Python and the Goon Show all rolled together. Now imagine the audience is primarily children, the story is a fairy tale and the risque jokes are coming three-a-minute and sailing right over the kids’ heads. And Ian McKellen in drag. It’s Christmas Pantomime, or Panto for short. Search for it on YouTube.

  24. Pinny Jan 16th 2012 at 09:40 pm 24

    Re: Mark M (#19)

    Or even earlier, this:
    http://www.stephenking.com/library/novel/it.html

  25. Molly J Jan 17th 2012 at 05:16 pm 25

    I’m not afraid of clowns, but I understand where people would be. The ones that I find creepiest are the ones that are not intentionally trying to be so.

    Google “antique clown bank” and tell me clowns are never creepy.

  26. Paperboy Jan 17th 2012 at 07:40 pm 26

    So there’s “Clownophobia”, right?

  27. Bob in Nashville Jan 17th 2012 at 08:20 pm 27

    Since everyone has the right to remain silent, then do mimes have the right to remain motionless?

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