Who Asked You, Condom Head?

One kind of Mexican street vendor is a foulmouthed clown, whose off-color spiel uses racism, sexism, double-entendre, and nationalist chauvinism to assemble and entertain a crowd and, ultimately, to part its members from their money. Vulgar and highly formulaic, the clown's language reaches its creative peaks when the clown engages individuals—whether passers-by, shills, or marks—in direct interaction and subjects them to insult and verbal abuse for manipulative effect. I consider not the interactive insulation of taboo language but, in this highly public context, its subversive exploitation for both entertainment and commercial gain.