Puddles The Clown should, by all metrics of modern popular culture, be a terrifying figure. According to his official page, Puddles stands 7-feet tall, is always very sad, and remains completely silent until it’s time for him to sing. And yet, as becomes clear when watching the giant performing a cover of Lizzo’s “Juice,” his many ominous features all melt away when the giant stares straight into a camera lens and just sort of loses himself in the music.
Distancing himself from any circus associations, Puddles’ take on “Juice” is decidedly lounge-inspired. His voice is silky enough that even lines like “I be drippin’ so much sauce, got a clown lookin’ like Ragu,” sung while white-gloved hands massage the air, manage not to turn the stomach. Really, everything about the video, aside from the unfortunate mental image that comes from associating a clown named Puddles with a song called “Juice,” is downright pleasant.
In case you thought this was a one-off effect, his YouTube channel is filled with similarly entrancing numbers. Here’s Puddles marveling at the beauty of life through his version of “What A Wonderful World.” Here he is covering “Creep,” managing to somehow be a huge clown singing “Your skin makes me cry” in a remarkably non-threatening manner. And here’s the man of the hour crooning “Life On Mars” without “the freakiest show” part really manifesting outside of Bowie’s lyrics themselves.
After a season of Pennywise and Joker, Puddles has somehow managed to make the clown delightful again. Watching him perform, soaking in the smooth textures of his voice, really makes it seem like now, despite the odds, it’s time for us as a people to wander back into the warm embrace of the silent, make-up slathered freaks of the entertainment world. They’ve been mischaracterized for too long and, if Puddles is anything to go by, it’s filled their beautiful clown hearts with a sadness that only our renewed appreciation can solve.
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