- If you thought clowns are creepy, you haven’t heard of old-timey circuses.
The circus is in town! Time to go have a good time and see the clowns, lion tamers, trapeze artists, and…
Is that a severed human hand in a jar?
Back in the day, circuses and carnivals were a bit than what we know today. Sure, they still had clowns and whatnot, but they also put up shows that are really weird and often totally inappropriate by modern standards.
Here are eight bizarre circus and carnival sideshows and acts you might’ve seen in the ages past.
1. Flatulism
“What’s flatulism?” you ask. It’s exactly what it sounds like — farting used to entertain people.
Flatulists weren’t the most common circus and carnival performers, but they weren’t rare, either. And to be quite honest, the things they could do with their toots are genuinely pretty impressive.
For instance, a 19th-century French flatulist, Joseph Pujol, could fart out candles from several feet away. What’s better, he could play The Marseillaise on an ocarina by farting through a rubber tube inserted into… You get the idea.
Flatulists could make it big, too. British 12th-century king Henry II supposedly gifted one Roland the Farter with a manor and 30 acres of land for his excellent show.
2. Strange Made-Up Objects
People love seeing unusual trinkets and gewgaws. But what’s an old-timey carnival manager to do if he can’t find any?
Simple — just make something up and say it’s a rare curio from somewhere far away.
Circuses and carnivals of the past are kind of notorious for displaying blatant hoaxes. Among the most famous are the Fiji Mermaids, which were supposedly strange creatures from the South Seas.
What they really were was a dried monkey carcass sewn onto a preserved fishtail. Kind of gross, but if it brings in the visitors…
3. Diving Horse
The diving horse was once a popular attraction in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The show is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.
The show’s operator would drive a horse up a ramp to a high tower. From there, the horse would jump down into the sea or a pool while the audience clapped wildly.
Look, there were a lot fewer options for people to entertain themselves back then.
Diving horse shows operated in Atlantic City from the 1920s to 1970s. At that point, people began questioning the welfare of the horses and the attraction was shut down.
4. Strange Real Objects
Right, so that opening joke about the severed hand in a jar? That wasn’t a joke.
Next to the Fiji Mermaids and other hoaxes, circuses and carnivals used to display all kinds of bizarre stuff. Some of it was downright creepy — like human body parts floating in formaldehyde.
Yet, the most popular thing to gawk at time and time again were preserved human fetuses. Especially so if they happened to have some sort of hideous defect or deformation.
As we said, people were really starved for entertainment.
5. Regurgitation Acts
So, flatulists spew things out of their butts. But on the next stage, you can see a guy do the same from the other end of the digestive tract.
At their mildest, the performers of regurgitation acts would take a big sip of water and squirt it out of their mouths with great accuracy. Go a bit more hardcore and they’d swallow the water before expelling it.
And then you have the shows where the performer would just straight up puke all over the stage.
Like flatulists, they would often perform all kinds of tricks with their vomit, like throwing up through a small hoop several feet away. Undeniably impressive, but also thoroughly disgusting.
6. Ugly People
Were you born with a face even a mother couldn’t love? You’re in luck — that just might be your ticket to fame.
Back in the day, carnival freakshows would feature individuals who were, well… Sorry, but they were just plain ugly.
That said, people would come from far and wide and pay good money to marvel at their ugly mugs. There are several stories of freakshow “performers” achieving fame and even small fortunes simply for not being easy on the eyes.
7. People with Deformities
The same freakshows that display ugly people also had other performers. These folks, however, sported birth defects, deformities, and various other medical issues.
This is probably what you imagine if you think of an old-timey freakshow. People with horrible tumors on their faces, conjoined twins, people suffering from dwarfism or elephantiasis…
And then there are the “shows” where doctors would operate on people’s deformities in public. For example, there was a Chinese man, reportedly called Hoo Loo, who arrived in London in 1831 to have a 58-pound tumor from his lower abdomen.
The doctors wound up selling tickets to allow people to come and watch the operation. They then promptly botched the surgery and Hoo Loo died on the operating table — for the crowd’s entertainment.
8. Human Zoos
Displaying people with medical issues for others’ entertainment is already heinous. But the concept of “human zoos” takes things to another extreme.
At these shows, there wasn’t anything wrong with the displayed person. They just happened to be from, say, Africa.
Up to the early 1900s, people would capture natives from Africa, South America, and elsewhere and ship them to Europe and North America. They would then be put up for a show, like an animal at a zoo, often with a lovely title like “The Missing Link” or something equally offensive.