Carny
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- Carny may also refer to the film of that name or the Nick Cave song found on the album Your Funeral, My Trial
Carny is the singular slang for a carnival employee, as well as the language they employ. Carnies is the plural. The term is also used in reference to pro-wrestling jargon.
A Carny is anyone who runs a "joint" (booth), food "grab joint" stand, game, or ride at a carnival. Carnies are typified as sly and coercive salespeople, but the term itself merely refers to any employee of a travelling circus or carnival, regardless of behavior or intention.
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[edit] Etymology
The word carny is thought to have become popularized around 1931 in North America, when it was first colloquially used to describe "one who works at a carnival." The word carnival, originally meaning a "time of merrymaking before Lent," came into use circa 1549, and is derived from the Italian carnevale for "Shrove Tuesday". The older Milanese Italian forms include carnevale and the Old Pisan carnelevare which interpreted means "to remove meat," is literally translated "raising flesh," from the Latin caro, meaning "flesh" and levare, meaning to "lighten, raise". Folk etymology from the Middle Latin is carne vale, interpreted as "flesh farewell."
[edit] Carnival Jargon
- Bally - A free performance intended to attract both tips and visitors to the nearby sideshow.
- Call - The act of yelling out slogans and interacting with passers-by to attract business.
- Slough - Tear down your "joint". Get it ready for the road.
- Spring - Open the carnival.
- Scratch - the revenue from a concession.
- Oats - stolen money from a concession.
- -iz- - inserted between the syllables of words to serve as a cipher or cryptolect.
- Mark - A target for swindling, especially one whose gullibility has been demonstrated. Derived from the covert use of chalk to mark the backs of especially ripe targets.
Many carnies "qualify" outsiders by using the jargon.
[edit] Carnies in film and literature
- Carny is a 1980 movie directed by Robert Kaylor and starring Gary Busey, Jodie Foster, Robbie Robertson, and Meg Foster. The film has become a cult favorite.
- Much of the fiction of pulp writer Fredric Brown features carnies and touches on carnival life, in particular the Ed and Am Hunter mysteries, beginning with The Fabulous Clipjoint in 1947.
- Geek Love is a novel by Katherine Dunn that mixes surrealism and horror.
- Nightmare Alley is a 1947 movie starring Tyrone Power and directed by Edmund Goulding, adapted from the novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, which chronicles the rise and fall of a carny con man.
- In Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, the protagonist Michael spends some time living with carnies.
- In Theodore Sturgeon's, The Dreaming Jewels, the hero flees with carnies to escape a brutal father. The head carny collects unusual people because he has discovered strange jewels that create people as works of art. Sturgeon himself worked as a carny for a time.
- Tattoo of a Naked Lady is a novel by ex-carny Randy Everhard that depicts the freakshow of American sexuality.
[edit] References in popular culture
- The HBO dramatic television series Carnivàle is a supernatural period drama set in the United States during the Great Depression, telling the story of a travelling carnival in the Dust Bowl with an overarching story about the battle between good and evil as well as the struggle between free will and destiny.
- In The Simpsons, Homer Simpson was quoted as saying, "Despite their rat-like appearance, carnies are kings among men."
- From Tattoo of a Naked Lady: "Carnies and circus people hate each other from way back when. We’re two different tribes. Like Hatfields and McCoys. Nobody even remembers how or why the feud started but every year there’s a dead body or two to keep it going."
- In Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Austin Powers tells Basil Exposition that he is afraid of only two things – nuclear war and "Carnies. Circus Folk. Nomads, no doubt. Small hands. Smell like cabbage."
