Carny
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Carnies are commonly perceived as an insular and discrete subculture: an example of a marginalized segment of society banding together and consciously separating themselves from mainstream society. Popular perception of carnies is similar to that of gypsies, as both groups are often characterized (fairly or not) by their nomadic ways and purported belief that swindling or stealing from members of mainstream society is not sinful or dishonorable but rather a display of praiseworthy shrewdness and guile. The highly insular nature of carny society has fostered popular suspicions of inbreeding, supposedly manifested by a tendency towards small hands or thumbs.
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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
Note: Though these terms are traditionally part of Carnival jargon, it is an ever changing form of communication and in large part designed to be impossible to understand by an outsider. Thus, as words are assimilated into the culture at large, they loose their function and are replaced by other more obscure or insular terms.
- 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. The term has entered the popular lexicon, usually as "easy mark."
- Sharpie - The opposite of a mark: an experienced player who is wise to traditional carny scams and is skilled at the games themselves.
- "The Nut" - The sum total (in cash) of a performance, or group of performances
- "The Kitty" - Budgeted amount of finance, regulated by the management of a carnival for purchasing food and supplies for it's workers. ("We wanted a new tent, but there's no more scratch in the kitty")
- "Rousty" or "Roustabout" - A temporary or full-time laborer who helps pitch concessions and assemble rides. In the 1930s, American Rousty's would work for a meal and perhaps a tent to share with other workers.
- "Sugar Shack" - a concession or food-stand that doubles as a front for drug commerce & trafficking.
- "Donniker" - Bathroom
- "Larry" - Defective
- "Straight" - A game that is played by the rules
- "Alibi" - A technique used where the player has apparently won the game, but is denied a prize when the jointee invents a further, unforeseeable, condition of the game. For example, a player may be disqualified on the grounds of having leaned over a previously undisclosed "foul line."
- "Flat" - A game that is rigged so that you cannot win. Illegal in most states.
Many carnies "qualify" outsiders by using the jargon.
- Gaff - To rig a game so as to make it unwinnable
- "Hey Rube" - An exclamation used to summon help by a carny in trouble, either from police or disgruntled players. The term was used as the title of a sports column written by Hunter Thompson for ESPN.com in his later years.
- "Two-Way Joint" - A game that can be quickly converted from a fixed, unwinnable game into a temporarily honest one when police officers come by.
- Ikey Heyman - A wheel of fortune that can be secretly braked by the carny
- Burn the lot - To cheat players with little or no attempt to conceal the subterfuge, in the carny's expectation that the same town will not be visited again.
- Patch money - Money used to induce police officers to turn a blind eye. Also known as "juice" or "ice."
[edit] Carnies in film and literature
- Freaks is a cult classic 1932 movie directed by Tod Browning and starring carnies. The movie is about relationships among the carnies in a troupe. The film followed a string of now classic horror movies and was made by the director of Dracula with Bela Lugosi.
- In "Joe Dirt," the 2001 redneck comedy starring David Spade, the title character works as a "rideboy" for part of the film.
- 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.
- Carnies is a 2007 movie directed by Brian Corder and starring Chris Staviski, Doug Jones, Reggie Bannister, and Lee Perkins.
- 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.
- In the 1988 movie Two Moon Junction, Richard Tyson plays a carny who falls in love with a rich, southern socialite (Sherilyn Fenn)
- In the 2003 Tim Burton film Big Fish, Edward Bloom (Ewan McGregor) works for a travelling carnival for a period of time.
[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. Smell like cabbage. Small hands."
