Wait, Was That Insane Clown Posse on Red Eye?

The offbeat, irreverent late-night show Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld got even more weird this week when the “wicked clowns” from Insane Clown Posse appeared as guests. Did the libertarian-leaning 3AM free-for-all show jump the shark (is that even possible?) when Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope showed up in full makeup, to promote their new show on Fuse, “Insane Clown Posse Theater”? Gutfeld said,

For over 20 years now, the masters of horrorcore have been known for their freakishly loyal fan base, all without the help of the lamestream media, or even hand soap, for that matter.”

He said the appearance was like the “blending of two worlds together” (two worlds most Americans only see in their nightmares, I might add).

Shaggy 2 Dope described the new show in which the two comment on videos and various entertainment-related stories and said, “We did our studies and everything is 100% fact.” Fox News personality Gutfeld pounced on some common ground: “Fair and balanced!”

Violent J shared his frustration that even though they’ve sold millions of records and have millions of loyal fans (called Juggalos), they haven’t received the recognition they deserved from the record industry. “All we want to do is count. We want people so say, you know, they exist too, they’re part of the industry somewhere.”

Red Eye panelist Mike Baker asked Violet J if that really mattered to him. “Juggelos are real people and we just want to know that we’re there — our contention is there. Our punches are to be felt as well. Our voices are to be heard, you know what I’m saying? We want to be heard. We want to count,” said Violent J.

Gutfeld posited that it’s a class problem. Music critics are “elitist college grads — and failed musicians.”

He asked about their lawsuit against the FBI for designating Juggalos as gang members. Violent J explained,

People fear what they don’t understand. They see 10,000 people gathering in the woods, literally in the middle of nowhere and they say, “Well it’s for ICP so it’s not about music, it must be about something, it must be a gang rally,”  you know what I mean?

They gave examples of ICP fans receiving harsher sentencing in criminal proceedings, losing custody of their children, and being denied entry to the military for sporting ICP “gang” tattoos.

The lawsuit is a result of a 2011 FBI National Gang Threat Assessment warning that Juggalos are a “loosely-organized hybrid gang” that engages in crimes that are “sporadic, disorganized, individualistic, and often involve simple assault, personal drug use and possession, petty theft, and vandalism.” However, some reports suggest that a small number of Juggalos are organizing and turning to more serious gang-like behavior, including felony assaults, robberies, and drug sales.

In an ironic libertarian Kumbaya moment, Gutfeld, author of The Joy of Hate, responded that “the Juggalos are now an aggrieved group because they’re being persecuted!” (The subtitle of his book is “How to Triumph Over Whiners in the Age of Phony Outrage.”)

The second segment just got weirder (and included plenty of PG-13 boys locker room humor).

So did Red Eye jump the shark with this segment or was it a smart outreach to a demographic that might be open to the liberty-minded point-of-view? Watch the whole thing and decide for yourself:

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