Time to Act Your Age

Many class clowns develop their routines to hide their social anxiety issues, and some of them fail to realize that what worked in their school days is not appropriate when they become adults. A group of friends may get together and invite this former classmate for an evening, and bringing a date is acceptable. Once the group has gathered, the class clown reappears. This is a recipe for disaster, and friends will be the first to point out it is time to grow up once their evening has been ruined.

Telling jokes and stories about people can be funny, but it can also be destructive. When the class clown gets nervous in front of a group of friends and a date, the bad behaviour may surface once more. Telling a joke about an intimate moment with the date could be hilarious, but the date will generally be mortified. This can lead to anger, shouting, and it may end the evening much earlier than planned.

Sometimes the clown’s behaviour zeroes in on the exploits of friends in their former glory as rabble rousers, and that too can create issues. The spouse or date of that person may not find their former exploits anything more than an embarrassment, and they could begin to wonder why they are with that person. It can lead to the look that says there will be a very painful discussion in the near future. That is not a happy outcome for anyone in the group.

Former classmates are often able to behave differently when they are gathered together without spouses or dates, but their behaviour should be modified when they are accompanied by those they should respect. When a disastrous evening like this occurs, it will not take long for the class clown who has reappeared to once again experience loneliness and isolation due to bad behaviour.