clown prince

• Clown Prince

From crown prince. The quip is chosen for its similarity in pronunciation.

Used in semi-official epithets:

• Clown Prince of Baseball: Max Patkin
• Clown Prince of Basketball: Meadowlark Lemon

clown prince (plural clown princes)

1. (slang, humorous, derogatory) A crown prince, seen as a clown.
   • 2003 July 27, Khonthai123, “Happy Birthday & Long Live The Clown Prince”, in soc.culture.thai‎^[1] (Usenet):

     On behalf of my family and all my Thai friends I would
     like to wish the Clown Prince the next King of Thailand
     A Very Happy Birthday.

   • 2007 March 9, nkdat...@bigmailbox.net, “Clown Prince Of Bangladesh (Khaleda Zia's Son, Tareque Rahman) Remanded In Police Custody ..... ..... The Clown Prince Has Assets In Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, South Africa and India !!”, in soc.culture.malaysia‎^[2] (Usenet):

     Clown Prince Of Bangladesh (Khaleda Zia's Son, Tareque Rahman)
     Remanded In Police Custody ..... .....
     The Clown Prince Has Assets In Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, South
     Africa and India !! ..... .....

2. (slang, humorous, often derogatory, epithet) Someone seen as eminent in a field, community or regarding an activity (often one that the speaker has disdain for), seen as a clown.
   • 1995 March 1, Martimus, “Who is the CLOWN PRINCE OF PORN (was: I DIG RON JEREMY)”, in alt.sex.movies‎^[3] (Usenet):

     >I view him as The Clown Prince Of Porn.
     If you were to ask me, I'd choose Jerry Butler as the CLOWN PRINCE of PORN.
     He tends to act more silly and childish than Ron. And he is tolerable to
     watch, Ron isn't (Of course, I'd love to have done 10% of the women Ron's
     done in his career).

   • 1997 June 30, Alan Derrida, “Arnold Kreuger: clown prince of satire on RAO. (was Can Booey make a true statement or are lies what he;'s all about?)”, in rec.audio.opinion‎^[4] (Usenet):
   • 2003 September 27, Ken Rode, “CLOWN PRINCE OF PSEUDOSCIENTISTS -- Was: Why Established Science Has Given Truth the Boot”, in talk.origins‎^[5] (Usenet):

     Well, Ed, I'd have to say that if David is the Clown Prince, you're likely
     the Clown Emperor of Pseudoscience! All hail!

   • 2010 February 27, Rev. 11D Meow!, “Lardknob: Clown Prince Of Smegma”, in alt.conspiracy‎^[6] (Usenet):
   • 2014 September 12, Rudy Canoza, “Bugster, the clown prince of red herrings, straw men, hasty generalizations, and much more”, in alt.politics.economics‎^[7] (Usenet):

     Bugster is (at least) 72 years old, and he writes like a 17 year old
     high school co-ed in histrionics. I've never seen such an emotionally
     overwrought old man.

   • 2023 April 8, “Re: Archimedes "Clown Prince of Math" Plutonium flunked the math test of a lifetime-generation test”, in sci.math‎^[8] (Usenet):