Card of the Day - 2024-07-14

Now this clue is for one of the most popular emojis, 😂 (a face crying tears of joy). It is described as a bright yellow face, grinning whilst also crying. Hence the clowns on our card.

It was actually emoji of the year in 2015, and is always in the top three of popularity - in fact in another poll it came out as the most used emoji of all for a whole decade (2011-2020), which is pretty amazing as it was only introduced in 2010. There is some dispute about the 2021 result, as another emoji won, but it was "loudly crying face", which is actually to many people`s minds, the same thing except the mouth is more widely open, and it simply means something is even more funny. Anyway in 2022 our emoji was back in top slot again. Oh, and if you prefer, there is also 😹 (a feline version of this emoji, also laughing until they cry)

This is a great set, and yet few people know of it. All I know is that it was produced in Holland, is entitled "Circus Stars" and it is at least a set of thirty, all of which are clowns, a mixture of the sad faced and the jolly. 

I have gone for the jolly, and picked Carlo and Mariano. However my research has turned up something curious as there were clowns of that same name, (Carlo Carpini and Mariano Rodriguez), who worked together and appear on postcards but one of them is in total white face whilst the other has a very elongated nose. Also the postcards are stamped for 1908.

After a lot of chasing I have found out that Mr. Carpini was Italian and Senor Rodriguez was Spanish, and they came from circus families with a very long backstory - and our Carlo and Mariano turn out to be their sons. They seem to have started working together in 1944, and these cards look to be 1960s.

However that is as far as I have got so far! 

The backs of these cards differ, I have this Native American with his bow, a man riding a motorcycle along the trapeze with a lady on his shoulders and another either gliding past or laying across them, and also an explorer encountering a huge ape. All backs have the same red curtain to the side, and on the two vertical format cards the number, clown`s name, and "(c) Printed in Holland" are, oddly, upside down to this red big top image. On the vertical back it does not look so odd.