Silly Billy was a type of

clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...

common at fairs in England during the 19th century. They were also common in London as a street entertainer, along with the similar clown

Billy Barlow William McKenzie Barlow (November 2, 1870 – February 14, 1963) was a Canadian amateur ice hockey player in the late 19th century. He played for the Montreal Hockey Club, champions of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) from 18 ...

. The act included playing the part of a fool or idiot, impersonating a child and singing

comic song A novelty song is a type of song built upon some form of novel concept, such as a gimmick, a piece of humor, or a sample of popular culture. Novelty songs partially overlap with comedy songs, which are more explicitly based on humor, and wi ...

s. The role was typically played as a stooge to another clown. The name is popular because of its nice

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

and was used as a generic nickname for foolish people, especially those named

William William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...

such as

Prince William Frederick Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh, (15 January 1776 – 30 November 1834) was a great-grandson of King George II of Great Britain and the nephew and son-in-law of King George III. He was the grandson of both Frederick, Pr ...

and

King William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...

. The nickname was popularised in the 1970s by impressionist

Mike Yarwood Michael Edward Yarwood, (born 14 June 1941) is an English impressionist, comedian and actor. He was one of Britain's top-rated entertainers, regularly appearing on television from the 1960s to the 1980s. Early life Michael Edward Yarwood was ...

, putting it in the mouth of the chancellor,

Denis Healey Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey, (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979 and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970; he remains the longe ...

, who took the catchphrase up and used it as his own. In 1850, the costume of a Silly Billy was short, white trousers with a long white

pinafore A pinafore (colloquially a pinny in British English) is a sleeveless garment worn as an apron. Pinafores may be worn as a decorative garment and as a protective apron. A related term is ''pinafore dress'' (known as a '' jumper'' in Amer ...

, white shoes with a strap around the ankle, red sleeves, a ruff around the neck, and a boy's cap. The hair or wig was arranged to stick out behind the ears. Red makeup was daubed to emphasise the nose with two smears of black for the eyebrows. Multiple pairs of white trousers were needed because women liked to tease the clown by smearing

gingerbread Gingerbread refers to a broad category of baked goods, typically flavored with ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon and sweetened with honey, sugar, or molasses. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a moist loaf cake to forms nearly as crisp a ...

or sticking pins into his legs so that they bled. Comic routines included a

mesmerism Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, was a protoscientific theory developed by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century in relation to what he claimed to be an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all liv ...

act in which Silly Billy was hypnotised, a parody of a preacher giving a

sermon A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. E ...

, and a parody of a

temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture * Temperance (group), Canadian dan ...

campaign. Comic songs included ''O'ive getten a Soft Pleace i' my Yead'' and ''Dolly and the Swill Tub''. The wages of a Silly Billy at the time were about two or three half-crowns per day, averaging about a pound a week, over the year. About a dozen performers made their living in this way in the London area.

References

{{Clowns Clowns Nicknames

See also

References