Dark Carnival (Insane Clown Posse) - Themes

Themes

The Dark Carnival acts as a way to remind people of the repercussions of their individual actions "in a language that today's world will understand and listen to." It denounces actions that members Bruce and Joseph Utsler are against, including pedophilia, racism, bigotry, domestic violence, and sexual abuse. The themes of the Dark Carnival focus on death, morality, heaven and hell. The themes of God's presence and the final judgment of individuals are explored in multiple Insane Clown Posse songs. Throughout their career, the group has used parables set within the Dark Carnival mythology to warn of the ultimate consequences of immoral behavior. Their 2002 album The Wraith: Shangri-La, which ended the first set of Joker Card albums, with a song named The Unveiling, revealed that the hidden message of ICP's music was to follow God. Joseph Bruce remarked that "The ending of the Joker Cards, the way we looked at it, was death. Heaven and hell. That's up to each and every juggalo ."

Several journalists have commented on the apparent conflict between the group's sexualized and often violent lyrics and their stated spiritual message. In a June 2010 interview with The Columbian's Alan Sculley, Bruce explained, " the stuff that people are talking about on the streets...to get attention, you have to speak their language. You have to interest them, gain their trust, talk to them and show you're one of them. You're a person from the street and speak of your experiences. Then at the end you can tell them God has helped me out like this and it might transfer over instead of just come straight out and just speak straight out of religion."

In an October 2010 article for The Guardian, Jon Ronson characterized the Insane Clown Posse as "evangelical Christians" who have "only been pretending to be brutal and sadistic to trick their fans into believing in God." In an interview with ICP conducted for the article, two of Ronson's queries referred parenthetically to ICP's "Christian message" and to the members' identities as " Christians." Several papers, including The Washington Post, published summaries of Ronson's claims.

Eight days after publication of the Guardian article, Joseph Bruce tweeted "I think crazy how some press say we're a Christian band and act like we're all religious I'm proud that we believe in God but I haven't been to church since I was like 10. I don't even know if ever been to church!" Christianity Today writer Mark Moring also challenged Ronson's characterization, writing that "The guys in ICP haven't used the word 'Christian' or 'evangelical' so let's not call them anything that they're not claiming for themselves."

In 2011, Insane Clown Posse appeared on Attack of the Show! and refuted claims that they were a Christian band. Bruce explained that their Dark Carnival mythology "comes from the basic principle of right and wrong, you know; evil and good. That’s all. We’re just trying to say that there’s bad guys out there and that there’s good guys out there We were taught there’s a heaven and a hell, but that’s all we were taught. We weren’t taught about the Commandments what’s in the Bible and all that. We just want to see good people hopefully go to heaven, which we refer to as Shangri-La." Joseph Utsler explained in a 2002 interview with Craig Markley that "God is in your heart In my definition, it doesn’t matter what creed, religion, or group you belong to. If you’re doing what’s right and are a good person, then you're right with God." Bruce and Utsler have also stated that they are not certain that God and the afterlife exist, but that they'd like to believe that there is something after death.