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[Lord Dakoth]

So, my bro and I have been playing DF practically nonstop since the new release. He opened up the HFS, producing some... interesting results.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Among the demonic horde were a flying three-eyed badger that emitted poison gas, a snowball with wings, and a giant leech made of fire that called out its victims' names...

From the descriptions of these creatures, I propose that the new HFS be codenamed "Pokemon" in place of "Clowns."

[Kagus]

Personally, I find both terms distasteful.  I'm one of those boring sods who would much rather just say "HFS" if I intended to mention them over an unsecured line.

[Rumrusher]

pokemons?
I used witches for the sake most I find are banshees and random generated monsters can't be called pocket monsters for DF doesn't have pockets to stick them in. backpacks yeah but it's not a pocket.
range'mons ?  nah even if you have to dig over ~150 layers to see them calling them pokemon seems wrong when we already had a pokemon mod in 40d that seems to fit nicely in this one.

[Retro]

I would hope that rather than getting a new nickname which doesn't at all prevent spoilers, we could simply just use the forum's spoiler command. New players who read "so when you dig too far into the magical clownite and open up the clown car, lots of clowns will pour out and shoot fireballs and kill you" will be able to see through that 'shroud.'

That being said, if a nickname is thrust upon the new Hell by popular use, I'd hope it would be a) new (not clowns again) and b) not Pokemon :P

[Candlejack]

Where did calling them clowns come from anyway?

[Kza]

Where did calling them clowns come from anyway?

The term probably came from the image of a million clowns emerging from hell, clawing at your dwarfs' chests and tearing out their hearts.

[municipalis]

It was referencing the one-tile portal all the demons popped out of, aka "the clown car".

[Kagus]

Actually, as I recall, it just popped up in a thread one time when someone got concerned over the fact that the thread didn't have a spoiler warning.  Someone started describing the various types of "clown", and I guess it just spiraled out of control from there.

[martinuzz]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I fear I am guilty here, for the fiery clowns, slimy clowns, corrupt clowns, and the head clown.

[tomas1297]

HFS are "clowns" because HFS-ite is a "clown car".Get it?

[praguepride]

You can read up on most of the "special" HFS demons in Legends mode.

It's really fun when one escapes early and rapes the world. I was reading a legend of some demon that became the leader of about 5 different civs over the course of it's life. It would go in, rape-kill the leader, instantly convert all the followers into worshipping it and launch a huge war against a neighbor. The two armies would grind each other into dust and the demon would step in, rape-kill the enemy leader, insta-convert the civ and march onward.

It reminded me of the movie: "The Fallen"

[SmokedRWA]

You can read up on most of the "special" HFS demons in Legends mode.

It's really fun when one escapes early and rapes the world. I was reading a legend of some demon that became the leader of about 5 different civs over the course of it's life. It would go in, rape-kill the leader, instantly convert all the followers into worshipping it and launch a huge war against a neighbor. The two armies would grind each other into dust and the demon would step in, rape-kill the enemy leader, insta-convert the civ and march onward.

It reminded me of the movie: "The Fallen"

That is beyond awesome, I need to start reading the Legends more.

[Owlbread]

It was referencing the one-tile portal all the demons popped out of, aka "the clown car".

I assumed it came from the idea that the demon pits were incredibly deadly, and would therefore be a "fun house". Surely it would make sense for the residents of this "fun house" to be clowns, wouldn't it?

[municipalis]

Well, I did some archival research (using the search - sort by oldest function) on the forums to try and pin down the exact origin of the term.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yes, I'm procrastinating working on a difficult essay, thank you for asking.

Amazingly, it's a relatively recent meme (at least to these forums), having entered the lexicon in late August / Early September of 2009, and had become somewhat widespread by late September.

Chronology:

• A possible spiritual predecessor to the term, originating around April 2009, was user LegoLord's Clown Mod, which added a clown civilization to the game. Thread

• Using the term to refer to demons first happened way back in April of 2008, when user Sagabal said: "Seems like one of those clown demons that none of the other demons like to hang out with.  Still evil and murderous though." Clearly not the same usage as it is today, though. Thread.

• The term "funhouse" or "fun house" was not used independently before the use of the term "clowns" became common. The only exception is when user Itnetlolor referred to Dwarf Fortress in general as a "FUNhouse" in late July. Thread.

• The first instance to the HFS demons being referred to as clowns occurred on August 23rd, 2009 when user Kietharr said: "Anyways, the clowns start off invisible, send a mangled military dwarf or an equally worthless unit into the fun house to get them visible. But be ready, because once they're visible they start creating massive amounts of fun." Thread

• Kietharr Again used the term on September first, "Depends where you pierce the pit. I once hit one about 10 levels below the funhouse and got one happy clown...". In this thread, two other forum members, Quietust and IronBeer, subsequently used the term.Thread

• The major moment of cultural transmission seems to have occurred when Kietharr used the term again in two posts on September 4th in this Thread. User Rowanas picked up on it first, saying "You sir, have invented a much more awesome way of referring to {clowns}". In the rest of the thread, the term 'clowns' is used exclusively; in fact, refining the theme becomes the focus of the thread. RandomNumberGenerator stating,
  "There are four kinds of clowns:
  !!Clowns!!, which burn really hot
  ☼Clowns☼, which have a lot of appendages
  ~Clowns~, which swim in water
  and normal Clowns, which are the best kind of all "

• From that point on the term entered fairly frequent use, as the 10 or so people who contributed to the thread above (and the who-knows-how-many others who simply lurked) spread the meme. Somewhat strangely, there was a (relatively) long period of silence before the term got used again. User Christes, who was present in the above thread, gets the prize for being the first person outside of Kietharr to introduce it to a thread on September 28th.

There. Hope that helps clarify everything. It looks like my initial assumptions in this thread were off on this one.

Edits: Spelling, grammar, etc.

[Kagus]

Thanks for that, municipalis.  Very professional.