Charivari

By Deane Barker • •
Updates
This content has been updated 1 time since it was first published. The last update happened .

This is a when a wrongdoer is humiliated by being “paraded through the streets.” From Wikipedia:

A European and North American folk custom in which a mock parade was staged through a community accompanied by a discordant mock serenade

Occasionally, the actual wrongdoer is not used, but rather someone (over-dramatically) acting as if they were them. This is the equivalent of hanging someone in effigy.

More, recently, the word is used in relation to a circus.

Perhaps the most common usage of the word today is in relation to circus performances, where a “charivari” is a type of show opening that sees a raucous tumble of clowns and other performers into the playing space.

So, the general concept is a parade generating a lot of noise, designed to call attention to itself.

Why I Looked It Up

I don’t exactly remember, but I think there was a passage in Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates where captured U.S. sailors were dragged on a charivari through Tripoli.

Update

Added on

The book Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet used the word often to discuss the community shaming of the first spammers in the history of the internet.

Links from this – Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War that Changed American History October 16, 2021
This is a recounting of the First Barbary War. That event is important because it was the first overseas conflict the young United States ever fought in. (From the Marine Corp hymn: “From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli…” The “shores of Tripoli” happened in the First Barbary War.)...
Links from this – Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet July 3, 2024
This is a long look at the history of spam, in all its forms. Spam has a long history, from email to Usenet to social media to everything in between. The book has a nice general definition of spam: an abuse of someone’s attention. So, if someone is paying attention to something else, and you take...