We use the expression to clown around when we talk about someone playing tricks and making jokes.
Usually, a person is clowning around if he is being funny when he should be serious.
In that case, you may get angry and say, "Stop clowning around. This is a serious situation."
The most celebrated American circus in the eighteen hundreds was P. T. Barnum's "Greatest Show on Earth."
Barnum's circus had many new acts. He began finding and training unusual animals, not just dogs and horses.
One of the most popular of Barnum's animals was a huge elephant named Jumbo.
Jumbo was very large, much larger than other elephants. Soon, anything that was the largest of its kind was called jumbo.
Today, there are jumbo drinks, jumbo boxes of soap, and jumbo sales of cars.
