The people have spoken — the bastards. And so the clown is dead.

Last week, I posted about the clown avatar I use on Twitter and Facebook and asked you to decide his fate. I’d gotten a few comments in the social media world from people who found the clown a little disturbing.

More than 40 people voted here on Idea Peepshow, and they pummeled the clown — the vote broke about 2-1 against him. I did get a number of comments on Twitter and on my own Facebook page in support of him, and if I add those to the official vote then it was actually a lot closer. Thanks especially to social-media guru @arikhanson, who tweeted, “Don’t let the No Fun Police win!”

But in the end, the clown went down. And even if he had managed to eke out a narrow victory, I guess I have to ask myself: Is it worth using an avatar that creeps out half the people who see it?

I’m going to use the farewell version above for a few days to ease him out. Then you’ll see a new, boring avatar from me going forward.