What role did the whiite clowns play in "Fahrenheit 451"?

The white clowns are part of a TV show.  They are cartoon
characters who do silly and violent things to one another, such as chop off one
anothers' limbs.  The show is filled with one violent act after another with tracks of
canned laughter to accompany much of it.  The purpose of this show and the clowns is to
show the mindlessness of television and of the people in the society.  The show also
demonstrates the violence of the people and how little they care for one another.  When
Bradbury wrote the book, TV was still in its youth.  Many people saw it as mindless
entertainment that had the potential of robbing viewers of thought.  The white clown
exemplify this idea.  Millie and most of the people in the society were absorbed by the
antics of these cartoon characters.  The viewers did not do any thinking as they watched
this program.  Also, Bradbury shows this society to be a violent one.  When Clarisse
talks with Montag in the first section of the book, she describes how many of her
classmates have died in the last year in violent ways.  We see people drive cars in
reckless ways in the story and we also see how little feeling there is for one's fellow
man.  Again, the white clowns exemplify this violence and lack of
feeling.