They came on my radar in high school. One of my younger brothers had The Great Milenko and I have a friend who I think still identifies as a juggalo but he works in aerospace now so he's probably not all that serious about it in the way people who go to the Gathering are

I watched a short documentary on them. Probably by Vice. They're endearing in a way because they're a bunch of white trash misfits, like kb said, who unite and comfort each other with their shared taste in awful music. I do see an axe man tattoo and think "Dear God, what did you go through to bring you to get that tattoo?" so I'm still judgmental. I'm just not 100% disdainful. Of the fans. The actual band is laughably terrible and if I felt like it I could find examples of the two being assholes.

I totally agree that jam bands are awful and their fans are orders of magnitude worse. Jam bands are incredibly popular in recovery circles. Which surprised me. It shouldn't have but I was naive about which drugs people take in order to make it possible to enjoy Trey Anastacio noodling on the guitar for 20 minutes per song. Drug addicts tend towards insecurity and people pleasing so saying, "I don't like jam bands," is a mild insult to some guys I've met and they'll try to change my mind instead of respecting my taste which just makes me hate jam bands more. And as a result I started IRL trolling hippies in meetings by tossing out the occasional direct joking insult directed at Phish or String Cheese Incident which gets laughs from most of the room and probably some butthurt from the kinds of people who form an identity around following Widespread Panic around. As was my intent.

Now I've riled myself up thinking about the year I lived with Spreadheads...

Summary:

Juggaloes- mostly harmless

ICP- Yes. They're clowns. Not in a good way if there is one.

Jam bands and their fans- a subculture that doesn't get the derision it deserves

Possibly the doc I watched:

Almost certainly close enough