Carol Burnett says that when she was a girl, she joked and clowned around just to get over the fear of not being liked, because she was poor and not very pretty. To be socially acceptable in our society, we need to show the trappings of success and be physically attractive. Lacking those, we feel desperately insecure and try to compensate in a variety of ways. For Carol Burnett, it worked out fine. She became the funniest lady on television. For many people, it doesn't work out fine at all.