The earliest picture of Jesus at his crucifixion comes to us by way of caricature - a rendering of Jesus on the cross depicted with the head of an ass. This was the early Roman attempt at mocking him by depicting him as a ridiculous figure, someone who deserved nothing more than being written off. We find in the Gospel accounts (as well as early history) the repeated attempts of the Roman officials treating Jesus as a figure of fun.
They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, "Hail, king of the Jews!" Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling down on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
~Mark 15:16-20
The Romans weren't the only ones who regarded Jesus as a clownish figure. We can see his quick and forceful dismissal from the very pious and earnest Pharisees who found in utter contempt this carpenter who dared provoke the powerful and lawful. If you remember, they had brought to him a woman who had committed a great sin in order to hear his piety. Instead, Jesus bends over and writes with his finger in the dust on the ground. By playing in the dirt as a child Jesus reveals their own overly-solemn lives and uncovers their own godlessness, for he knows what they are really thinking.
"Jesus didn't observe the norms. In the eyes of the pious establishment he acted like a fool. In this role he proclaimed a God who wants life, before whom one doesn't need to appear with a serious face, but whom one can encounter in the joyfulness and freedom of the child, the clown and the fool."*
*Anselm Grun, Images of Jesus (New York: Continuum, 2002), 137.
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