clowning vs folly

clowning and folly both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
clowning	Yes	No	No	No
folly	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, folly is a hypernym of clowning; that is, folly is a word with a broader meaning than clowning:

Other hypernyms of clowning include craziness, foolery, indulgence, lunacy, tomfoolery.

clowning (noun)	folly (noun)
acting like a clown or buffoon	foolish or senseless behavior
a comic incident or series of incidents	a stupid mistake
	the trait of acting stupidly or rashly
	the quality of being rash and foolish