clowning vs tomfoolery

clowning and tomfoolery both are nouns.

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

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

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

clowning (noun)	tomfoolery (noun)
acting like a clown or buffoon	foolish or senseless behavior
a comic incident or series of incidents