Back in the 1300s, England opened a hospital in London, which morphed into a mental hospital.
It was more like a prison...and up into the 18th century, citizens who weren't much brighter (IMO) than the patients, actually paid a few pennies to watch the unfortunates from a balcony..a weird form of "entertainment"..
That hospital's name was BEDLAM, which is where from we derived our current term.
...Back then, people had to PAY to watch mental defectives..today we get such entertainment for free,
whenever and spokesperson for the Brandon brigade, starts to speak.