Clowns Love'em or hate'em? I don't think they are oddly appealing...

[Phlosphr]

Clowns: My wife and I recently went to a carnival where there a fair amount of clowns walking around. Everytime one would pass us my wife would look the other way. I asked her about it and she said she had an aversion to clowns. Since childhood she has detested the sight of clowns.
I wonder what the psychology is behind something that is supposed to be so happy and cheerful...being equally avsersive? This is not an uncommon reaction as a matter of fact. I did an impromptu test with each of my classes asking who liked or disliked clowns. Roughly 60% of my students do not like the sight of clowns...they (clowns) are in one way or another aversive...Anyone agree? Disagree, anecdotes?

[Eve]

Oh, a "scary clown" thread pops up, baring its fangs, yearly. Everyone hates them.

The clowns, that is, not the threads.

[yellowval]

For me, it's not the clowns themselves that creep me out, it's clown dolls that give me the heebie jeebies. A friend of mine had these little clown dolls in her living room (now there's a decorating no-no for you!) and I couldn't stand to look at them. I'm definitely interested to see what the people who get freaked out by clowns have to say though.

[Phlosphr]

Yellowval - You are talking about the dolls themselves, not those hideous half clown heads made out of ceramic right?

[Doomtrain]

They're obnoxiously over-cheerful, there's a very creepy vibe around them, and we've all seen enough evil clown movies/TV Shows/whatever to have a bad impression.

To quote Zorak,

"Don't send in the clowns
They always bring me down."

[swampbear]

EWWWWWWW!!!!!!! ICK!!!!!!!!!!! Scary, creepy clowns! :eek: I don't think they're funny at all. They send shivers up and down my spine and not the good kind. I went to the circus once and only once. Get rid of the clowns and I'll go back.

Scary, creepy clowns! :eek:

[cichlidiot]

While I don't think the movie Poltergeist with the clown doll scene helped, I already had an aversion to clowns. My grandparents would take me to the circus each time it came into town. Since I grew up in Detroit, this was usually more than once a year. For some reason, I was often the kid singled out in the audience by a roaming clown, as a participant. Horrible. I guess for these reasons, they took me away from my Grandpa, they smelled funny (probably the grease-paint), they didn't talk, they were mean to other clowns, and they were hidden. Hidden in the emotional sense it was not possilbe to know what intent was, expressions stayed the same due to make-up.

[yellowval]

Yellowval - You are talking about the dolls themselves, not those hideous half clown heads made out of ceramic right?

I really don't like either, but the dolls complete with their tiny creepy costumes are the worst. The clown head masks are mostly just hideous.
I forgot about the Poltergeist thing. Maybe that's why I don't like them.

[look@hergo!]

Am I scared of clowns? No, just suspicious. Deeply suspicious of men wearing all that make-up. What are they hiding? It's just grotesque. Keep away from me.

The only thing worse is a female clown. They're soooo cutesy-wootsy, and don't take "go away" for an answer. Listen Lady Clown, just be cool and walk away when I turn my back to you -- don't pull feathery flowers outta your ass or make that mime-y sad face at me to try to pull me into your demented li'l world.

And don't get me started about the Jesus clowns.

[porcupine]

Hate.

[Sami41]

I don't mind clowns. My old boss, on the other hand, thinks their creepy. He had a serious aversion to clowns. Last Halloween the crew tossed around the idea of all of us dressing up as clowns, just for him. We decided that we just couldn't be that cruel, since he was a pretty good boss and a (more importantly) master of revenge.

Semi-related. My Mom is scared to death of the comedy/tragedy theater masks. She's OK with clowns, though.

~S

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Clowns are not funny. Never have been. Never will be.

[BiblioCat]

For me, it's not the clowns themselves that creep me out, it's clown dolls that give me the heebie jeebies.
... I'm definitely interested to see what the people who get freaked out by clowns have to say though.
It's clowns and clown dolls that do it to me. The movie Poltergeist didn't help either. That clown doll scene at the end freaked me out.
When my daughter (now 15) was about 18 months old, someone gave her a big clown doll very much like the one from Poltergeist and I hated the damn thing. It gave me the heebie-jeebies like crazy. It scared me to have it on her bed, so I convinced her it had to live in the basement family room, and when we moved it got "lost."

[Eve]

Scary clowns (http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dcoble/clowns/clowns.html), anyone?

[manx]

Interestingly enough my family was talking about clowns a week or so ago, with my mum recounting each of us kids' reaction to them. One of my brothers hated them, the other didn't care, and I was always embarrased by them. I was very firmly of the belief that once you were an adult you didn't 'play'. Dressing up strange with lots of makeup was 'play', and I was always embarrased for the clowns, like they hadn't been allowed to grow up or something. I still feel like that now - clowns, like mimes, make me cringe

[masonite]

I hate and fear clowns, like all reasonable people. But I think I actually have a reason. When I was a kid, all pediatricians' waiting rooms were decorated with clown pictures. I came to associate illness, foul-tasting medicines, and painful injections with clowns.

That, and the fact that they're pure evil, of course.

[Odinoneeye]

I don' t mind clowns. But I can remember other kids laughing at them at parades when all they were doing was walking. Walking didn't seem particularly funny to me.

I guess since I watched Bozo every morning, I got used to clowns at an early age.

Now mimes.... shudder....

[screech-owl]

Neither love nor hate, just a mere tolerance of them on my part. They are more annoying, than anything to me. Kinda like the people who stand in front of the supermarkets, shilling stuff for charity or asking for donations (Salvation Army excepted). I guess I am far beyond the tired pratfalls and hijinks that clowns offer, smirks, balloon animals, dropped trousers with red heart underwear, pies in the face, a little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down the pants - just not funny, and never really were to me.

Worst Florida guide book I've ever seen had clowns on the front. Now, I realize that yes, we have the Ringling Clown College (Sarasota), but c'mon, when you think of Florida, are clowns REALLY the first thing that come to your mind? For me, even after living here for so long, dolphins, palm trees, manatees, sunset beaches, and theme park images (where copyright allows) are the first mental images of Florida. Not clowns.

And fergawdssakes, it wasn't even a very good photo. Looked like someone tried to write their own guidebook and put a photo of their mom and her best friend playing clowns at a church field days on the cover. Ick.

[RandomLetters]

I like clowns quite a bit. Especially with fava beans & a nice chianti.

But you gotta cook them just right, or they will taste funny.

[Kalhoun]

Scary clowns (http://www.ags.uci.edu/~dcoble/clowns/clowns.html), anyone?
Eeeew. Borg and Millenium were the scariest. I really hate clowns.

Yet, I actually WAS one at one time. What the hell am I supposed to make out of that? (insert scary clown smilie here)

[dwc1970]

As a kid I thought clowns were just... stupid. I knew they were supposed to be funny, but I found them to be annoying. When I saw the infamous clown scene in Poltergeist I became genuinely fearful of them. As for the clown dolls, I get creeped out just from looking at them. They have this deceptive look to their faces. I swear that I feel like they are alive and watching me.

[Annie-Xmas]

Eeeew. Borg and Millenium were the scariest. I really hate clowns.

Yet, I actually WAS one at one time. What the hell am I supposed to make out of that? (insert scary clown smilie here)

*<|:@[]

Scarey Clown Smilie

[Eve]

Worst Florida guide book I've ever seen had clowns on the front. Now, I realize that yes, we have the Ringling Clown College (Sarasota), but c'mon, when you think of Florida, are clowns REALLY the first thing that come to your mind?

No, that would be Washington, D.C.

[Southpaw]

Who was that famous clown; dressed like a hobo? I think his name was Emmet or something like that. He seemed to be on TV alot in the '70's. Creeped me out big time, with his sad face and un-funny skits.

As did the paint-by-numbers clowns a friend had on her bedroom walls. I swear their eyes followed me around the room. :eek:

There was always something sinister about clowns. Like they're fugitives from the law and couldn't afford plastic surgery so they used grosteque makeup instead.

[plnnr]

Clowns haven't ever bothered me.

"I was very firmly of the belief that once you were an adult you didn't 'play'," said manx . I think that's kind of sad. Playing is good for you.

[glilly]

The only thing worse is a female clown. They're soooo cutesy-wootsy, and don't take "go away" for an answer. Listen Lady Clown, just be cool and walk away when I turn my back to you -- don't pull feathery flowers outta your ass or make that mime-y sad face at me to try to pull me into your demented li'l world.


Wife's grandmother clown story #1:

Her grandmother had a 90 yr birthday party to which 100 people showed up. It was a well organized multi-hour event, mostly people relating stories, some people singing, etc. Very tasteful and well done.

Until the clown and her two meth-head understudies show up.

Apparently, someone thought it would be a good idea to just order a clown without telling the organizers. Clown barges in, makes ass of herself, and the 100 of us wait uncomfortably while the clown does her non-funny clowning.

Later, someone else was relating a touching story, and again we hear the honk-unk of a bike horn and the clown is walking in again. The woman talking just kept talking while giving the clown and her zombie spawn the evil eye. The clown kept walking.

Wife's grandmother clown story #2:

Other grandmother was in a nursing home until she died. Wife's parents were moving her stuff out of the nursing home. Another clown was there for something, acting like a clown, and as my wife's parents walk by carrying a cabines the clown said in her cheery voice "Moving out?" "Uh, yeah," he says. He later regretted not asking "Yes. Can you guess why?"

[OldBroad]

I never "got" clowns. Even as a kid. They're not funny - not even mildly amusing. IIRC there are few, if any, clown advocates when one of these threads appears. It would be interesting to see a study as to why the tradition persists. Any Doper out there needing a thesis topic?

[Stonebow]

I make it a point to bury a hatchet between the bushy eyebrows of every clown that crosses my path.

Freakin' weirdos. There are few things that I hate worse than clowns. I hate them worse than I hate telemarketers and pandas combined.

True story: while working here at the college, some of the kids found out that I don't like clowns, so one of them floated the idea that he'd dress up as a clown for Halloween and 'surprise me.' Well, I surprised him. I took him aside the day before Halloween and said, "Son, if you plan on dressing up as a clown tomorrow to spook me, you should know that I plan to stab you in the heart with this letter opener if you do that. I'll then hold you close for a slow count of sixty to make sure that you're really dead. Then I'm going to piss on you."

Suffice it to say that I've never been 'threatened' by clowns since. Fucking Freaks.

[Eve]

Who was that famous clown; dressed like a hobo? I think his name was Emmet or something like that.

Emmett Kelly (http://www.house.state.mo.us/famous/kelly.htm). I don't dare click those links at the bottom of his page . . .

[Eve]

Oh, lordie, I clicked on one of the links, only to see those dreaded words I'd hoped never to read: "Follow this link to see a funny Leprechaun."

[Annie-Xmas]

I make it a point to bury a hatchet between the bushy eyebrows of every clown that crosses my path.

Freakin' weirdos. There are few things that I hate worse than clowns. I hate them worse than I hate telemarketers and pandas combined.

True story: while working here at the college, some of the kids found out that I don't like clowns, so one of them floated the idea that he'd dress up as a clown for Halloween and 'surprise me.' Well, I surprised him. I took him aside the day before Halloween and said, "Son, if you plan on dressing up as a clown tomorrow to spook me, you should know that I plan to stab you in the heart with this letter opener if you do that. I'll then hold you close for a slow count of sixty to make sure that you're really dead. Then I'm going to piss on you."

Suffice it to say that I've never been 'threatened' by clowns since. Fucking Freaks.

Stonebow--May you live long and prosper. And never meet a clown. :D

[Infovore]

I got your evil clown (http://www.disturbingauctions.com/view.php?item=25) right here! ::shudder::

I hate clowns. When I was a kid I thought they were stupid (never liked broad physical humor, even as a wee one) and as I got older I started getting the scary vibe from them. As with many other posters, Poltergeist didn't help at all.

My grandmother was an artist, and when I was a little kid she painted me a picture for my room: a clown doll. It was the creepiest thing I ever saw. Its eyes followed you around the room wherever you went, and it had this vaguely menacing expression (I'm sure Grandma didn't mean for it to look that way, but it did). My mom made me put it on the wall for awhile, but it wasn't long before I convinced her it wasn't working out. I don't know what happened to it--these days I'd like to have it back to see if it was really as creepy as I remembered, but Mom probably sold it at a garage sale because she can't find it.

[Dung Beetle]

Hate them for all of the reasons mentioned so far, and I thought I'd float another theory as well. ("Down here we ALL float!")
One of my idiosyncrasies is that I don't like to eat things that are red, because I associate the color red with gore. (Of course, I do manage to keep my weirdness at a manageable level and eat spaghetti from time to time.) My point is, you have some pushy, loud person trying to get a reaction out of you and the whole area around its mouth is smeared with red. Why? Has it been eating babies or something? If you ask me, the answer is yes.

[verbenabeast]

Look@hergo said :

don't ... try to pull me into your demented li'l world.

I DID paraphrase... but I wanted to distill the point. Whether they "pull feathery flowers outta your ass or make that mime-y sad face" or whatever... they try to SHAME people to come out into "clown world" and make asses out of themselves... so that people that dig clowns (freakish bastards that they are) will laugh, not at the clown, but at the poor son of a bitch the clown singled out. Clowns abso-freakin'-lutely wierd me out. I have NEVER seen a funny clown act.


The only clowns that do not completely skeeve me out are rodeo clowns... am I alone here, or are rodeo clowns different?


What's yellow and orange and looks good on a clown?





FIRE!

[yellowval]

Hey, I just remembered something! John Wayne Gacy (http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0300475/bio) was a clown. How's that for creepy!

[Mr. Blue Sky]

The only acceptable thing that has anything to do with clowns is Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' "Tears of a Clown".

[Mr. Blue Sky]

What's yellow and orange and looks good on a clown?





FIRE!

I am stealing this one. :D

[B. Serum]

People don't like mimes, right? Well a clown is a mime with the most hideously garish makeup known to man. The fact that a few movies have slammed them have only cemented their position of creeee-P!

However...

I saw a new take on clowns that works pretty well. I was down to SeaWorld in Orlando and they have this Cirque du Soleil-type show called Odyssea. Part of the act was this travelling vagabond-type character that was — with the exception of make-up paint — a clown.

[Already in Use]

Clowns can be cool in a surrealistic sort of way. I was never really scared of them as a child; I was too busy being scared of arbitrary things like household appliances.

[Sinshine]

Not a fan of clowns. Or mimes, for that matter. There has always been a lack of "funny" in the clown routine for me, and often a strong streak of pathos which I was never compelled to respond to.

But at the back of my mind is a small question, which will drive me out of bed in a few hours in search of the answer:

Were clowns ever REALLY meant to be funny, or for children? Were they not, once upon a time, meant to highlight some grotesque aspect of humanity to the culture that hatched them for festival purposes, in the mists of time?

I wish I hadn't lost my Joseph Campbell books. I'll bet he's got an answer.

[Gartog]

The problem is these birthday party clowns, or walk around and squirt you with water clowns, don't really have a clue waht they're doing and are essentially crap.

Some of my favorite clowns can be found here ath the Cirque du Soleil (http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/NR/exeres/0000c318hewhsmqkvdmzfcxb/quidam.asp?NRMODE=Published&NRORIGINALURL=%2fCirqueDuSoleil%2fen%2fshows%2ftouring%2fquidam%2ehtm&NRNODEGUID=%7b53707E85-E720-4D66-A657-60EB6F5CBDDD%7d&NRQUERYTERMINATOR=1&cookie%5Ftest=1)

I see the point about the old guy dressed up in makeup to play with the children being a little scary, but in the right context, a good clown can be amazing.

[Gartog]

Clowns meant to be funny?

I think so, but not realy for children, the traditional clown paradigm represents in a comcial (and often disturbing way) the Master/servant relationship. The White Clown, is in charge and the Dumme clown is the servant. I'll see if I can dig up some more details.

[Annie-Xmas]

The only acceptable thing that has anything to do with clowns is Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' "Tears of a Clown".

Stephen Sondheim and Krusty the Clown fans would disagree with that.

[cybersnark]

I'm kinda surprised that JW Gacy only came up once in this discussion - he not only was a clown, he also painted them. Want a Gacy clown painting? Better bid soon!:

http://www.epier.com/BiddingForm.asp?881783

[Tentacle Monster]

Pennywise the Dancing Clown: scary
Sweet Tooth (from the Twisted Metal series): Cool in TM2, disturbing in TM:Black
John Wayne Gacy: Pure evil
Shakes the Clown: Funny movie
Insane Clown Posse: annoying fans
Ouchy the Clown (google if you dare, I'm not posting a link): Kinda frightening, but seems like an interesting person
Knockers the Klown (see above): I'd hit it.
Mad Clown (Super Punch-Out!!): A bit annoying, but easy once you know the pattern.
Dead Clown (Red Meat): Been there awhile. Harmless, but creepy
Doink (former, short-lived WWF wrestler): Pretty amusing, actually
Ceramic clown dolls: Smash them. Smash them all.
Kinko the Kid-Lovin' Clown: As long as the kids love him back, he'll never wear a frown

[look@hergo!]

How do you make a clown stop laughing?
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Hit him in the face with an axe.

[Kalhoun]

*<|:@[]

Scarey Clown Smilie
Very good! I've got my eye on you, Ms. Xmas!

[Thirty-Nine]

Clowns have also been fairly mysterious to me, neither scary or amusing. I’ve also never seen the attraction of circuses, parades or similar shows. I do remember finding the garish clown colours unappealing, and would always object to anything decorated with them.

I’ll never forget going into hospital when I was around 11, and being forced to wear bedclothes covered with a cackle of dancing clowns. Whatever anaesthetist thought of that is a genius – after the shame of wearing those, no operation is going to hurt a child.

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Stephen Sondheim and Krusty the Clown fans would disagree with that.


Okay, I'll give you Krusty......