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?
Oh, a “scary clown” thread pops up, baring its fangs, yearly. Everyone hates them.
The clowns, that is, not the threads.
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.
Yellowval - You are talking about the dolls themselves, not those hideous half clown heads made out of ceramic right?
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.”
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:
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.
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.
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.
Hate.
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
Clowns are not funny. Never have been. Never will be.
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.”
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
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.
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…
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.
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.
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)