This SNL skit may be the only time a clown has elicited sympathy.
It’s hard for me to recall exactly what I felt about clowns as a kid. I certainly never would have chosen them as a preferred type of entertainment. I think I did sometimes appreciate aspects of clown performances that would have been interesting or funny even without the get-up.
Mostly, I don’t get the costume and the makeup. I have a vague notion that it’s from traditional Italian commedia dell’arte or something, but it doesn’t appeal to me. And it’s not something that makes me laugh on sight.
And certainly there are circumstances when the getup is positively threatening.
I liked them at the circus when I was a kid. Don’t think I’d like to see one close up. Really curious about what inspired the OP.
Nothing specifically. I just know a lot of people have a thing about clowns, good or bad, and the question did not appear to have yet been asked of the board, so I asked. 
I think the issue emerged because for a while being a clown was a big thing and amateurs started doing it, and were far too overbearing.
But I think the fear of clowns is one sign of what’s wrong with American society.
In any case, how could you fear/hate them once you see Judy and Gene?
(Ringo voice) With me fingers, usually.
Clowns have always grossed me out.
Never liked them. We had one on live local TV when I was growing up. My elementary school class was on his show once. It was actually painful to be there. The guy was all sweaty from the studio lights and smelled. . .musty. His lovely assistant wore fishnet stockings.
One of my sons is very leery of clowns and is downright terrified of mimes. He’s in his forties and will cross the street rather than have to go near one.
I’ve always kind of assumed without any real evidence that the “clowns are scary” thing came from Stephen King’s It.
That’s sort of what I was getting at with my “only the circus kind” response. The typical clown that performs at kids’ birthday parties is sort of the equivalent of some amateur performing stand up comedy at open mike night at some crummy club. If that’s your only exposure to clowning then yeah, you’re probably not going to like clowns. But watching a good, skilled circus clown can be very entertaining. Continuing the stand-up comedy analogy, seeing clowns at the circus is more like watching Lewis Black or Mike Berbiglia or whoever your favorite well known comic is perform.
Eh, I kinda like clowns. I know the schtick, know the acts and in most cases know what’s going to happen long before it does - but it still makes me smile. Like the 3 Stooges or Marx Brothers. Red Skelton was probably my all time favorite clown.
I tolerate. In the now dead circus I saw once they worked, though. I do enjoy the intentionally wicked, creepy, and/or offensive clowns. That’s mostly because I really enjoy things that are intentionally wicked, creepy, and offensive in all their forms. It’s not clown specific.
The poll leaves out the category of of clown I guess I’ll loosely call the “European Style”, which has exactly nothing to do with what Americans think of when we hear “clown”.
Some examples:
Avner Eisenberg (Avner the Eccentric)
I love this style of clowning, and I wish the Ringling style had never caught on. I say this as a guy with many Ringling friends, and some of them even agree.
I voted creepy but don’t fear them. I never really liked clowns – even as a kid, just found them annoying (maybe because they are trying too hard).
I guess the rodeo type are OK, and cramming into the car bit is OK.
Brian
My daughter loved clowns until she was a toddler and met one up close. She screamed in terror and ever since then has believed that Stephen King sanitized Pennywise.
Clowns are only funny when they bite the dust.
I’m a tolerator. I don’t find the typical clown schtick funny. Mime and physical comedy can be funny, but facepaint and bright clashing colors do nothing for me.
When I was a small child I found clowns terrifying. Very, very young I’d fear them on TV, shriek, cry, try to run away or hide. Which I think my mom - who knew a couple of clown acts she liked - found baffling. Still, no Bozo show ever at my house. It’s not like I would have enjoyed it.
Looking back, I think it was a combination of uncorrected poor vision and a distortion of human features. A painted clown smile didn’t look like a smile to me, it looked like a bloody hole where someone’s face should be. And so on.
(I also once infamously screamed upon encountering a relative’s large and very realistic crucifix. My mom got that one - she pointed out that a bleeding man nailed to a couple boards actually is pretty horrific, especially outside the context of Christianity.)
Anyhow - as an adult I still don’t care for clowns. At all. One of my secret nightmares is winding up in the hospital and being subjected to a clown to “cheer” me up and being to ill or injured to protest. I would happily go the rest of my life without ever seeing another image of a clown, much less an actual clown.
Mind you, I don’t have an issue with people who do clown acts either professionally or as a hobby, I just don’t want to see their act, view pictures of them in make-up, or see them in the get up. I am aware that, for example, the guys in the circus aren’t evil they’re just doing a job and some people get a lot of pleasure from clowns. I’m just never going to be one of them.
Back when I was about 3 or 4, my family went to the circus. My older brother and I sat in the very first row, and a clown came by. We could squeeze his nose, and it would light up and honk. I loved squeezing his nose, but my brother was petrified, like a big baby.
I never understood people’s dislike, or even fear, of clowns.
I voted that I tolerate them, but I really don’t give them any thought. I just think they’re dumb - not usually the least bit genuinely funny.
But they are definitely not scary. Those who think they are must have experienced some bizarre childhood trauma, or took to heart Stephen King stories they read later 
Nooooooooooooooo!!!