Stephen Kings “It”. Never saw clowns the same way after I read that book and saw the movie.
Here’s the guy…Cesar Romero the original evil clown that we saw everyday as a kid. He’d popup out nowhere with his insane laugh and scare the piss out of all the little kids watch Batman that week. He was NOT the clown we were used to seeing and apparently a lot of us still haven’t gotten over it.
BTW the comic book goes back to the 30’ and I realize the “evil clown” probably goes back a lot farther. My point was the mainstream idea of an evil clown presented to the masses via the media.
You ever see a toddler with his first “Jack in the Box”. I’ve never seen one laugh yet. Not on the first “pop” anyway. Jack is usually a clown. You think that night instill some tramautic memory related to evil clowns. Just a thought.
Like Julia Roberts ::double shudder:: :eek:
Clowns disguise their true identity. Going as far back as whatever the Eden Story came from, bad people disguise their identity for nefarious purposes.
Okay, maybe that’s just whacked, man, but clowns ain’t right.
Clowns are simply designed to make us uncomfortable. They stand outside the normal rules of society and the laughter they provoke is more of a “whistling past the graveyard” catharsis than laughter of joy. They lead pointless absurd lives, tumbling out of little cars, smashing pies into each other’s faces and squirting each other with flowers. They are a mirror that is held up to the audience that reminds us that, for all of our striving and deeds, in the end our lives are pretty pointless as well. In some cases, such as the old Comedia del Arte, the clown could not be seen by the other characters and was always messing with them. In this way they are a lot like fate or death.
In short, I don’t think that clowns were ever supposed to be funny. I think that they are there to help us let off steam, in much the same way that ghost stories or roller coasters do.
The implication being that clowns are funny. I think I’m going to need a cite for that one, Gaspode. 
Just following up on my earlier thoughts.
Conrad Veidt from the 1928 film, The Man Who Laughs http://www.popmatters.com/film/reviews/m/man-who-laughs-dvd.shtml
He was the first “Joker”.
the character upon whom the Batman Joker and many other evil clowns would be based. For the next 40 years, villians in comic books and cinema would be portrayed as insane and appear almost clown-like in their features. The huge grin and eyes that reflect the evil intent of the mentally disturbed arch-villian.
http://www.4reference.net/encyclopedias/wikipedia/The_Joker.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_clown
I remember one time a friend of the family had their child over. IIRC it was a first birthday party and somebody got the kid a Jack in the box… the kid was absolutely terrified of the toy. He was frantic, screaming and shaking for several minutes. They tried to calm him down and show him the clown was supposed to be funny etc. No way, that kid went nuts when they showed him that damned Jack after that. They tried to crank the box slowly and you hear this “pop goes the weasel tune” I hate that damned tune…when the music started…the kid began to shake and you could tell he wasn’t gonna go for it. It was a horrible thing to witness. That child was terrified.
I can promise you that kid has a clown phobia.
You know, I bet they could have saved that kid a small fortune in future psychiatric bills if, instead of trying to convince the kid to like the toy, they’d just given him a hammer and let him go to town on it.
I can’t stand Julia Roberts, and now you’ve explained it. Thanks!
http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/comics101/46.html
an interesting comic book site that shows the evolution of the Joker from a homicidal maniac to the evil clown he eventually became.
It also has some photos and original drawings which compare the original Joker with a photograph of Conrad Veidt.
Miller that kid was so scared within just a few minutes that even the box caused him anxiety. I can see how that would/could be the basis of a clown phobia. I also think that most children would probably behave in a similar fashion if exposed to a “surprise” before they were mature enough.
Combine the initial traumatic event with the exposure to comic books, novels, cartoons, TV series and movies which have elements of the maniacal clown. It’s no wonder so many people are scared of clowns.
This is of course an attempt at explaining the modern phobia. How far back does this fear go? That’d be another story I would think. The jester…a cursed wretch. One who deceives…the liar, the fool…etc. Sure we could go there, but I think the modern phobia has less to do with medieval beliefs and more to do with pop culture.
Follow the Wikipedia link above to Evil Clowns, thence to clowns, thence to court jesters. That article confirms what you heard; it adds that children born with physical and mental defects could sometimes find employment as jesters.
Court jesters go back to prehistory, and I think the evolution of the clown could be traced back that way. As far as the evil aspect: just speculation: perhaps people were always leery of court jesters, especially the ones with striking deformities.
I need to brush the dust off my King Lear, which I suspect is the most famous example in literature containing a court jester – does anybody remember if Lear’s Fool had an aspect of creepiness about him, or merely tragedy?
The bulk of my personal clown terror comes from the film Poltergeist. A close second would be Tammy Faye Baker.
Okay…according to Stephen King, he grew up reading comic books. Loved 'em, his first published work was for a comic book. His father (Dan) left him, his brother (David), and mom (Nellie) when he was very young. He and David were in the attic and found some books that his dad had left. He was an aspiring writer himself. These books were all on the occult and horror. Which apparently set the wheels in motion.
(BTW: His dad went out for smokes and never came back.)
just one of many cites but it’ll do
http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-king-stephen.asp
I think it has something to do with the time I went to the circus, and a clown shot my dad.
When I was little (Mid 1960s), there was a movie they had us watch in Religion class. It was the story of the Passion, told in the context of clowns and an evil ringmaster who had the good Jesus clown killed. Afterwards, he regretted his action, put on the clown makeup and continued the good clown’s works. That was the first time I associated clowns with creepiness.
Bozo is EVIL! My sister was on his show and he made her pee! Luckily, she was off camera. When my parents would retell the story, (because parents are kind of evil too), they said it was because she was so excited. But I think not.
Lot’s of interesting reading, t-keela.
If I’m not mistaken though, I think Pennywise is the first truly evil clown. Bad guys dressing up in clownish ways aren’t clowns. The joker was never meant to be funny and turned out creepy. It might be that court jesters offered a way to let out anxiety.
But I can’t really find a clown, truly only a clown, that was downright evil, before Pennywise. They float…
I could probably argue that evil disguised as a clown does not a clown make.
But I get your point.
There are some pics of the Joker in full clown makeup.
But my main ponit in all of the replies I made was in answer to this part of your OP.
Stephen King, IMHO must have picked up on this idea from his childhood facination with comic books, many of which depicted the villian as a maniacle psychopath that in many cases were quite clownlike in appearance. If he read the popular comic books at the time he most assuredly was familiar with the Joker. Who was an evil villian and mass murderer who in time started actually wearing a clown costume. That’s all I was saying.
BTW I found the subject interesting myself.
“Hey, hey, kids!” What about Krusty?