You are probably brainstorming ideas about your Halloween costume. Let’s face it, films play big roles in most people’s choices Halloween costumes, and apparently this year there will be a lot of scary clowns just like that creepy one from the film "It". This fear is not just something people made up, there is a phobia and it’s called coulrophobia. And even though most clowns are connected with clumsiness, jokes and funny faces, it’s the evil clowns that make a bad name for every clown out there.
Even the most adorable clown will cause a feeling of uneasiness because the human brain will perceive their face as the face of someone who hides something and therefore is a potential threat.
But, why people are so scared of clowns? Is it the inability to see their true face; is it the fact that they all have this creepy smiles drawn on their faces; is the big colorful hair? Perhaps all of it combined.
Yes, we’ve all seen their tricks with flowers sprinkling water or placing ten other clowns in a super small car. Things like these are not real and although they might be funny, they make clowns completely untrustworthy. How can you trust this colorful thing called clown, when they are giving you a present, but they are not fully letting you take it. Yes, they are liars!
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Simple as that! Having green or bright red hair is not natural, not to mention, their huge smiles, drawn all over their faces. Their eyes are grotesquely overdrawn and you will never in a million years be able to notice whether the person behind this mask is actually happy or sad, irritated or plans to kill you. People can read everything from another person’s face, and in this case, they are absolutely tricked. The brain cannot ‘see’ clearly whether this person is dangerous or not, it makes it confused and therefore the fear is born.
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Some people have developed their fear of clowns since their youngest ages. Most kids’ birthdays were simply not complete without a clown making jokes or performing their tricks. When you are really young anything that does not look like the people you have used seeing, might cause a serious fear, and that is why a lot of little children cry in terror when these colorful clowns try to entertain them.
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How many films with scary clowns have you seen? Exactly! And on top of it, that re-make of Stephen King’s "It" came out this year – twice as scarier and even more disturbing. So when you see a real-life clown, your brain makes a connection with something bad. The horror film clowns are always mean murderers with creepy smiles, demonic eyes and voices and usual murder with weapons such as axes or knives. Nobody would want to die that way. Cartoons are another reason – in most cartoons (and even in films) clowns are shown as the bad guys (just remember the Joker from Batman).
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It somehow became socially normal to be afraid of clowns. Everybody is, so it is natural, right? As mentioned above, horror films, music videos, Halloween, cartoons, even some real-life events such as mysterious clowns scaring people for no reason – all of it combined makes a really good reason to fear them. Do we blame pop culture for it? Perhaps, but it is not the only culprit. Pop culture only spiced things up and managed to spread the fear of clowns to many people around the world.
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What more can we say about this reason, that almost every human being who ever saw a creepy doll, whether it was a clown or not, he or she felt that it might be alive. Again, all of us has seen one too many horror films with this scenario so we always connect the dots and see the harmful doll that creeps on us and just waits for the perfect moment to kill us.
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Maybe they were in the past when people were actually going to the circus or the only entertainment they had were their black and white TV set. Today’s clowns cannot offer anything funny. We have already seen everything that is funny in this world, and clowns cannot keep up anymore. All the clumsy walking, silly jokes or other tricks, do not work for anyone, not even for kids. So how else would they remain relevant? Of course, by being scary.
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The human being is the most dangerous species on the planet. Maybe we are not having huge teeth, claws, and jaws, but our minds are tricky and can become as twisted as possible. Just look at the medieval torture devices, or spend two hours watching a classic horror film with slaughtering. Or, even look around you – see how we treat animals and you’ll understand. People are harmful, and knowing that behind the silly mask of a clown, there is a person who is capable of everything, you surely have a good reason to feel a bit disturbed.
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Jean-Gaspard Deburau is the name of a man who dressed as a clown called Pierrot and actually killed a boy in 1836. He murdered the boy by hitting him with his walking stick. Back then they did not have horror films to get inspired by crazy evil clowns, but Deburau simply fired up the fear of clowns after this murder.
What is worse than a clown killer? A serial clown killer – It happened when John Wayne Gacy, otherwise known as the “Killer Clown” started killing people. He was not a professional clown but liked to dress up as “Pogo” at children’s parties and fundraising events in Chicago. Gacy was an offender and have murdered around 33 young men (between 1972 and 1978). The police realized that her was the murderer when he told them that clowns can get away with murder. C-R-E-E-P-Y!
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