History of the clown (ancient, why, how, popular)

[dizzybint]

As a child I hated clowns, still do , they give me the creeps.. this tells why this is, as Im not alone in disliking them... The History and Psychology of Clowns Being Scary | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian Magazine

[Delahanty]

I, too, have bozophobia. When I was little and went to the circus, I always wished the elephants would step on them.

[Grandstander]

I was never afraid of them, but even as a kid I found them boring and would get impatient waiting for them to finish up their act. There is a type of humor, the best description of which would be a list of the practitioners, which I have never appreciated. That list would include clowns, The Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis, Jim Carey and every master of ceremonies at every strip club that has ever existed. It is a philosophy of comedy which holds that no gag ever ceases to be funny no matter how many times you repeat it, that any sort of stupid, weird behavior is hilarious, all jokes must be telegraphed clearly before being seen or heard, and milked completely afterward, and that you can never be too vulgar or aim too low.

[high iron]

I think the main reason for the popular meme that "clowns are scary!" is as follows:

1. Since the Victorian era, clowns (and puppet shows, which are closely related in the history of drama) have been largely regarded as children's entertainment. This is part of a process by which children's culture inherits and becomes the sole preserver of very old aspects of folk culture. This process is always ongoing.

2. Clowns, are not, in fact, kid's stuff. The clowns of today are directly descended from various folk theater archetypes, especially the buffoonery of the Italian Commedia Della Arte rascals (Harlequin, Pierrot, Scaramouche,etc) and the clown figures that have been part of the English theater from Shakespeare on back to the morality plays of medieval times. These old clowns enacted adult themes for adults: lust, violence, trickery...the panoply of human antics that have always been at the root of adult comedy.

So what's at the heart of "clowns are scary" is mainly our recent, modern idea that clowns AREN'T scary....the benevolent Ronald MacDonald type of clown, entertaining sick kids in the hospital and blowing up balloon animals. Children of all ages with any kind of emotional sensitivity can detect the ancient violent emotions that are the root source of buffoonery in the human psyche, when they see a modern clown, and of course they intuit a discrepancy. Thus, clowns are scary.

[msgsing]

John Wayne Gacy loved to dress up as a clown.

[NJGOAT]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

I was never afraid of them, but even as a kid I found them boring and would get impatient waiting for them to finish up their act. There is a type of humor, the best description of which would be a list of the practitioners, which I have never appreciated. That list would include clowns, The Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis, Jim Carey and every master of ceremonies at every strip club that has ever existed. It is a philosophy of comedy which holds that no gag ever ceases to be funny no matter how many times you repeat it, that any sort of stupid, weird behavior is hilarious, all jokes must be telegraphed clearly before being seen or heard, and milked completely afterward, and that you can never be too vulgar or aim too low.

It's pretty much the same for me. I was never necessarily afraid of them, but I never really liked them either. I either find clowns boring or slightly creepy in a molester-esque kind of way.

[The Postman]

Originally Posted by Delahanty

I, too, have bozophobia. When I was little and went to the circus, I always wished the elephants would step on them.

LOL bozophobia, is that what it's really called?

Yeah I was scared of clowns as a young kid, though I don't remember my parents said when I was very scared I used to cry at the sight of clowns and Ronald McDonald always looked freaky, no I never wanted to sit next to him on that bench lol.