Yoink!
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Yup. Not an extreme case, but just bad enough to leave me questioning whether I should say “Hi” to someone I might recognize on the street.
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It. I’m scared of clowns because I read It in high school. I’m well aware of the cause of my coulrophobia.
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Hurm…
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Welcome to how autists feel around most people pretty much all of the time.
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My wife is scared of clowns. I just don’t find them funny.
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Sure, clowns are scary; but they are no Mr Punch. Commedia dell’arte + Antisematism + domestic abuse + animal cruelty = ideal entertainment for the little ones. That’s the way you do it!
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I maintain that clowns weren’t scary before the episode of the original 1970 Scooby Doo cartoon episode, “Bedlam in the Big Top.” When I was a kid in the ‘60s, clowns were everywhere, and they were seen as fun-loving, funny goofs. Circuses were still a thing, and clowns were a big part of them. Every local TV station had a clown on a locally produced kids’ show. I had a Bozo bop bag that I loved. I drew clowns as a very little kid because they were colorful and fun to draw. Clowns were fun.
I think the current “fear” was manufactured by repetitive enforcement of a negative stereotype. It’s become a self-fulfilling pop culture positive feedback loop over the past 5 decades, so that now no one associates clowns with fun, only psychopathy. A similar thing happened to ventriloquist dummies, only that started even earlier.
That said, I’m not a fan of clowns.
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My distaste of clowns began when I was a child and a clown stole my popcorn.
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Maybe this movie played a role.
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I dunno. My mom was definitely afraid of clowns as a child in the 1950s and her family thought it was funny due to their popularity hence plenty of anecdotes about hiding clown pictures/dolls in her room etc
I think probably people were scared of them in the fifties or sixties… But people probably just didn’t “accept” phobias.
If I had to guess this probably led to people with those kind of experiences creating and popularizing clown horror.
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The Terrifier movies didn’t do the image of clowns any good, either. Though I must admit that I find Art the Clown kinda hilarious:
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I’m scared of clowns because they outlaw abortions and drag shows, censor free speech, take away healthcare from kids, and steal billions of dollars from the public, all while painted in white-face and telling lies. They’re horrifying fucking monsters!
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Personally, I dislike clowns because there has to be something seriously wrong with people who actually want to be a clown. I mean seriously, WHO would want to do that? Just go away! Seriously! I don’t want to talk with you or interact with you in any way. And then they do.
