Not to be over pedantic, but this joke gets brought up every time that the opera Pagliacci is brought up. As the Wikipedia article notes, “Pagliacci” just means “clowns”. So having a clown named Clowns is kind of unlikely and spoils the joke. As @Knappa mentions, a better version of this joke uses Joseph Grimaldi, who was at least a real clown performer (and one who reportedly suffered from depression, so the joke has plausibility).
It’s the version they went with for a dramatic scene in Watchmen, so regardless of the etymology has become kind of canonical for that reason. 
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Came here to quote Jack Handey, in case anyone forgot. I am not disappoint.
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Gacy was the turning point in the US, methinks.
Clowns have been considered creepy or menacing in Amerian pop culture ever since…
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This fun guy is scary? Look at that smile!
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As long a clown could be kicked and beaten as Arlecchino, it was okay.
People are not afraid of clown, are afraid to suffer what they do to others
I never found Mr. punch (or any of his European colleagues, such as Kasperl) scary, until I read the Mr. Punch storyline in the Rivers of London books.
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Absolutely.
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I don’t doubt that there were plenty of people who were afraid of clowns prior to my 1970 demarkation. The internet is full of shattered kids sitting in Santa’s lap too. I do think there was a historical tipping point though, where clowns went from largely being seen as figures of merriment to being archetypes of terror. Clearly the trope started somewhere, with someone like your sister, and then suddenly others spoke up and said, “Yeah! Those things always creeped me out too!” and it went from there.
In fact my older brother used to tell a story of how, when he was 6 or 7 in the 1960s, a clown at a county fair freaked him out by asking him (always delivered in a thick Southern accent), “Hey kid … you want a PEPSI? It’s FREE,” which sent him running to my parents.
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No they don’t.
“I hate clowns because I use the word ‘clown’ as a pejorative against people I hate” is a tautology.
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Is this just an American thing? I once saw a Cirque du Soleil show where the “clown” was a gifted acrobat who gave a moving performance without speaking a word.
Of course other than make up he bore no resemblance to a clown portrayed by a drunk Shriner in a tiny car honking a bulb horn. Maybe it’s that the drunk-Shriner caricature of a clown has become what people expect, and yes, they can certainly be creepy.
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Yeah, who would want a job amusing people and making children happy?
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I take it that is the horrible John Wayne Gacy?
Ruining clowns since the fifties.
Caveat - I don’t find clowns at all scary, I find serial killers pretty scary.
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Oh see that part I can understand. Performing is thrilling and when people enjoy it that really is fun. Using makeup and costumes to distance the performer from the performance is also appealing to me and I actually like a lot of the history of the make-up and costuming. I think clowning is really interesting and can totally see why people perform it… though most clowns I’ve seen have been on stages or in videos where there’s not that much interaction really. By the time I was a kid clowns were already pretty unpopular for children’s parties and whatnot.
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Clown Girl is worth a read, just as counterpoint.
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All remix memes, so not official, but it just radiates Big Meth Energy.
The un edited/remixed stuff still has agood amount of “odd factor” to them.
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Does this mean there’s a group of people out there afraid of people with beards?
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One of my long-ago cow-orkers at a big financial firm attended holiday functions in makeup… as the “corporate clown”. Worked for him. 
