PDA

View Full Version : Clown-a-fobia



Gene Gabel
19th July 2003, 10:05
Just wondering what is up with peoples fear of clowns...Pennywise et all?(not to mention John Wayne Gacey)
There are hundreds of internet sites with "No Clowns" and I hate Clowns" t-shirts and such and tons talking about peoples fears of said large footed demons.

Anyone else feel this way?

For myself, I even get kind of queasy at the sight of baloons,,Steven King has way to much effect on everyone

Gene Gabel

tcasella
19th July 2003, 14:09
Not sure why, but clowns have always kind of creeped me out...
:confused:

Soulend
19th July 2003, 14:30
My brother has worked in various capacities(dog trainer, performer, ringmaster) at circuses his whole life, so I've gotten to meet quite a few clowns with their makeup off. All the ones I've met have been really cool folks.

So, short answer is nope, I like clowns. I guess Bozo made a bigger impression me than Pennywise. :)

TimothyScott
19th July 2003, 14:38
To me, clowns aren't funny. In fact, they're kind of scary. I've wondered where this started and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus, and a clown killed my dad.

This has been a presentation of Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey.

:D

Bob van Tuyn
19th July 2003, 15:09
Clowns can be scary as hell. And this is a universal thing.

Clowns are painted most of the time with a smile and with colours around the eyes. In the animal kingdom the face is the best mirror to anger, joy, lust etc.

When you go into a bar and you smile at every body and laugh at every joke people will get an eerie feeling, they feel not at ease with you. Clowns have a permanent smile painted around their face and so always look like there having fun. Bud the eye’s often say different thinks. This make's you suspicious and make’s you doubt their intend. Deep inside of you you’re wondering what does this creep want with his smiling face and red eyes.

When people smile and laugh without good reason and feeling they will make other people suspicious. This is a reaction that’s inherent to all humans.

Shitoryu Dude
19th July 2003, 16:00
I never found them funny. Other than when they all pour out of a teeny tiny car at the circus, they pretty much bored me. Even then I was more curious at how they all managed to get into the car and wanted to see how they contorted themselves.

My favorite clowns are Krusty and Shakes :D

:beer:

TimothyScott
19th July 2003, 18:41
Don't forget Homey!

"Homey don't play dat!"

PwarYuex
20th July 2003, 08:08
I have ALWAYS been afraid of clowns.

Perhaps it is because you can't tell what body language they are really presenting? Who said "10% of what we tell our family and friends is what we say, 90% is what we show..." Guess that 90% is worth more than we think?

A. M. Jauregui
20th July 2003, 09:10
While not phobic over clowns I do not particularly care for them. There is just something unsettling about a person dawning that much makeup - brings up the thought in my mine that they have sometime to hide.

Soulend
20th July 2003, 13:22
The fear of the clown and his make up is the result of our own modern perception. Remember that clowning is an art form that goes all the way back to around 2500 B.C. - way older than any martial art. Any art form that old is going to have characteristics that strike the modern viewer as strange or unsettling, or even 'boring', as what we find funny is a bit more sophisticated than the humor of several hundred years ago or more. Couple this with the modern depictions of 'evil clowns' and people like Gacy and clowns get a bad rap.

The first clown, I believe, to move from the simple whiteface harlequin makeup to the type of colorful makeup we know today was Joseph Grimaldi, the "Father of Clowns". He lived from 1778-1837, and this makeup and clowning was considered hilarious in his day.

Seeing a good clown(and believe me, the good ones take their craft very seriously) is like looking at a little bit of a very interesting history. They don't have anything to "hide" - it's all in fun!

Oh well, a phobia is, after all, an abnormal and irrational fear....

Bradenn
20th July 2003, 20:44
They all float.

And when you're down here with me, YOU'LL FLOAT TOO ....

Soulend
20th July 2003, 20:47
.........

StanLee
21st July 2003, 08:22
Stephen King's IT

Stan:(

Senjojutsu
21st July 2003, 12:07
Perhaps you all need some professional therapy for this phobia!!!

Me casting the first stone?

Well with me it is mimes, which I guess some consider a subset of clowns.

Hate them.
Hate them intensely   !!
:redhot:

Maybe because so many are French or that the French love them so, i.e., Marcel Marceau.

I just have this fantasy of placing a large-caliber hollow point round about two inches below their navel.

I then listen to them scream in agony for a while until I mercifully, and I wrestle with this part, put two rounds in the hat to end the mime's suffering.
:shot:

I also have a variation using my tanto against one - but that fantasy is much more graphic and not for public discourse.

I guess it is getting mimes to scream in agony that drives my fantasy.

Now you all know, but I feel better, and I know I am not alone with these anti-mime feelings.

:D ;) :p

StanLee
21st July 2003, 12:13
How about using a shell from large guns of the Iowa class battleship at point blank range?

:D

Striking Hand
21st July 2003, 12:24
For me it depends on the clown and the mime.

Marcel Marceau was great, I actually got to meet him once.

Back to clowns, I don't like the head-clown the one all dressed in white.

OTOH, I am not fond of the western type of circus with animals acts, etc.

Give me something like the Chinese circus anytime.
:D

Cheers.

william northcote
21st July 2003, 12:35
There is nothing wrong with clowns. If you fear clowns you need help. For a fear like this in not good.


I guess it comes from the fear of when you either watch TV when ill or go to the circus, and out pops a clown laughing. One white painted face that looks like death and a large smile painted on, and you end up sitting in some brown smelly stuff. Clowns are funny. They have to be to make a dead face with a smile that looked like someone wired a sex aid toy to the national grid and placed it in a unusual oriface and thrown the switch.

But a clown is a clown. Whether face painted or a sad mime, they are entertainers. They have a hard time performing. How many can get a laugh out of pelting someone with a pie in the face while being silent?

clowns are hard workers, and on the same par as MA students. They have to learn how to fall, timing plus how to do a set routine effortlessly like a kata. And it is performed day after day for the public.

Granted Gacey and Stephen King has made the clown face sinister. Kiss, the rock band, are not scarey but have painted faces and if you think most clowns are scarey, have a look at the Insane Clown Posse ;) It is now a modern symbol that the clown is not only funny, but it can also be feared and this fear will play a part in your childs future.

Genex
21st July 2003, 13:06
hmmm, clowns dont bother me that much, i would like to take em out with a rifle though, but thats the sadist in me. the wife hates them she cant look at them if they're walking around someplace she'll bury her head in my shoulder etc... stephen king's IT was a spectacular film right up until the end when it was the big glowing legged thing totaly wasted the plot.
you want to get afraid...Mimes... they scare the hell out of me i have to kill every mime i see tear em all apart i hate em.
pete

Mike Williams
21st July 2003, 14:34
Except for Ronald McDonald - now there is one fella I would NOT leave kids alone with.

Cheers,

Mike

Mike Williams
21st July 2003, 14:38
"Kinko, Kinko, the kid-loving clown
if the kids just love me back I'll never wear a frown
Kinko, Kinko, the kid loving clown
if the kids just love me back I'll never wear a frown!!!

Kinko's in his Kinko car, pockets full of change
lots of dirty pictures and sticky candy canes.
All the kids love Kinko for the presents that they get
silly leather clothes to wear and happy cigaretts.

-Hi boys and girls, my name is Kinko the clown!!!
-Hi Kinko!!!
-And I really love you boys and girls!!!
Really, really....
-Awwww
-But my legs get tired standing out in the parking lot handing out
stale tootsie rolls to you rugrats, so if anyone wants to come back
to Kinko's trailer and massage his legs, he'd really really like it.
Really, really.....

Kinko, Kinko, the kid-loving clown
if the kids just love me back I'll never wear a frown
Kinko, Kinko, the kid loving clown
if the kids just love me back I'll never wear a frown!!!

We go to Kinkos clubhouse, sometimes after school
we play in Kinkos crawl space, there's never any room
We have to sit on Kinkos lap there's never any chairs
Kinko likes to tickle us and give us funny stares.

-Gee I haven't had this much fun since Christmas when I got
to play Santa Clause and all the boys and girls got to sit on Kinko's lap-
-Mommy mommy! Kinko hurt me!-
-But that was in Indianapolis and thanks to the liberal reciprocity laws here
Kinko can be with you boys and girls today or anytime.

Jimmy Johnson ran away and didn't say goodbuy
Kinko went to look for him to help the FBI
But Kinko has some handcuffs on his eyes were full of tears
said "I'll be back to play with you sometime in 20 years!"

Kinko, Kinko, the kid-loving clown
the parents wanna beat me up and run me outa town!
Kinko, Kinko, the kid-loving clown
tar and feather Kinko and run him out of town!

-Bye boy's and girls!!!!
-Bye Kinko! See you at the turn of the century!
-Kinko really love you boys and girls!!
Really, really...."

- Dr. Demento


Cheers,

Mike

dirithtai
21st July 2003, 16:35
Circus clowns freak me the heck out. I think the reason is that their eyes never match their faces. At least, none of the ones I've met up close do. We've got one clown who works in our restaurant on kids night, and whenever he comes back to the kitchen he's got these flat bored eyes and a ridiculusly big grin...gives me chills down me spine.

Now, the classic shakespearean fool, on the other hand, I enjoy.