Coulrophobia: the fear of clowns.
I was talking to some folks about when clowns lost their lovable luster and became homicidal horrors. According to Linda Rodriguez McRobbie in this great article, clowns always had a slightly negative, mischievous nature. But it may start in 1836 when French clown Jean-Gaspard Deburau (Pierrot) killed a boy after the boy insulted him.
Then in 1837 when Charles Dickens rewrote the memoirs of famed Britain clown Joseph Grimaldi, he told the tale of Grimaldi's personal life being just the opposite of the positive experience he offered on stage. Grimaldi died a penniless alcoholic.
In America, clowns had traveled the circus circuit for years and had a resurgence of sorts in popularity in the 1950s and 60s with beloved clowns Clarabell, Bozo and Ronald McDonald taking center stage on TV screens... until John Wayne Gacy put that to bed. Gacy used his clown persona, "Pogo," to sexually assault and kill more than 35 young men between 1972 and 1978. That's an HR nightmare.
The 1980s only exacerbated the feeling with Stephen King's It, and the movie Killer Klowns From Outer Space. Since then, clowns have never recovered.
Personally, it was It's Pennywise that did it for me. In the 1990 TV movie, Tim Curry starred as Pennywise and put full rest to any positive feelings I may have had toward clowns. Reading the book and sleeping with the light on followed after. No matter how delicious a Big Mac was, my days of Ronald McDonald idolatry were over.
As far as recent positive clown role models go, Eric Stonestreet's Fizbo on Modern Family is the only one I can think of. Other than that its been nothing but the Joker, the Jigsaw dummy from Saw and *shudder* Twisty from American Horror Story. I'll even go so far as to say I'm not entirely comfortable with those idiots from Insane Clown Posse either.
Suffice it to say, clowns have never really been the bastion of fun and frivolity they're made out to be.
PS, I will most certainly have nightmares tonight after doing the research for this post.
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