Here Come the Clowns
Those with coulrophobia beware — you’re in for a scare.
It’s no secret that the recent ‘killer clown prank’ has spread far. It all started in late August, in North Carolina, when police received reports of a clown attempting to lure children into the woods.This caused such widespread panic that an 11-year-old even bought a knife to school in order to defend herself.
However, this string of sightings dates back to 1981 Boston,where reports of prowling clowns turned out just to be a clown conducting his job. At that time, the unrest was partly due to the conviction, just a year earlier, of John Wayne Gacy. For the uninitiated, Gacy was responsible for the murder and sexual assault of at least 33 young males aged between 14 and 21 (although unknown victims were aged at approximately 32) and gained the title of the ‘Killer Clown’ due to his alter-ego ‘Pogo the Clown’, whom he used to dress up as for charity events. Between 1972 and 1978, these young males were killed by either asphyxiation or strangulation, and 26 of them were stuffed in the crawl space under his home, unbeknownst to his wife. Gacy left behind a legacy echoed in various media and other forms, including paranormal investigators staying the night where his house was demolished, hoping to see one of his victims.
It’s not just Gacy who gave clowns their macabre connotations, though. In the British Regency Era, a famous entertainer named Joseph Grimaldi was a celebrity in a time where their private lives became more public. Despite Grimaldi’s appearance ,which paved the way for the modern clown aesthetic, he was deeply unhappy, struggling with alcoholism and depression. This contradiction then leaks into fictional characters, such as the Stephen King’s demonic IT, the morally questionable Krusty, and the psychopathic Joker.
Throughout all this, it is important to remember that the recent clown attacks are not performed by “real” clowns, but rather those simply dressed as them. Although it may seem difficult to distinguish these two categories, one set’s motive is to scare and the other’s is to entertain, and the latter is dwindling. Many “real” clowns often undergo training and perform in shows, and often demonstrate their allegiance to the cause by joining a recognized community, for example the World Clown Association, which unfortunately lost 1000 members between 2004 and 2014.
So why are we still scared of clowns? Is it the grim reminder of Gacy and the tragic private life of Grimaldi which have left such a substantial effect on the media’s portrayal of the clown?
Alternatively, it could be the case that the fear exists deep within us. One theory of phobias is that of ‘biological preparedness’, as proposed by Seligma (1975), which simply means that we are innately afraid of animals that are unlike us in order to ensure survival. According to this theory, fears of animals occur because of dissimilarities, for example in number of limbs, but we are less afraid of animals such as chimpanzees as they are closely related to us, and subsequently less likely to attack us. This would explain why common phobias aren’t often of contemporary situations or objects. However, it doesn’t explain what pale humanoid creatures with great spanning mouths our ancestors encountered in the shadows.
