The Fear Of Clowns, A Study To Find The Origins

Our next step was to explore the origins of people’s fear of clowns. A follow-up questionnaire was given to the 53.5% who had reported at least some degree of clown fear. This new set of questions related to eight plausible explanations for the origins of this fear, as follows:

An eerie or unsettling feeling due to clowns’ makeup making them look not-quite-human. A similar response is sometimes seen with dolls or mannequins.

Clowns’ exaggerated facial features convey a direct sense of threat.

Clown makeup hides emotional signals and creates uncertainty.

The colour of clown makeup reminds us of death, infection or blood injury, and evokes disgust or avoidance.

Clowns’ unpredictable behaviour makes us uncomfortable.

Fear of clowns has been learned from family members.

Negative portrayals of clowns in popular culture.

A frightening experience with a clown.

Image by Danny Casillas.

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Grimaldi: The First Modern Clown

This would make a great horror film.  The below excerpt is from a terrific article by Ed Simon:

The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi is a trauma narrative. It offers a a horrifying portrait of the abuse Grimaldi endured at the hands of his father; when the two performed together the father “fell upon his son at once, and beat him severely,” writes Dickens. “This was all taken by the audience as a most capital joke” and “the papers the next morning declared that it was perfectly wonderful to see a mere child perform so naturally.” A haunted man, Grimaldi would “sob and cry aloud, and suffer so much violent and agonizing spasms” his fellow actors feared he’d be unable to return for the second act. Yet return he did, always ready to “rally at the necessary time.”

In his own 1887 memoir, theater critic Thomas Goodwin recounted how Grimaldi visited a famed surgeon to find a cure for his melancholy. The doctor suggested he pursue “relaxation and amusement… perhaps sometimes at the theater;—go and see Grimaldi.’ ‘Alas!’ replied the patient, ‘that is of no avail to me; I am Grimaldi.’”

Click below for the article...

A Lost-And-Gone One-Ring Mexican Circus

The ticket-seller lurched in, bringing with him the Victrola which he banged onto a band platform near the ring. In a great shower of sparks and minor explosions, he plugged it in, looked around, shrugged, spun a record, poised the needle. We could have either a live band or live acrobats and trapeze artists. We chose the latter.

The huge circus began—small.

Now a sword-swallower choked on a sword, sprayed kerosene in a gout of flame, and wandered out to applause from five small girls.

Three clowns knocked each other across the ring and bounded off to aching silence.

Ray Bradbury, from That Old Dog Lying in the Dust

Comic Performer

More images by CW Wells here.

Happy Laugh Clown

LAUGH, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow it's mirth,
But has trouble enough of it's own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care. 

 Image by Domenik Jost.
 

The Walk Of Clowns

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The Only Good Clown...

Coulrophobia is most commonly triggered by a traumatic experience in childhood, said Steven Luel, a psychologist in New York specializing in anxiety and phobias.

Indeed, that was the case with Wallace. At the age of 6, she met her first clown at the circus, an encounter she still remembers clearly 25 years later.

“A clown got right up in my face, and I could see his beard stubble under his makeup. He smelled bad and his eyes were weird,” she said.

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Coulrophobia

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Coulrophobia

"Can't sleep. Clowns will eat me."
Such a perfect idea for a blog. Glad this guy posted some comments to my Brewing page.

Cotton Popcorn