• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Phantom Clowns

Clowns.
As a kid they just irritated me because they were obviously grown men just p*ssing around...

When I saw the Moscow State Circus a few years back, the clowns weren't made up at all but were scruffily dressed and acted more like a cross between tumblers and a mime show. Absolutely superb entertainment! The audience were in stitches.

Q. Why do women use make-up and perfume?
A. Because they're ugly and they smell!

Well, someone did ask.
 
Interesting that Clowns, circuses, fairground and Punch and Judy are staples of horror literature and media.

I've never been bothered by the imagery (quelle surprise), and I confess to being attracted to the mystery and implied darkness of it all; what happens in fair grounds after they close? where has the circus been, where is it going? How do they feed the lions? Why do you never see the clowns out of make up?...

I think its a translation of the fear of strangers, the circus rolls into town, performs for a few days and leaves, maybe with a few more people than it arrived with.

CF dislikes of such things Mycroft, some 8 years my senior, really hates, and will not watch clowns or puppet shows, especially Punch and Judy, and has been like that since a small child. He says they make him 'uncomfortable'

8)
 
I've often wondered about the origins of such irrational fears. My recent thoughts on this are due to my 18 month old niece. She has a particular favourite book she likes to read through, however there is always one page that she really didn't like and would turn it over as quickly as possible and get upset if she saw it for too long. To me, the picture was innocuous enough - an old man lying in bed with his mouth open snoring. It didn't look particularly frightening and it made me wonder why she didn't like it.
If it is a hardwired fear, then it must be linked to some kind of survival instinct, but I couldn't link it to any. She was too young to be conditioned to not like it, which may make you wonder about some kind of past life experience intruding on the present???
 
My own opinion about fear of clowns, and you may laugh if you want, is that it comes to us, passed down through racial memories of being the prey of large bird-like creatures.

"Wha?" you say.

I was watching a program on the Discovery Channel, "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts", and I was quite taken with their spin on the appearance of 'Terror Birds' which were apparantly one of the main top predators of their time.
I was most taken with how colorful the faces were, with white and red stripes, and how they reminded me of the bad guys from the schlock comedy "Killer Klowns from Outer Space". [An excellent movie for pulp horror fans, with music by The Dickies!]

I realize that they are only guessing what these creatures looked like from the fossil record, which does not suggest skin colors, but if you stop and think about what could possibly look like a clown, that would have scared us so badly as a race that we would all suffer from some form or another of clown dislike, or fear, then I think we are left with some primordial dread of something that may have preyed upon us, something with a colorful face, and I would suggest that this would have to be a large reptile or bird, as besides baboons, I can't think of too many critters with such bright facial designs as part of their make up.

Sorry if my posting seems oddly disjointed, I'm more tired than I thought, and the ol' English [as it were] seems to be escaping me.

Did anyone else see a resemblence between some of the animals from that particular show and John Tenniel's illustrations from Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass"?
 
I like this theory about race memory. I read 'The Descent Of Woman' years ago (author's name escapes me) (Elizabeth Morgan?) and she was very convincing on how overhead shapes scare birds. Specifically, overhead shapes with long 'necks' scared no birds on the ground as they resembled harmless geese, whereas overhead shapes reversed so as to have long 'tails' looked like hawks and did scare birds on the ground.

Baboons? Don't they have big red behinds? Very scary indeed.....
 
wulfloki said:
I was most taken with how colorful the faces were, with white and red stripes, and how they reminded me of the bad guys from the schlock comedy "Killer Klowns from Outer Space".
Click to expand...

hahaha! saw that one years ago - top film!
 
i think there is a general fear of clowns, which is why horror genre tends to use the idea, i.e. IT, KLLER KLOWNS, CLOWNHOUSE, OUT OF THE DARK etc. I think the same can be said of puppets and dolls.
 
I think clowns are frightening to children because they act outside the law, a child growing up and being taught what is right and wrong may not be able to grasp that what they are seeing is playacting. My greatest fear as a child was going to the saturday afternoon cinema and watching the Three Stooges, (showing my age now) these alleged actors commited more acts of violence in twenty minutes than any 2 hour Arnie film.
 
Ive said it before and I'll say it again.

The only reason clowns perform in hospitals is cos the kids can't run away.

I actually had a close encounter with some clowns recently.I was DJing a kids christmas party and there were two clowns entertaining the kids.One was a fat woman the other a guy with bad teeth.What I noticed was that nine times out of ten the kids would hide behind their parents whenever the clowns came near them.So I don't think this is a fear we create for ourselves but is actually our instinct telling us that theres just something not right with these people.
 
NEIL said:
i think there is a general fear of clowns, which is why horror genre tends to use the idea, i.e. IT, KLLER KLOWNS, CLOWNHOUSE, OUT OF THE DARK etc. I think the same can be said of puppets and dolls.
Click to expand...


As a kid most of the contempary childrens puppet programmes used to freak me out!
Proffessor Yaffle (the carved wooden book-end) and the banjo playing frog (!) in Bagpuss were mightily disturbing.
The Herbs, Andy Pandy, Rupert the Bear all had me hiding behind the sofa as much as the Daleks! Even the Clangers, and they were knitted!
I did think the worst of them all was Hartley Hare in Pipkins, closely followed by the demonic Hamble in Playschool.

A clown puppet (like in Poltergeist) would have me shi**ing my Calvins!

Right, I'm off to have nightmares....:monster: :monster:
 
i hate clowns but i hate scarey puppets more. has anyone seen that movie the puppet master with the little puppet that kills people?

i shat my pants watching that when i was wee and i still have knightmares about it when i see a little puppet
 
Clowns have always disturbed me, although I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate them. Dolls, on the other hand, always seriously freaked me out. I especially dislike those porcelain faced ones. Now, the things is I hated dolls before I was ever aware of their use in horror films etc, so there must be some instinctive reaction to them.
 
maybe its cos they look like dead children? or perhaps because they are dressed in old style clothes which make them kinda look like a ghost cos we all know ghosts come from the victorian times... :eek:
 
I think it is something to do with the fact that china dolls especially look like dead bodies, I mean, Action Man looks nice and healthy, and he doesn't scare me (yes, I do still have one), but I wouldn't have an old fashioned china doll in my house if you paid me.
 
There've been some coments made in other threads about the shamanistic use of therianthropic (beast-man) masks. That such masks played a big part in ancient ritual is very likely. They still do play a pretty big part. Have a look at this site for pictures of the Padstow Blue Ribbon Obby Oss.
 
Helen said:
Clowns have always disturbed me, although I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate them. Dolls, on the other hand, always seriously freaked me out. I especially dislike those porcelain faced ones. Now, the things is I hated dolls before I was ever aware of their use in horror films etc, so there must be some instinctive reaction to them.
Click to expand...

One morning I was going for the morning paper, and as usual my dog was walking ahead of me and as he got to the last house in the row he stuck his head round the corner,suddenly he leapt into the air ,legs rigid and his fur was standing on end, when I got to the corner I looked to see what had startled him.it was a large dolls head on the ground resting on its neck, it made me wonder what went through his mind when he saw it.
 
Speaking of puppets and dolls...if you can get hold of it, there is a '70s film called TRILOGY OF TERROR which features a story called AMELIA and concerns a woman who is terrorised in her house by an African Zuni Fetish doll...it is a terrifying story, in which, eventually, the doll possesses her. So many films use the idea of the killer puppet, psychotic dolls, loony clowns etc...they can certainly be made to look more frightening than your average Freddy Krueger. the same could be said for old women too and hags who always get creepy roles and once again, kids love their grandparents but certain old crones terrify them. I think films like CHILD'S PLAY were awful though, and comical. A lot of folk are still terrified by ventriloquist dummies too, and mannequins.
 
As I've said elsewhere, there is a very good reason why we find dolls scary. It's because they come to life at night and try to bite you.

Something instincively tells me that clowns were not originally intended as comedy. It's all a bit Wicker Man, really.
 
There's a murderous clown doll mentioned on ghosts.org, which you may make of what you will.

Whatever happened to Atomcat, anyway? He used to have a strange uncle, as I recall.
 
Re the "bright coloured faces = race memory of predators" thing, and the fact that baboons are the only mammals with brightly coloured, clown-like faces: IIRC there were fossils found in Africa of giant (gorilla+ sized) baboons which only became extinct a few million years ago, and co-existed with (possibly killed and preyed upon, as baboons are at least partially carnivorous) the Australopithecines. So maybe it is cryptozoological after all...
 
How to induce Coulrophobia at an early age

As posted in Ananova

Dutch undertakers hire clown to lighten the mood

Undertakers in a Dutch town are hiring a clown to try and ease the tension people feel at funerals.

The clown's job is to lighten the mood by making children giggle and their parents smile.

The funeral clown, Roelof van Wijngaarden from Haarlem, says his tactics include breaking wind loudly.

He told De Gelderlander: "Imagine adults following the coffin to the burial place. People are using their handkerchiefs, no one dares to speak a word. It¹s all very solemn.

"Imagine then this clown whispering to the children and at the same time letting out a fart. The children start to giggle and their parents get a smile on their faces. That¹s what we do, take the tension away."

Mr Van Wijngaarden says he has already attended three funerals as a clown and says the mourners seemed to like it.

"After one of the funerals I entered the room where the mourners were having their coffee. They were all very stiff, without a smile," he added.

"I entered the room as if I were ashamed to disturb that solemn occasion and I went from one to another saying: "I¹m not here, I¹m not in this room".

Mr Van Wijngaarden previously worked as a clown in a children's hospital where his job was to comfort youngsters.

"My task now is completely different," he said. "In hospitals I tried to distract the children. At the cemetery, I¹m trying to let the grief go."

Story filed: 11:22 Thursday 24th October 2002
Click to expand...

:_omg: How much is that going to twist grief trauma in an unhealthy manner?
 
Re: How to induce Coulrophobia at an early age

A farting clown at a funeral? That might be OK in holland, but he'd better not try it round here.
Then again it is the undertaker who employs him who is the real culprit.
I can imagine him saying-
"All I see all day is unhappy faces- let's get a nice clown in and cheer everybody up."
steve b
 
Not Just John Gacy

We've often discussed on these lists the possible genesis of the "Phantom Clown" scares of the early 1980s in the hideous crimes of Chicago-area (Des Plaines) serial killer John Wayne "Pogo the Clown" Gacy who had been apprehended in December, 1978.

But Gacy alone never struck me as entirely sufficient for the creation of this urban legend (it may, of course, have been more than merely a UL). For all the enormity of his other sins, Gacy was no specific threat to SMALL children of either sex, that is the very children most affected by the "Phantom Clowns" scare.

But there is another link - a second monster operating around the same time. This was Theodore Francis Frank, a truely noissome California child molester and more to the point bloody child murderer.

In March, 1978, Frank abducted and murdered a two-year-old girl from her front yard from a quiet, family neighborhood in Ventura County, in what may have been the single most vile and violent abomination of this type EVER. Frank not only raped the little girl but used her as a punching bag, BEFORE torturing her face, nipples, thighs and buttocks with a pair of vice-grips, partially de-skinning her in the process. (The pliers exerted a pressure of 2000 pounds to the square inch). Frank then finished by strangling the girl, anthough she was probably dead by this time anyway,

Afterwards Frank drove some 20 miles down a California highway before tossing the girl's remains out onto the tarmac.

Frank was tried for his crime in Noverber, 1979 and sentenced to death. The death penalty was overturned by the California Supreme Court with a new sentencing hearing ordered. (One justice actually voted to overturn the entire conviction - which caused her to be severely trounced at the next election.) Frank was AGAIN setenced to death but he actually died of a heart attack in prison in 2001.)

While this was apparently Frank's only murder he had been molesting kids for approximately 20 years, across several states..

His usual method of picking up children was driving near schools just after they let out for the afternoon.

Trolling around the streets near the schools in his....VAN.

So there I think we may have it: "Clown" PLUS "Van."
 
Devils and Clowns

DanHigginbottom~ said:
"Something instincively tells me that clowns were not originally intended as comedy."
Click to expand...
"

Dan, you're absolutely correct. One of the main roots of the modern clown lay in the DEVIL character in mediaeval morality plays. Originally portrayed totally straight as a truely terrifying creaturee of horrific malice, with the passage of decades the Devil became more and more a figure of fun and buffoonery, chased around the stage by the other actors and bopped over the head with slapsticks, until he eventually became the circus clown we know....and 'love.'

And the French equivalent, "Harlequin," roughly translates as something like "Little Imp from Hell."

But the word "Clown" itself means nothing more than "clod," in the sense of "stupid clod" or "country bumpkin."
 
Coulrophobia & The Trickster is an interesting article that explores coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and how clowns relate to the Trickster archetype and served as shamans in certain cultures.

I found it a rather creepy read and that's coming from somebody who isn't coulrophobic.
 
Worse than being creepy (which I agree with), they're just not funny. Not even vaguely.

Incidentally, I see there's a film upcoming on DVD called "Fear of Clowns". Just thought I'd mention that - no idea if it's any good.
 
Re Stephen king's IT

My wife has just started teaching at a school where one of the substitute teachers is

Penny Wise


I kid you not ... and no-one seems to notice
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top