Fear of clowns

[BeatleManU]

Anyone here have a fear of clowns or know anyone that has this?

[crassus]

I have encountered a number of people who have had a fear of clowns. I always thought it was strange to have such a fear, but then some clowns do look creepy.

[Ricardo]

I think I've heard of people being afraid of clowns, but I can't recall any specific people who are that I know.

If I'm not mistaken, I have heard that the murderer John Wayne Gacy dressed as a clown on occasion, but made a classic mistake of painting his mouth to have sharp corners, rather than rounded ones. Apparently the sharp corners were known to scare children. Does that make sense with the pros here?

Sorry to get into a morbid area on the subject. 

[Sherry]

Yeah, I've seen the clown face he used.  I was thinking about doing a clown design for a video in the near future and I wanted to be sure I didn't come up with one looking like his!   

I'm not so sure about the sharp edges though.  I found an old picture of me and my cousin from a family trip to Las Vegas.  It was around 1980 or so and we got face painted as clowns by a clown for $5.  We were so proud of our clown faces and wore them all day.  Anyway, I noticed the smile on my cousin's clown face was a bit different with pointy edges on the mouth.  I'm going to try to get this picture on cd within the next week or so, so I can upload it to the board.  I think it'll be fun for you guys to see!  I know it was for me! 

[PappaG133]

Ive never really understood why people are afraid of clowns. Maybe a childhood experience?

[Ricardo]

Ive never really understood why people are afraid of clowns. Maybe a childhood experience?

I'm not sure either. Come to think of it, Stephen King had a very evil character in his novel It, called Pennywise. I'd be curious to know why he used a clown like that.

In the TV movie based on the story, Tim Curry did a good job of playing the part.

[PappaG133]

They used a clown doll in the Saw movies too. Maybe when kids see these movies they become afraid of clowns

[Party Picassos Facepainting]

I have been at parties where clowns were facepainting, some of the kids couldn't even look in their direction. They were THAT afraid. So no clowns were gonna touch their faces.

That's why I never dress up in costume. I am an artist and this is how I dress. Kids love hearing about art and you get many who say "I'm gonna be an artist too!"

[Sherry]

I had never thought of myself as an artist, even when I started face painting.  When I first started out, kids would say, "Are you an artist?"  I thought it sounded so cute.  I've heard it so many times the last couple years while face painting, that I do feel comfortable now to think of myself that way.