Evil clown  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

(Redirected from Killer clown)
Jump to: navigation, search

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

The image of the evil clown is a recent development in American popular culture in which the playful trope of the clown is rendered as disturbing through the use of horror elements and dark humor.

Contents

Background

Many people find clowns disturbing rather than amusing. Many children are afraid of disguised, exaggerated, or costumed figures — even Santa Claus. Clown costumes tend to exaggerate the facial features and some body parts, such as hands and feet. This can be read as monstrous or deformed as easily as it can be read as comical. At the same time, the clown act is often represented as drunken, reckless, or simply insane — that of the giggling maniac. This includes the notorious Canio who murdered Nedda and Silvio (recorded in Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci.)

An extreme fear of clowns is known as coulrophobia.

It can also be said one's response to a clown might depend on where it's seen. At a circus or a party, a clown is normal and one may find a clown funny. The same clown knocking on one's front door late one evening is more likely to generate fear or distress than laughter or amusement. This effect is summed up in a quote often attributed to actor Lon Chaney, Sr.: "There is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight."

The idea of an evil clown can also be used in comedy. Since a clown is supposed to be funny, it is considered ironic if a clown has nothing whatsoever funny about him. Thus, a clown that is not funny can be hilarious.

John Wayne Gacy and Phantom Clowns

John Wayne Gacy, (March 17, 1942 - May 10, 1994) murdered and raped 33 men. 27 men were in the crawl space under his house while several others were found in a river. Naming himself "Pogo the Clown" he entertained children at parties. He was arrested in 1978 and was executed in 1994.

It is reported in Loren Coleman's book, "Mysterious America" that in the early 80's there were reports in the Midwest of supposed clowns or men dressed partially like clowns in vans attempting to lure and abduct children. He states that the reports were usually independent of each other and nothing was ever resolved and no suspects were ever caught. Coleman briefly discussed the incidents on a show of Coast to Coast AM on April 23rd, 2007.

The evil clown in popular culture

The image of the evil clown appears to have gained notoriety to the extent of becoming a cliché.

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Evil clown" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools