I walk by the front of a house with not one, two or three clowns in the front yard, but nine! I guess these evil clowns are the residents’ idea of Halloween decorations. They are all very original and different plus it is miraculous that they are all upright with very little visible means of support. Perhaps they all have a very long stake coming out of the bottom of their feet securing them to the ground. I am not a fan of evil clowns, although I did like the “Joker” movie. While it is far from my favorite genre, I can appreciate Joaquin Phoenix’s extraordinary acting ability. Reading horror novels is not my favorite activity, but I value the power of Stephen King's writing. When I have Halloween parties, I prefer cheerful ghost images to scary ghouls. So, let’s at least start with information on happy clowns.
History
According to Wikipedia, the most ancient clowns have been found in the Fifth dynasty of Egypt, around 2400 B.C. Unlike court jesters, clowns have traditionally served a socio-religious and psychological role, and traditionally the roles of priest and clown have been held by the same persons. Peter Berger writes, "It seems plausible that folly and fools, like religion and magic, meet some deeply rooted needs in human society." For this reason, clowning is often considered an important part of training as a physical perfomance discipline, partly because tricky subject matter can be dealt with, but also because it requires a high level of risk and play in the performer.
In anthropology, the term “clown” has been extended to comparable jester or fool characters in non-Western cultures. A society in which such clowns have an important position are termed “clown societies,” and a clown character involved in a religious or ritual capacity is known as a “ritual clown.” The Pueblo clowns — sometimes called sacred clowns — are jesters or tricksters in the Kachina religion practiced by the Pueblo Indians of the southwestern United States. It is a generic term, as there are a number of these figures in the ritual practice of the Pueblo people.
In Native American mythology, the Trickster channels the spirit of the Coyote and becomes a sacred Clown character. A Heyoka is an individual in Native cultures who lives outside the constraints of normal cultural roles. The Heyoka plays the role of a backwards clown, doing everything in reverse. The Heyoka role is sometimes best filled by a Winkte or male-bodied individuals who adopt the clothing, work, and mannerisms that Lakota culture usually considers feminine.
Many native tribes have a history of clowning. The Canadian Clowning method developed by Richard Pochinko and furthered by his former apprentice, Sue Morrison, combines European and Native American clowning techniques. In this tradition, masks are made of clay while the creator's eyes are closed. A mask is made for each direction of the medicine wheel. During this process, the clown creates a personal mythology that explores their personal experiences.
Clowns have a varied tradition with significant variations in costume and performance. The most recognizable modern clown character is the Auguste or red clown type, with outlandish costumes featuring distinctive makeup, colorful wigs, exaggerated footwear and colorful clothing. Their entertainment style is generally designed to entertain large audiences.
Modern clowns are strongly associated with the tradition of the circus clown, which developed out of earlier comedic roles in theatre or varieté shows during the 19th to mid-20th centuries.
The first mainstream clown role was portrayed by Joseph Grimaldi — who also created the traditional whiteface make-up design. In the early 1800s, he expanded the role of clown in the harlequiade that formed part of British pantomimes, notably at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane and the Sadler’s Wells and Covent Garden theatres. He became so dominant on the London comic stage that harlequinade clowns became known as "Joey," and both the nickname and Grimaldi's whiteface make-up design are still used by other clowns.
The comedy that clowns perform is usually in the role of a fool whose everyday actions and tasks become extraordinary — and for whom the ridiculous, for a short while, becomes ordinary. This style of comedy has a long history in many countries and cultures across the world. Some writers have argued that due to the widespread use of such comedy and its long history it is a need that is part of the human condition.
Origin
The clown character developed out of the zanni rustic fool characters of the early modern commedia dell’arte, which were themselves directly based on the rustic fool characters of ancient Greek and Roman theatre. Zanni is a character type of commedia dell’arte known as an astute servant and a trickster. The zanni comes from the countryside and is known to be a "dispossessed immigrant worker." Through time, the Zanni grew to be a popular figure who was first seen in commedia as early as the 14th century. The English word “zany” derives from this persona. Rustic buffoon characters in Classical Greek theater were known as sklêro-paiktês — from paizein': to play like a child — or deikeliktas, besides other generic terms for rustic or peasant. In Roman theater, a term for clown was “fossor,” literally digger, laborer.
The English word clown was first recorded c. 1560 — as clowne, cloyne — in the generic meaning rustic, boor, peasant. The origin of the word is uncertain, perhaps from a Scandinavian word cognate with clumsy. It is in this sense that clown is used as the name of fool characters in Shakespeare's “Othello” and “The Winter’s Tale.” The sense of clown as referring to a professional or habitual fool or jester developed soon after 1600, based on Elizabethan rustic fool characters such as Shakespeare's.
The harlequinade developed in England in the 17th century, inspired by the commedia dell'arte. It was here that Clown came into use as the given name of a stock character. Originally a foil for Harlequin’s slyness and adroit nature, Clown was a buffoon or bumpkin fool who resembled less a jester than a comical idiot. He was a lower-class character dressed in tattered servants' garb.
The now-classical features of the clown character were developed in the early 1800s by Joseph Grimaldi, who played Clown in Charles Dibdin’s 1800 pantomime “Peter Wilkins: or Harlequin in the Flying World” at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, where Grimaldi built the character up into the central figure of the harlequinade.
Modern circus clown
The circus clown developed in the 19th century. The modern circus derives from Philip Astley's London riding school, which opened in 1768. Astley added a clown to his shows to amuse the spectators between equestrian sequences. American comedian George L. Fox became known for his clown role, directly inspired by Grimaldi, in the 1860s. Tom Belling senior (1843–1900) developed the red clown or Auguste character c. 1870, acting as a foil for the more sophisticated white clown. Belling worked for Circus Renz in Vienna. Belling's costume became the template for the modern stock character of circus or children's clown, based on a lower-class or hobo character, with red nose, white makeup around the eyes and mouth and oversized clothes and shoes. The clown character as developed by the late 19th century is reflected in Ruggero Leoncavallo's 1892 opera “Pagliacci” or “Clowns.” Belling's Auguste character was further popularized by Nicolai Poliakoff's “Coco” in the 1920s to 1930s.
The English word clown was borrowed — along with the circus clown act — by many other languages, such as French clown, Russian (and other Slavic languages) кло́ун, Greek κλόουν, Danish/Norwegian klovn, Romanian clovn etc.
Italian retains Pagliaccio, a commedia dell'arte zanni character, and derivations of the Italian term are found in other Romance languages, such as French Pailasse, Spanish payaso, Catalan/Galician pallasso, Portuguese palhaço, Greek παλιάτσος, Turkish palyaço, German Pajass (via French), Yiddish payats, Russian пая́ц, Romanian paiată.
History in 20th century North America
In the early 20th century — with the disappearance of the rustic simpleton or village idiot character of everyday experience — North American circuses developed characters such as the tramp or hobo. Examples include Marceline Orbes, who performed at the Hippodrome Theater (1905), Charlie Chaplin's “The Tramp” (1914) and Emmet Kelly's “Weary Willie,” based on hobos of the Depression era. Another influential tramp character was played by Otto Griebling during the 1930s to 1950s. Red Skelton's Dodo the Clown in “The Clown” (1953), depicts the circus clown as a tragicomic stock character, "a funny man with a drinking problem."
In the United States, Bozo the Clown was an influential Auguste character since the late 1950s. “The Bozo Show” premiered in 1960 and appeared nationally on cable television in 1978. McDonald’s derived its mascot clown, Ronald McDonald, from the Bozo character in the 1960s. Willard Scott, who had played Bozo during 1959–1962, performed as the mascot in 1963 television spots. The McDonald's trademark application for the character dates to 1967.
Based on the Bozo template, the U.S. custom of birthday clowns — private contractors who offer to perform as clowns at children's parties — developed in the 1960s to 1970s. The strong association of the Bozo-derived clown character with children's entertainment as it has developed since the 1960s also gave rise to Clown Care or hospital clowning in children's hospitals by the mid-1980s. Clowns of America International (established 1984) and World Clown Association (established 1987) are associations of semi-professionals and professional performers.
The shift of the Auguste or red clown character from his role as a foil for the white in circus or pantomime shows to a Bozo-derived standalone character in children's entertainment by the 1980s also gave rise to the evil clown character, the attraction of clowns for small children being based in their fundamentally threatening or frightening nature. The fear of clowns, particularly circus clowns, has become known by the term coulrophobia.
Evil clowns
The evil clown is a subversion of the traditional comic clown character, in which the playful trope is instead rendered as disturbing through the use of horror elements and dark humor. The modern archetype of the evil clown was popularized by DC Comics character the Joker starting in 1940 and again by Pennywise in Stephen King's 1986 novel “It.” The character can be seen as playing on the sense of unease felt by sufferers of coulrophobia, the fear of clowns.
Origins
The modern archetype of the evil clown has unclear origins; the stock character appeared infrequently during the 19th century, in such works as Edgar Allan Poe's "Hop-Frog” — which is believed by Jack Morgan, of the University of Missouri-Rolla — to draw upon an earlier incident "at a masquerade ball" in the 14th century during which "the King and his frivolous party, costumed — in highly flammable materials — as simian creatures, were ignited by a flambeau and incinerated, the King narrowly escaping in the actual case." Evil clowns also occupied a small niche in drama, appearing in the 1874 work “La femme de Tabarin” by Catulle Mendès and in Ruggero Leoncavallo's “Pagliacci”— accused of being a plagiarism of Mendès' piece — both works featuring murderous clowns as central characters.
During the 1970s the National Lampoon published a series of mock comic books in the pages of the magazine, entitled "Evil Clown," which featured a malevolent titular character named Frenchy the Clown. During that decade, American serial killer and rapist John Wayne Gacy became known as the Killer Clown when arrested in 1978, after it was discovered he had performed as Pogo the Clown at children's parties and other events; however, Gacy did not actually commit his crimes while wearing his clown costume.
Evil clown themes were occasionally found in popular music. Zal Cleminson — guitarist with the English Sensational Alex Harvey Band — wore black and white clown-style makeup and colorful clothes while on stage during the band's 1970s heyday, while his "happy-sad-happy" demeanor helped give their performances an edge of menace.
The modern stock character of the evil clown was popularized by Stephen King's novel “It,” published in 1986, which introduced the fear of an evil clown to a modern audience. In the novel, the eponymous character is a pan-dimensional monster which feeds mainly on children by luring them in the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown and then assuming the shape of whatever the victim fears the most.
The evil clown archetype plays strongly off the sense of dislike it caused to inherent elements of coulrophobia; however, it has been suggested by Joseph Durwin that the concept of evil clowns has an independent position in popular culture, arguing that "the concept of evil clowns and the widespread hostility it induces is a cultural phenomenon which transcends just the phobia alone." A study by the University of Sheffield concluded "that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable." This may be because of the nature of clowns' makeup hiding their faces, making them potential threats in disguise; as a psychology professor at California State University, Northridge stated, young children are "very reactive to a familiar body type with an unfamiliar face". This natural dislike of clowns makes them effective in a literary or fictional context, as the antagonistic threat perceived in clowns is desirable in a villainous character.
Researcher Ben Radford, who published “Bad Clowns” in 2016 and is regarded as an expert on the phenomenon, writes that looking throughout history, clowns are seen as tricksters, fools and more; however, they always are in control, speak their minds and can get away with doing so. When writing the book “Bad Clowns,” Radford found that professional clowns are not generally fond of the bad-clown or evil-clown persona. They see them as "the rotten apple in the barrel, whose ugly sight and smell casts suspicion on the rest of them," and do not wish to encourage or propagate coulrophobia. Yet, as Radford discovered, bad clowns have existed throughout history: Harlequin, the King's fool and Mr. Punch. Radford argues that bad clowns have the "ability to change with the times" and that modern bad clowns have evolved into Internet trolls. They may not wear clown costumes but, nevertheless, engage with people for their own amusement, abuse, tease and speak what they think of as the "truth" much like the court jester and "dip clowns" do using "human foibles" against their victims. Radford states that, although bad clowns permeate the media in movies, TV, music, comics and more, the "good clowns" outnumber the bad ones. Research shows that most people do not fear clowns, but actually love them and that bad clowns are "the exception, not the rule."
Depictions
“Killer Klowns from Outer Space” is a 1988 horror comedy dedicated to the topic. The Joker character in the “Batman” franchise was introduced in 1940 and has developed into one of the most recognizable and iconic fictional characters in popular culture, leading Wizard magazine's "100 Greatest Villains of All Time" ranking in 2006. Although Krusty the Clown, a cartoon character introduced 1989 in the animated sitcom “The Simpsons,” is a comical, non-scary clown, the character reveals darker aspects in his personality. In “The Simpsons” episode "Lisa’s First Word" (1992), children's fear of clowns features in the form of a very young Bart being traumatized by an inexpertly built Krusty the Clown-themed bed, repeatedly uttering the phrase "can't sleep, clown will eat me...." The phrase inspired an Alice Cooper song in the album “Dragontown” (2001) and became a popular catchphrase.
The American rap duo Insane Clown Posse have exploited this theme since 1989 and have inspired Twiztid and similar acts — many on Psychopathic Records — to do likewise. Websites dedicated to evil clowns and the fear of clowns appeared in the late 1990s.
· The Joker, the nemesis of Batman, whose key features are chalk-white skin, emerald-green hair, ruby-red lips and — in some iterations — a perpetual smile, usually a permanent sardonic grin or a Glasgow smile, depending on the adaption of the character. He is commonly depicted as a criminal mastermind, as well as a sadistic and murderous psychopath. The character is also known by several nicknames, including "the Clown Prince of Crime."
· The 1982 film “Poltergeist,” directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg, along with the 2015 remake of the same name directed by Gil Kenan, feature a possessed clown doll.
· Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the main antagonist in Stephen King's 1986 horror novel “It” and it adaptations. Pennywise was portrayed in the 1990 television miniseries by Tim Curry and by Gill Skarsgård in the 2017 film adaptation and its 2019 sequel.
· The 2009 comedy horror film “Zombieland” features a zombie clown.
· The 1989 film “Clownhouse,” written and directed by Victor Salve, concerns brothers who are attacked in their own home by escaped mental patients dressed as clowns.
· The most famous professional wrestling depiction of an evil clown was Doink the Clown, a persona originated in 1992 by professional wrestler Matt Osborne in the World Wrestling Federation. Originally, the gimmick was that of a sadistic, evil clown, playing cruel tricks on fans and wrestlers to amuse himself and put them off guard; to help gain heat for the character, he was placed in a storyline feud with Crush, wherein Doink, after faking an injury, sneak-attacked Crush with a loaded prosthetic arm. The evil clown gimmick would be dropped later in 1993 as he turned face.
· Jack the Clown, an icon of the Halloween Horror Nights event celebrated at Universal Studios Florida, Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Studios Singapore and Universal Studios Japan.
· The 2007 film “100 Tears” features a circus clown named Gurdy (Jack Amos) going on a murderous rampage after being wrongfully accused of rape.
· In the 2012 anthology horror film “Scary or Die,” a drug dealer is bitten by a clown at a birthday party, and he begins to transform into a cannibalistic clown himself.
· The 2012 film “Stitches” features a murderous birthday clown, portrayed by Ross Noble, who is resurrected from the dead in order to enact revenge upon the children who contributed to his death.
· The 2013 horror film “All Hallows’ Eve” and the 2018 film “Terrifier” features a homicidal clown named Art the Clown.
· The FX horror anthology series “American Horror Story” used two instances of evil clowns: The first being Twisty the Clown from the fourth season “Freak Show,” who made a cameo appearance in “Cult” where the season's antagonist created a murderous clown cult to orchestrate his rise to political power.
· Zeebo the clown from the Nickelodeon horror series “Are You Afraid of the Dark?”
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