If you have been in Horror for more than a minute, chances are you have seen images of scary Clowns in a horror film or read about one in a horror novel. With so many scary clowns in horror you would think Coulrophobia is contagious.
And with numerous examples from fiction or real life such as 1990’s Stephen Kings ‘IT’, 1988’s Killer Klowns from Outer space, 1998’s Carnival of Souls, 2016’s scary clowns sightings in the News or even Batman’s Joker it is easy to see why we would think that.
But why do we associate an image that should bring a smile to a child’s face as something of the exact opposite effect?
Let’s start with a little history and work up from there so we can trace how scary clowns folded into horror. If we try to trace it back, we will find there isn’t just one reason or event that tied the face paint with horror, but several sources.
According to Wikipedia:
“The English wordclown is 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 clownas referring to a professional or habitual fool or jester develops 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.”
That sounds innocent enough with no real dark intentions behind it. Let’s move up further to see where the laughter and the dark connections started. There isn’t a hard date in history of when clowns were tied into horror. There are numerous examples from different sources that can show some of the threads being made.
One incident that can be attributed to the ‘Evil Clown’ was the ‘Ball of the Burning Men’ in 14th century Paris, but that was well before the word clown came about. Although it is important to note Edgar Allan Poe used a ‘Hop-Frog’ character that may have been inspired by this incident.
1874’s La Femme de Tabarin, used murderous clowns. This theme was used by Stephen King in his 1986’s published novel ‘IT’. It is important to note the media helped fuel the fame of the ‘Killer Clown’ during the 1978 case of serial killer and rapist John Wayne Gacy.
Perhaps scientific studies can help shed light on this subject.
Evil clowns play on Coulrophobia. But Joseph Durwin (Author of "Coulrophobia and the Trickster") stated 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."
Ben Radford (Author of “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.”
But what about a theory behind all this we can relate to that can explain our fears?
Enter robotics professor Masahiro Mori with his 1970 ‘Uncanny Valley’ hypothesis (Published in the 1978 book Robots: Fact, Fiction, and Prediction, written by Jasia Reichardt):
“Mori's original hypothesis states that as the appearance of a robot is made more human, some observers' emotional response to the robot become increasingly positive and empathic, until it reaches a point beyond which the response quickly becomes strong revulsion. However, as the robot's appearance continues to become less distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once again and approaches human-to-human empathy levels.
This area of repulsive response aroused by a robot with appearance and motion between a ‘barelyhuman’ and ‘fully human’ entity is the uncanny valley. The name captures the idea that an almost human-looking robot seems overly ‘strange’ to some human beings, produces a feeling of uncanniness, and thus fail to evoke the empathic response required for productive human-robot interaction.”
In a nut shell, the Uncanny Valley is the moment when our minds stop interpreting something as an object with human characteristics and begins interpreting it as a human with object like characteristics. Kind of like how the crew on the Star Trek Enterprise accept Mr. Data as more human than machine. Scary clowns are accepted as objects with human characteristics by a good portion of people so they are seen as naturally freaky.
Now that was a complex answer to a simple question. Or maybe the question isn’t so simple. Why do you associate scary clowns with horror? Is it a phobia? Is it because it is a trend? Or is it because of the way the author made the clown to be that scary?
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References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_des_Ardents
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_clown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
