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Why Is Everyone Scared of Clowns?

Why Is Everyone Scared of Clowns?

Last updated on: October 17, 2016 at 3:28 pm by Paul Asay

Why Is Everyone Scared of Clowns? 2016-10-17T15:28:39-06:00 Paul Asay

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We’re all being attacked by clowns. People across the United States say they’re seeing red-nosed, white-faced Pennywises everywhere, lurking in parks, walking down streets and threatening to do more than stuff several of themselves into a car. The threat of clowns has become so severe that Target has removed some creepy clown masks from its shelves.

When I was a kid, clowns were generally thought to be, y’know, funny. But looking back, I was wasn’t immune to coulrophobia. Someone had given me a clown marionette, and that thing was known to terrify me—particularly when I’d wake up and find its little marionette hands wrapped around my neck. (Or, at least, that’s how I remember it.)

Think of the marionette clown from Poltergeist, only classier and with more murderous pathos. (Photo courtesy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

What is it that makes clowns so scary?

Three things, I think.

First, there’s the clown’s backstory. Back in the day, clowns and fools weren’t just supposed to make you laugh: They were there to remind us that we were all going to die. “The medieval fool was continually reminding us of our mortality, our animal nature, of how unreasonable and ridiculous and petty we can be,” said English professor Andrew Stott to The Telegraph. And while the makeup was probably designed to help the clown’s face stand out to folks watching in the cheap seats, there’s no question that the traditional white-faced clown can look rather corpselike. Add in the red lips and super-creepy eye makeup, and you’ve got the makings of a particularly freaky vampire or something.

Not funny. (Photo courtesy thinkstock.)

And then there’s the clown’s bad press as of late. Because let’s face it, when we think of clowns these days, we’re less likely to think of Ronald McDonald than, say, this guy.

Pennywise from the It miniseries (photo courtesy ABC)

Or this guy.

Twisty from American Horror Story (photo courtesy FX)

Or even this guy.

Joker from The Dark Knight (photo courtesy Warner Bros.)

For every clown we see in IHOP making cute balloon animals, we’re given 10 on screen that stalk children with axes. Clowns get worse publicity than big pharma.

But I also wonder whether we dislike clowns for the some of the same reasons we dislike politicians. Or used car salesmen. Or frankly, even Christians sometimes.

When you look at the faces above, you see more than white facepaint and very bothersome dental issues. You see something terrible lurking behind a fake smile. The mask and makeup hide something revolting. Part of our brain connects the clown with circuses and birthday parties and fun, and then part of us sees these terrifying creatures not just as monsters, but as corruptions of what they should be, and so they bother us all the more.

There’s something deeply theological about that, given that our world and our own natures have been twisted themselves by sin. By its nature, sin is something good bent into something else. When you look at many horror movies, you’ll find that that sense of corruption—something good twisted—is at their root. And so it is with clowns. Perhaps when we see one of these evil clowns, there’s something in them, something in us, that echoes back to those medieval fools. Through them, we see elements of our own corruption.

But more pragmatically, these evil clowns represent a lie. Their face says one thing, while their heart says something entirely. All clowns, with their painted-on smiles, can feel hypocritical: These creepy clowns merely heighten that sense of hypocrisy and dishonesty that is endemic to clowndom.

In 2008, LifeWay Research asked a number of unchurched Americans what they thought about the Church. About 72 percent of them said that they believe that churches are “full of hypocrites,” a pretty staggering number.

We Christians feel the weight of that statement. Moreover, I think many of us feel the truth of it. Churches, as much as we’d like to make them otherwise, tend to be places where we paint on our own smiles. Even though we say we’re saved by grace and admit that we sin, we also pretend to be far better—far holier—than we actually are.

Our faces say one thing while our hearts say something else. There’s a dissonance there, and I think that people often sense it.

The ideal solution would be to actually be the people who we pretend to be. But that isn’t easy. And when we try, there are days that we inevitably fail.

But there’s another step we can take as we move toward being the people God wants us to be: Wipe off the makeup. To be a little more transparent in our own failings. To be more honest with ourselves and others.

That’s tough, too. Frankly, I’m really bad at it sometimes. But I think that it’s a worthwhile step to take. None of us want to be clowns, after all.

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