I don't think I was always afraid of clowns. I can't say that I ever really understood them. As a child, I'd been to parades and the circus but I never thought they were funny. Their mirth seemed forced to me--I guess I was hard to impress.
Clowns made me uneasy--but they didn't fill me with dread.
It was Stephen King that ruined me.
I wasn't even a child when the book, It, came out-- and twenty when they made it into a mini-series. But I've never recovered. Even Ronald McDonald is suspect now.
So....how do you weigh in on clowns? Do you like them? Do you...gulp....collect them? Do you have that oil painting of that sad clown with the droopy flower in your home? Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight?
Or are you like me? A victim of Coulrophobia...the fear of clowns?
*shuddering* OMG WHY did you have to post THAT picture??? That is the very reason clowns freak me out.
ReplyDeleteIt had to be one of the scariest movies ever. And Tim Curry, OMG, evil. Those teeth!!!!
*runs and hides* I'm at work alone right now, what was that noise? EEEK!!!
I can't look at them.
ReplyDeleteClown phobia is way up there in most common fears along with spiders and public speaking. I think it's because there was one generation that thought, yay! the circus it the best thing ever and then they brought all their kids who were ALL traumatized by the clowns. Maybe clown phobia will start to die now that the circus isn't the best thing in town anymore...but I don't know...there's something so evil looking about them.
see...I know that is Tim Curry in there, who I love, and he's smiling happily, so he's not scaring me. The book, though, scared the crap out of me when I read it. So I read it again.
ReplyDeleteHowever, going to the park and seeing a clown try to approach me and my children? Enough to give me the heebiejeebies for weeks.
I used to have a porcelain doll collection as a teenager. I was given a clown one. I stopped collecting porcelain dolls and gave them all away. Him first. :-S
*shudder*
You know Im pretty OK with Clowns like Pennywise, mostly because I know how to deal with his sorry ass. Movies is Magic. Clowns in general, lke at the mall and at fairs, not a big fan, and i give them a wide berth so your not alone.
ReplyDeleteIll tell you though, I'm SERIOUSLY afraid of carousels... and its not an unfounded fear... and my ex is afraid of eggplants....
you know. I was fine until I scrolled down to see Pennywise...he is death-on-a-stick! Ugh.
ReplyDeleteThey freak me out. When I was young, I was on the Bozo show twice and that was fine. He was a friend of the family and knowing that, I had no problem with clowns. But then I went to the Circus and one of the clowns bugged me. So I stopped going to circuses. Then Little House on the Prarie had a freaky show where a girl was raped by a person in clown make-up. Freaked me out. Then I read IT and I WAS DONE IN. And to show how stupid I am, I then watched the movie and of course, now I have a true dislike, fear, freak-out over clowns. any clowns. I don't even like Mimes. *shudder*
I HATE CLOWNS. *shudder* 'nuff said.
ReplyDeleteAh, Pennywise, my hero! LOL
ReplyDeleteI guess you had better not ever see Killer Klowns From Outer Space then ;)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095444/
Time for a little music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPltv7oGOp4
Yes, I'm a sick and twisted individual. ;)
Elaina--Sorry to scare you at work. I'm sure there isn't a psycho clown int the copy room muahahaha.
ReplyDeleteChi-I hope you are right that they are on the way out.
Dayna--omG I hate porcelain dolls too!
Stella--eggplants? For serious?
Mel--I'd fordotten aboy the Little House very special episode.
Rhonda--that would be a good t-shirt.
Portia--You! To the corner!
Rob--you can't make me click on those. And I won't forget I owe you one now. lol
Gwendy, I am ambivalent about clowns. Some are ok. Like the ones who dress up to visit the residents at the senior facility. (and they adore them too. mutually.) My mother had a music box thing with two porcelin clowns on it and the song was bring in the clowns. I thought it was sad. The old comedian Red Buttons? was not scary, but yes, Pennywise and John Wayne Gacey. Ug. Ug ug ug.
ReplyDeleteI can't read Stephen King. Way too scary for little ole me. Clowns? Not crazy about them, but I wouldn't say it equals my fear of spiders.
ReplyDeleteUm...I sort of like clowns.
ReplyDeleteSorry!
But I make up for it by being afraid of everything else. So that's okay, right? :-)
Cara
Clowns freak me out. I'll never forget the day I looked up and a real-life clown was staring at me through the car window. I screamed. Of course, he thought I was crazy. The poor clown was headed to a birthday party and made the mistake of stopping to fuel up his car at the same time I did. Just my luck he parked right next to me. It wasn't funny!
ReplyDeleteClowns have never bugged me. I loved the circus when I was little. Clowns were funny! They still make me smile when I see one at a restaurant making balloon animals.
ReplyDeleteBut Pennywise is not a normal clown. He's evil. And I'm scared of him for that reason. It has nothing to do with him being a clown.
I've never read the book but the miniseries scared the bejeezus out of me. I was in late elementary school or junior high (junior high probably), I don't know. Anyway, the miniseries was on right around the time of my birthday, so we had balloons in the house because my mom liked that kind of stuff. I didn't have a birthday party, but she would always tie balloons on the the birthday kid's chair.
Anyway, the balloons were losing their air, so starting to sag. And my brother thought it would be funny to put PEnnywise's face on one of them. And tie the end of the string to my flute case. And take my flute out of the case (and hide) and instead include a note from Pennywise inside saying something about how we was going to kill me. It was written in red ink and it looked like blood.
I kid you not. I screamed for like 30 seconds straight.
oh Amanda! Your brother is lucky to be alive still.
ReplyDeleteACK! No mocking here! They freak me out too. *HUGS*
ReplyDeleteClowns are terrifying, and the one you posted is really, really scary. I have to leave now...
ReplyDeleteI do not like clowns...I find them creepy. I don't there is just something about an adult dressing up...putting make up on with an obscenely creepy painted on smile...and then interacting with children that really creeps me out! I don't even like Bozo or Ronald McDonald!
ReplyDeleteMy thirteen year old son recently saw It on tv and then had to have the movie for our collection...creepy. I told him that he should read the book if he really liked it that much...he took one look at the book and said that he would pass as it was way too long and he had already seen the movie...ha-ha.
OMG, that picture. Thanks for the nightmares.
ReplyDeleteAnd Kristen, I can't' read Steven King either.
I agree, agree agree. Tim Curry and Stephen King ruined clowns for everyone.
ReplyDeleteClowns. They. Must. Be. Stopped. What are they hiding under all that makeup, anyway?
IT and Drive Thru were both killer clown movies that scarred me for life. Many sleepless nights came after. Stephen King's book didn't even scare me as much as the actual movie.
ReplyDeleteMy sister is a college student. A long while after being diagnosed with coulrophobia, my sister explained to me that clowns were once a satantic cult back in the 1700s. Thinking about it makes me want to throw up.
The first thing that ruined clowns for me was Poltergeist...that freaking clown that sat at the foot of the girls bed. And then, ugh It! I was between 5 and 8 when I saw both. Forced by my older siblings to watch with them. Every once in awhile I try to get rid of the fear by looking at a picture or something but it all comes back again. It is terrible to be this terrified of them. I wake up from nightmares about demon clowns and Pennywise, still and that was 16 years ago when I watched It.
ReplyDelete