h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Evil, evil, evil. Don't know what it is about them, I've hated them since birth. A couple of years aod, I heard that clown face-paint comes from the fact that in olden times clowns represented demons, and their foolish prattlings were supposed to help us commoners get over our fear of the underworld.

Or something.

Anyway, is this some racial memory or something? All I know is that I can't watch the film IT without hiding behind the sofa.

Enjoyed the book, though....

Hi,

Alas, me too! Finally I found someone who share this phobia...

I am not totally paranoid but seeing clowns and especially those dolls - you know those procelain ones you get?

They are to me the materialisation of Evil!
That grin on their face - as if they are hiding something...
That vacant yet piercing stare of their eyes - as if they are going to take you somewhere horrible...

I know it sounded silly but...

Koyannisqatsi

I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...
I must not fall asleep or the clowns will get me...

They're definitely up to something. Especially those white-with-black-bobbles-ones. You know you'd best not be alone when they come along... They could break into mime at any moment. And what is all that make-up hiding?

Remember the scary clown doll in Poltergeist?? (was it Poltergeist?)

Those porcelain face dolls also creep me out big time.

But clowns themselves . . . I think they are just sad.

I think of clowns as being either sad or scary.
I have met a lot of people whom do NOT like clowns.

There was a serial killer (Texas I think) clown for hire at kids parties a few decades ago.

I had a anti-social neighbor that was a party clown for hire. Sometimes the whole family did it! They looked really cute going out the door together. They were NOT a nice family!

People who hate Halloween dressup often hate clowns
This smiley is scary!

A977088 The history of clowns

I can easily relate to this phobia of clowns... Reading the first chapters of S.King's 'It' did not help, and kep me from sleeping well for a while...

Same thing with porcelain dolls. Not really a phobia, but a very uneasy feeling...

Thank the lordy I'm not alone with my clown fear. It's become slightly inconvenient since I had kids, explaining why I won't take them to the circus (see also 'fear of dwarves').

Do fellow contributors know that Argos sell solid gold moveable clown pendants?

Do you - does anyone? - remember an episode of Twin Peaks where at the end there is a dream sequence involving a dwarf? There are red curtains and a very scary dwarf character doing a little weirdly scary dance . . .

After seeing that I couldn't sleep for ages!

Go figure that one!

I have no fear at all of dwarf people I happen to see in the street. Because there is NOTHING in fact scary about people who happen to be dwarves.

Perhaps it's because dwarves remind people of clowns - because often in circuses clowns happen to be dwarves a lot of the time.

It seems very unfair, not to mention unintelligent, unenlightened or just plain stupid, to single out people with a physical difference as being somehow 'frightening'.

The clown thing I can understand - all those scarily painted happy faces that are in fact 'painted on'. Nothing sadder than a clown, it is said. So maybe that is what people pick up on - the very sadness within what a person who is showing the world a happy clown face when in fact he or she might be anything but happy.

Hey, perhaps this reminds some of what they have to do everyday at their job? With their families? Just wondering . . .

I'm not proud of my dwarf phobia, but I don't think I can feel guilty about something I've had since I can remember - I think I was taken to too many circuses when I was little.

I can see why clowns freak people out, but I wasn't aware of the scale of the problem until I was sponsored to dress up as a Pierrot clown for comic relief and about eight people in my French class were scared of me. I mean, I'm not usually scary... I'm a 5ft2 midget with an odd accent and bad dress sense, that's all.

hi Ottoline,

Sorry - I thought after I'd posted my last thing that I may have caused offense towards you or anyone else who had a 'fear of dwarves'. This had not been my intention. I didn't mean to ridicule your fear. It's only that I also have a fear of people who have 'FEARS' of minority groups. I think you know where I'm going with that one - that fear of this sort can sometimes turn into something else quite ugly.

Like I said, I hoped that the 'dwarf fear' was mostly tied into a fear of clowns (which ARE often quite scary).

that's all.

love,
azahar

Lizzy,

Sweetie, 5'2" is hardly a midget. Though perhaps you DO have bad dress sense and an odd accent

The thing is, we are mostly afraid of what we don't understand.

These days I mostly have a massive fear of American presidents

Clowns absolutely terrify me... When I was very small I saw a scene from "IT" playing in our local video store. I had nightmares for weeks. I think circuses in general creep me out completely. The scariest circus, well actually it's a carnival, I believe is the one described by Ray Bradbury in "Something Wicked this way comes." The description of the dwarf was sooo creepy.

Me too, my dad keeps the strangest collection of clowns in his office There are literally hundreds. It still isn't as creepy as my nutcracker collection though.

being scared of clowns isn't a phobia. it's good common sense. they ARE creepy, they ARE all up to something, and they should NEVER be trusted.
xx

Well this actually isn't about clowns, but about your comment that 5ft2 is not a nice height. I am jealous of you to be frank, i'm 6ft2 and it drives me crazy. I'm all legs!!!

I do believe the Texan mass-murdering clown was John Wayne Gacey.

Which just confirmed my lifelong suspicion of them.

When I was 3, my parents took me to the circus for the very first time (and the last until I was about 13, when we decided that we'd never go again on the basis of how forlorn the animals looked). We were ringside when the clowns came on. One clown had "filled" his bucket with water and came over and pitched it at me - all that came out was a shower of confetti. Apparently, my immediate reaction was to hurl myself at the ring-cage, screaming "THAT'S NOT FUNNY!! THAT'S NOT FUNNY!!" in an hysterical rage. My parents had to pry my fingers off the cage, and the clown was apparently extremely shocked and upset.

But they always frightened me. The large blown-glass clown in a neighbour's lobby apparently went bye-bye ("by accident on purpose") when I was about 2; there was the circus incident; and as a small child I would hide and cry or become enraged when clowns were on TV.

It seems that this fear is widespread: I could never bring myself to watch 'It' - a combination of two of my phobias: clowns and spiders. Fantastic. I still remember the album cover for Dio's 'Dream Evil' from the 1980s: a clown armed with a wickedly sharp carving knife. 'Poltergeist' contained the scene with the clown-doll under the bed; and there was the famously awful 'Killer Clowns From Outer Space'. Nowadays, it's Insane Clown Posse and the famous "Can't sleep - clowns might eat me" T-shirt.

My husband can't abide clowns, and neither can a great many of my friends.

Who the hell actually finds them amusing rather than creepy?

I dunno how I got the fear. It's kinda worn of know but I'm still not prepared to watcg 'It' alone at night. And I can't think of a evil clown face with big eyebrows shaped in a v without looking behind my back. Dolls is not a major fear but still...the silent faces. Brrrr!