Phobias and addictions: The clown case

Clowns and their popularity

The typical fear and wonder we feel towards clowns may take us to the subconscious believe, that perhaps the mask is indeed the true face of the clown

Clowns are widely used as a scary characters in all sorts of things, like books, movies, and even some video games. They are always taken as a mysterious manifestation of creepiness and deception, showing a happy face while hiding horrible intentions. This sinister vision of the clown is far from his modest origins as an actor or itinerant entertainer, an inescapable figure in the circus's imaginary, as well as the buffoons of the palatial courts.

This is the original Pennywise (the clown from Stephen King's "IT")

Besides his typical apparitions, in the last few years clowns have returned to the public eyes in unexpected and considerably weird ways. Since 2013 there have been appearances of clowns (or people disguised as such) in cities of England and the United States for the most part, with the apparent intention of scaring their inhabitants, although without physically harming them. However, the infamous case of John Wayne Gacy and his character Pogo, responsible for the rape and murder of at least 33 victims, makes the hair stand up and it can be seen as a proof that the sinister associations with clowns are not too far from reality.

But although there are sadistic examples of staged jokes with great production involving clowns, In the last few years the media have covered several cases of clown sightings around some cities in the US, which are not funny at all.

There have been cases in which the people felt so threatened that even guns were lightly involved, The big boom with this subject was on 2016 maybe because of the government elections in America, hard to know actually, in that year around May 5, two clowns were seen hanging around Lawrence Elementary School in Boston, and by May 8 police reports of clowns hanging around schools (and offering candy to children to invite them into a black van) had extended by Charlestown, Cambridge, Canton, Randolph and Providence. Sightings have also been reported in New York, Alabama, Ohio, Oregon, North Carolina and California. In Chicago, a threatening clown was threatened by an armed man. More recently, there were cases of clowns looking inside people’s home in the middle of the night. I have always been fascinated by horror, but things like this go past beyond what can be considered a good horror act, this is closer to a real mental instability by these people.

Our demand for it fuels the creepy clown craziness?

Perhaps these things happened thanks to some influence created by our own demand for creepy clown content, which can be proved by its insane consumption in every art form there is.

And this is the last clown from Stephen King's "IT" story

In literature and cinema, clowns have enjoy important characters in famous stories. From the fool of the "King Lear" of Shakespeare, who is the only one with enough loquacity to tell the unworthy sovereign his truths, and the horrible Pennywise of the Stephen King’s movie “IT”, which is a mysterious being who’s duty consist in being sort of a witness between the passage from childhood to adulthood. Heath Ledger in his Joker role asks, "Why so serious?" To the Knight of the Night. Because perhaps in the end, the clown’s goal is to be a living reminder that life is not a very serious thing, even when taking into account all of its tragedies and merciless happenings.

As some recent examples of creepy clowns in our pop culture, there is of course the “IT” movie we just mentioned, which received massive earnings reaching the top spot in the historic ranks of horror movie’s earnings. Some years ago, the popular anthology series “American Horror Story” also had a season about a circus full of freaks, and as you can imagine, there was a creepy killer clown in the show, even on their last season which was about American politics, they added some creepy clowns in the story, for some strange reason, we are fascinated by this. There seen to be a huge demand for creepy clown content, even if people feel scared of them. Maybe as a sort of psychological masochism we are not aware of.

Another example can be found on YouTube, with a famous series of pranks called “Killer Clowns”, they go on the street dressed as creepy clowns and make some hardcore jokes on the people, so hardcore that they even have had legal problems because of it. You can see their last video here:

What is a phobia?

A phobia is an excessive and irrational fear reaction. If you have a phobia, you may experience a deep sense of dread or panic when you encounter the source of your fear | Source

The creepy clown from season 4 in AHS

Clowns could be considered to be capable of both creation and destruction because they can distort the meaning of the words and make heresy acts in the dates and places that are sacred, to serve as a kind of moral counterweight. They can create happiness thanks to their jokes, but they can also destroy it by deceiving people and hiding their sinister intentions.

According to this Creepy Clown Manifesto “the horror of the clown is the sad man behind the painted smile, that desperate need, going back to old Grimaldi, for the unhappiest ones to make other people laugh. Learn the truth: we are not unhappy. There is nothing behind our masks”

What is Coulrophobia

Coulrophobia is a persistent fear of clowns, where individuals may feel “shaken or traumatised” at the thought of them. |Source

If the clown uses disguise and makeup to remind us that there is nothing "under" what we see, could it be that the fascination they have on us is created by making us believe our own face is the only thing that protects us from surrendering to our crazy and destructive impulses

More creepy clowns in the last season of AHS

The psychologist Francis McAndrew who conducted a research about the empirical study of creepiness, that has an hypothesis that says “it is the inherent ambiguity surrounding clowns that make them creepy. They seem to be happy, but are they really? And they're mischievous, which puts people constantly on guard. People interacting with a clown during one of his routines never know if they are about to get a pie in the face or be the victim of some other humiliating prank. The highly unusual physical characteristics of the clown (the wig, the big red nose, the makeup, the odd clothing) only magnify the uncertainty of what the clown might do next.” | Source

Conclusion

It is fair to say, a lot of people, if not most people, have a thing for creepy clowns, whether it is fascination or a deep rejection caused by an apparently unjustified phobia. Nevertheless, for some reason, we seem to have a strong need for new creepy clowns content, which is growing as time pass.

What is an addiction?

is a condition that results when a person ingests a substance (for example, alcohol, cocaine, nicotine) or engages in an activity (such as gambling, sex, shopping) that can be pleasurable but the continuation of which becomes compulsive. | Source

Could it be that we simply became addicted and that's why there is an insane amount of consumption and therefore, a lot of content production related to creepy clowns?

As a sort of addiction to the adrenaline we feel when we are in a dangerous situation, our fascination with creepy clowns could be explained by this fact. The rush they make us feel thanks to their looks, may have turn our society in some sort of addiction driven group, that cannot stop consuming the same content that give us the chills. Even by going to far and make real life hardcore jokes on people, all while having people cheering on it on the internet. Really crazy if you think about it.

Fun fact: if you search on google images for clown, the majority of the clowns there will not be friendly looking, which means we are already relating the concept of a clown as something evil.