What is coulrophobia? |

Coulrophobia refers to a severe fear of clowns. The term came into common usage in the 1980s and was derived from the Greek word kolobatheron (stilt). The symptoms of coulrophobia include irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea, shortness of breath, anger at being exposed to a clown, and general feelings of dread. Treatment is similar to that of other phobias, with many patients seeing improvement after hypnotherapy or gradual exposure to the source of their discomfort.

Coulrophobia is not, however, considered an official psychological diagnosis. Mental health practitioners instead classify the fear of clowns as part of an umbrella category for fear of costumed characters, including mascots for sports teams or theme parks. In a widely publicized 2008 study of more than 250 children aged four to sixteen, conducted at the University of Sheffield in England, the vast majority found images of clowns highly disturbing. Coulrophobia’s adult sufferers, thought to number in the tens of thousands, offer proof that those feelings can persist for a lifetime.

Roots of the Fear

Clowns became commonplace children’s entertainers in the United States in the mid-twentieth century, but their earlier history reveals a longstanding darker side. Many of the comic tropes that have long surrounded clowns concern their wildly manic behavior and disregard for social norms, characteristics apparent across various cultures. In many different Native American traditions, clown figures performed transgressive rituals such as mocking the gods or smearing themselves with excrement to exhibit their disdain for convention. Medieval jesters—whose facial muscles were sometimes cut to prevent them from frowning and who could be condemned to death for not sufficiently amusing the royal court—reminded audiences of their own mortality, animal nature, and foolishness. So despite the gentle antics of popular television clowns like Bozo and Clarabell, clowns have always been associated culturally with fear and danger.

Clowns also demonstrate the Freudian notion of the uncanny, in which an image (in this case the human face) is distorted but still recognizable. The gap between the normally expected image and the eerily skewed one is frightening to many people. Furthermore, a clown’s face paint functions as a mask, serving to disguise the wearer’s real emotions. Coulrophobes tend to believe that no matter how cheery the painted-on grin, evil intent possibly lurks behind it.

The cultural position occupied by clowns has also shaped their perceived scariness. While early clowns were typically adult entertainment, the growing popularity of clowns among children in the United States ironically contributed to the appropriation of the clown as a horror character. A figure normally associated with innocent children provides a potentially more shocking and disturbing form of evil for horror media.

Historical Figures

Sources often point to two historical clowns whose personas contributed to the widespread impression that clowns could be sinister, depressed, or nefarious. Joseph "Joey" Grimaldi was among Great Britain’s most popular entertainers during the early years of the nineteenth century. He is credited with creating the now-standard clown face of white greasepaint with bright red cheeks—a look that allowed his facial features to be seen from the furthest reaches of the performance halls. Because of his celebrity, audiences were intimately familiar with the tragic details of Grimaldi’s personal life: an abusive father, a wife who died in childbirth, an alcoholic son, and markedly poor health thanks to the rigors of being a traveling entertainer. Famed novelist Charles Dickens edited Grimaldi’s 1838 memoir, further cementing the image of the sad clown who must nonetheless wear a false smile into the public imagination.

Jean-Gaspard Deburau, a French clown who lived at about the same time as Grimaldi, also contributed greatly to clowning’s dark image. Deburau was known for performing as Pierrot, a stock figure from Italy’s commedia dell’arte tradition, who wears whiteface, loosely fitting pantaloons, and small, conical hat. In 1836 he killed a boy by hitting him with his cane. Although Deburau was acquitted of the murder, in part because the boy was reportedly taunting him, he introduced the idea of the murderous clown.

Frightening Clowns in Modern Culture

The 1978 arrest of real-life serial killer John Wayne Gacy provided ample fodder for nightmares, even to those not prone to coulrophobia. Before his capture, Gacy, who had raped and murdered dozens of boys and young men, burying most of them in his home’s crawlspace, had frequently entertained as a clown at children’s birthday parties. Chillingly, he told detectives during a widely quoted interview that "clowns can get away with murder." In prison, prior to his 1994 execution, he painted dozens of self portraits—most depicting him dressed as his clown alter ego, Pogo.

Media coverage of Gacy, dubbed the "Killer Clown" by the press, seemed to open the floodgates for depictions of horrifying clowns in popular culture. Although there had been earlier fictional clown criminals, such as the fugitive in the 1952 film The Greatest Show on Earth, the 1980s saw clowns become a standard of the horror genre. In 1982, for example, Steven Spielberg’s film Poltergeist featured a clown doll that comes to life and tries to drag a child under the bed. The 1986 novel It by Stephen King introduced a demon who assumed the shape of Pennywise the Dancing Clown in order to lure children into its clutches. 1988 saw the successful B movie Killer Klowns from Outer Space. In 1990, It was made into a blockbuster television miniseries with actor Tim Curry portraying Pennywise, whom many adult coultrophobes cite as the genesis of their condition.

The following decades saw dozens of other films and television series depicting terrifying clowns. Examples include the aptly named Fear of Clowns (2004) and the fourth season of the popular show American Horror Story, which premiered in 2014 and featured a clown with rotting, oversized teeth and black lips named Twisty.

Experts have pointed out that as such depictions become the norm, cases of coulrophobia will inevitably increase in number. The rise of coulrophobia has also been cited as one cause for the decline in popularity of professional clowning.

Bibliography

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