Evil clown
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The image of the evil clown is a recent development in American popular culture in which the playful trope of the clown is rendered as disturbing through the use of horror elements and dark humor.
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[edit] Background
Many people find clowns disturbing rather than amusing. Many children are afraid of disguised, exaggerated, or costumed figures — even Santa Claus. Clown costumes tend to exaggerate the facial features and some body parts, such as hands and feet. This can be read as monstrous or deformed as easily as it can be read as comical. At the same time, the clown act is often represented as drunken, reckless, or simply insane — that of the giggling maniac. This includes the notorious Canio who murdered Nedda and Silvio (recorded in Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci.)
An extreme fear of clowns is known as coulrophobia.
It can also be said one's response to a clown might depend on where it's seen. At a circus or a party, a clown is normal and one may find a clown funny. The same clown knocking on one's front door late one evening is more likely to generate fear or distress than laughter or amusement. This effect is summed up in a quote often attributed to actor Lon Chaney, Sr.: "There is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight."
The idea of an evil clown can also be used in comedy. Since a clown is supposed to be funny, it is considered ironic if a clown has nothing whatsoever funny about him. Thus, a clown that is not funny can be hilarious.
[edit] John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy, (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer. He was convicted and later executed for the rape and murder of 33 boys and men, 27 of whom he buried in a crawl space under the floor of his house, while others were found in nearby rivers, between 1972 and his arrest in 1978. He became notorious as the "Killer Clown" because of the many block parties he attended, entertaining children in a clown suit and makeup, under the name of Pogo the Clown.
The wide publicity of Gacy's crimes is often presumed to have a strong influence on the idea of an evil clown.
[edit] The evil clown in popular culture
The image of the evil clown appears to have gained notoriety to the extent of becoming a cliché.
Major examples of "evil clown" imagery are:
- In the popular anime Yu-Gi-Oh!, the monster "Saggi the Dark Clown" was a clown that had a habit of cackling wickedly upon being summoned.
- In the tv show Ace Lightning, one of lord fear's assitants is a clown.
- In the Beatles' animated film Yellow Submarine, large clowns serve as artillery for the Blue Meanies.
- Pennywise in Stephen King's 1986 novel It, and the made-for-TV movie based on the book.
- The Clowns are a sadistic rival motorcycle gang in Katsuhiro Ôtomo's 1988 anime Akira, and Ôtomo's original manga that he based it on.
- Musical groups such as the Insane Clown Posse, Twiztid, Dangerous Toys, and Shawn "Clown" Crahan of Slipknot who impersonate clowns in a "creepy" manner.
- Papa Lazarou of BBC sitcom, The League of Gentlemen, the Wife-stealing Circus Master of the Pandemonium Carnival. Papa Lazarou's specific make-up, however, has greater resemblance to a minstrel's.
- Yucko the Clown, a frequent guest on the Howard Stern show, is a racist clown who claims to be a registered sex offender. In addition to his racist jokes, he prides himself on never washing his clown costume and his rank odor.
- Koko the Killer Clown, a featured attraction at a sideshow on Coney Island. [1]
- In Living Color featured Homey D. Clown, a short-tempered ex-con drug-addict with a violent brand of comedy.
- The sci fi movie Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988).
- The Joker who is the greatest enemy of Batman, is a murderously insane supervillain with a disturbing clown-like appearance. Appeared in Batman #1 (1940), three decades before John Wayne Gacy.
- "Kinko The Clown", a song about a "kid loving" clown inspired by Gacy.[2]
- The clown doll in the first of the Poltergeist movies, which becomes possessed by a ghost and attempts to strangle a young boy.
- In "Treehouse of Horror", a parody of Trilogy of Terror, Homer Simpson purchased a talking Krusty the Klown doll which attempted to kill him because a switch in the toy's back was set to "evil."
- Zombie clowns who drowned in a circus train accident return to eat the living in Dead Clowns, a low-budget horror movie made in the US and released in the UK in 2003.
- The Chief Clown (Ian Reddington) in the 1988 Doctor Who serial The Greatest Show in the Galaxy is a high-voiced maniac assassin with an army of robot clowns. He drove a hearse. Sinister clown imagery had previously appeared in the programme in The Celestial Toymaker and The Deadly Assassin.
- The Star Trek: Voyager episode "The Thaw" features a mocking clown (Michael McKean) who presides over a Poe-influenced virtual reality kingdom. He feeds on the fear of those wired into the VR, and is determined to keep them under his power.
- Doink the Clown, the stage name of a professional wrestler of the 1990s. He wrestled in clown costume and makeup, but for the most part portrayed a heel, one who wrestles in an unsportsmanlike manner. He also had an evil twin who came from underneath the ring at WrestleMania IX.
- Buggy the Clown, a villainous clown pirate captain with supernatural powers, from the One Piece manga and anime.
- The serial killer clown named Sweet Tooth from Sony's video game series, Twisted Metal.
- The clown doll in the video game Alone in the Dark 2, which gets animated and kills by strangling. It is very probably based on Poltergeist.
- Khan the assassin in the adventure game Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars; he is dressed as a clown playing accordion who bombs a French café in the beginning.
- The Evil Clown of Middletown, a giant metal sign in Middletown Township, New Jersey from an aborted grocery store.
- In the Spawn comics, the demon, Violator uses the human form of a fat clown called Clown.
- Superman has faced a villainous fat clown named Tringle in some comic issues.
- The character Piemon (Piedmon in the English version) from the first TV series of the Digimon animated TV series, Digimon Adventure.
- In the PS2 RPG Dark Cloud 2, an evil clown known as Flotsam pursues the hero with the aid of a giant clown robot called Halloween and an army of knife-wielding clowns.
- Mega Man (Rockman) has fought a robot master called Clown Man and an unnamed fat robot clown whose head was badly attached. Later, in the Mega Man Battle Network series, Mega Man fights against two clown-themed Navis: ColorMan (known as WackoMan in the American dub of the game-based anime), and CircusMan.
- In the arcade game Tumblepop, the first boss (in the Russia levels) is a giant clown held by balloons who juggles with bombs.
- In the arcade game CarnEvil the player must fight many varieties of undead clowns and is frequently taunted by a disembodied clown's head.
- Coco Demento, one of the students in ¡Mucha Lucha!, has the appearance of an evil clown, and was even shown as a bad guy in his first appearance. Afterwards, though, he is not considered a villain by the rest of the cast, in spite of his practical jokes. It was later revealed that he once hung out with some really evil clowns whom he is now afraid of.
- Mr. Giggles, Mischief and Stumpy were evil Clowns in the TimeSplitters series.
- In Rockstar's Western-themed shooter Red Dead Revolver the protagonist faces off against a troupe of shotgun-wielding midget clowns early in the game.
- In Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, the residents of Halloween Town include the so-called "clown with the tear-away face," a hideous, seemingly undead clown.
- In the cartoon The Powerpuff Girls, the girls meet a jolly clown in multicolor attire nicknamed Rainbow the Clown. He later gets splashed by bleach, which turns his appearance black and white, makes him insanely evil, and gives him the power to turn anything he touches into black and white, becoming Mr. Mime. Although he turns back to normal at the end of the episode, the girls still beat him up, an act which offended many viewers. Apparently he was set free, as he is seen in latter episodes in crew shots.
- A recurring villain on Teamo Supremo is The Birthday Bandit, a clown outraged with having gone through poor birthdays himself and intent on ruining other people's birthdays.
- In the movie Scary Movie 2, an evil clown attacked Ray, the gay black man. This is another parody of both the evil toy clown scene in Poltergeist and Pennywise from It.
- A clown doll in the first Ghoulies movie is possessed by Ghoulie in the end.
- In the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "The Clowning", the ATHF's neighbor Carl gets a wig containing alien clown DNA, which gradually transforms him (and later Meatwad) into a clown.
- In an early episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Rita Repulsa's Pineoctopus Monster takes the form of Pineapple the Clown. He would appear again during a PSA.
- In the movie Saw and its sequels, the antagonist sends a clown-like doll on a bicycle to deliver macabre messages to his victims.
- The character of Captain Spaulding in the Rob Zombie directed films House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects.
- Rudy the Clown, a grotesque-looking clown is the main enemy in the Game Boy Color game Wario Land 3
- In the Victor Salva film Clownhouse, lunatics murder three circus clowns: Cheezo, Bippo, and Dippo, and assume their identities while terrorizing children.
- In the manga series Angel Sanctuary, the demon Belial appears in makeup and attire similar to that of a clown or mime.
- Frenchy the Clown, star of Evil Clown Comics, a recurring feature in National Lampoon magazine in the late 1980s and early 1990s, first appearing in the June 1988 issue.
- Kefka Palazzo, the main villain of the SNES game Final Fantasy VI, wears face paint and clothing reminiscent of a clown.
- Phillipe (a circus clown) is the boss of the England area in the SNES game Final Fight 2.
- The movies Xtro, Killjoy, S.I.C.K. Serial Insane Clown Killer, Fear of Clowns and Mr. Jingles all feature evil clowns.
- Freako the Clown is a nemisis in the Mighty Max episode 'Clown without Pity'
- The Anubis Gates, a book by Tim Powers, features Horrabin as one of its villains. Horrabin's a sewer gang leader with clown make-up and he also walks on stilts.
- Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children Vol. 1, issue 1, a comic book put out in the late 1980s by Piranha Press, tells the tale of several clowns who are suspected of burning down the bigtop, go on a weekend drinking binge with a two-headed woman and some poodles in a stolen car, and get into fights with mimes and bikers before the story is resolved.
- Doctor Whiteface, the head of the Ankh-Morpork Guild of Fools in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels is a sinister, and possibly evil, clown, described as "the one who never gets in the way of the custard", and terrifying even to other clowns.
- In the movie Batman Returns, the Penguin's henchmen are a street gang known as the Red Triangle, formerly a traveling circus act. The gang has a circus theme, most members being clowns.
- In Dexter's Laboratory, an episode parodies werewolf lore, but instead of a wolf, Dexter is bitten by and transforms into a clown, and causes mayhem throughout the city.
- The villains in Dean Koontz's novel Life Expectancy are the homicidal clown Konrad Beezo and his son, Punchinello.
- In the game Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, the main villain is a psychopathic clown going by the name of Dhoulmagus.
- An Extreme Ghostbusters episode called Killjoys feature paranormal clowns that feed on laughter. Whenever a person laughs, a long green tentacle comes out of the clowns' mouth and sucks the victim up leaving only their clothes behind. The faces of the victims appear on the clowns' hands.
- In Nintendo's "Super Punch Out!" one of the opponents on the world circus is named Mad Clown. He wears a clown costume in the ring and often attacks by throwing juggled balls.
- Ouchy the Clown, purveyor of "Adult Clown Services." [3]
- In Capcom's "Dead Rising", one of the Psychopath bosses you face is an insane, dual chainsaw-wielding clown named Adam.
- An episode of Kirby: Right Back at Ya! that didn't make it to the United States until Season 4 of the English dub features a psycho clown named Whippy as the monster of that episode, and the 3rd-to-last monster the Cloaked Nightmare sent on Kirby. He is the head of the Majuu school, and after being downloaded by King Dedede to help tame a rampaging and cowardly Phan Phan, he goes over to hypnotize Phan Phan and rides on his head, chasing after Kirby with his whip as well as endless supplies of spiked balls from Phan Phan's trunk. He is defeated later by Throw Kirby. Also, the four leaders of the Monster Training School are evil clowns.
- Marx from Kirby Super Star is also considered an evil clown.
- Canio, main character in Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci, a Commedia Dell'Arte performer who, after discovering his wife Nedda's infidelity, murders both her and her lover Silvio while on stage as Pagliaccio (clown.)
- In 2000, Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights event created their first advertising icon named Jack Schmidt, an evil clown and mass murderer who spent years on the circuit of sideshows, luring small children and women to their deaths through his circus acts. He was brought back in 2001 and 2006.
- In Ben 10 an evil clown feeds on humans laughter and leads an evil band of circus freaks.
- In the TV series Are You Afraid of the Dark?, an episode features Zeebo the clown, a cigar-smoking clown-ghost haunting a fun-house. Zeebo is mentioned again in several other episodes. Also, one episode features the "Crimson Clown", a doll that haunts children who lie or steal.
Examples of Clown fears:
- Macho Man Randy Savage is said to have a weakness to clowns. He compared it to Superman and Kryptonite.
- The animated series The Simpsons; see "Can't sleep, clown will eat me." (Later used as the basis for an Alice Cooper song.)
- In the animated series Johnny Bravo, Johnny fears very little with the possible exception of clowns. In one episode, there was one on the wing of the plane in which he and his mother were flying.
- In the animated series Rugrats, Chuckie Finster is deathly afraid of clowns.
- The animated series Animaniacs; in the episode "Clown and Out" it is revealed that the characters Wakko and Thaddeus Plotz have severe cases of "clownophobia."
- In the sitcom Seinfeld, Cosmo Kramer had a recurring fear of clowns which was most prominent when the psychotic "Crazy" Joe Davola, who was after him, was wearing a clown suit as a disguise.
- In the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xander Harris is revealed to have a childhood fear of clowns in the Season one episode, "Nightmares."
- In the animated series The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Billy had a fear of clowns (which results in him continually screaming that they're going to "DES-TUH-ROY US ALL!!"), but later grew to just hate them.
- The clown doll pictured on the BBC's Test Card F has been found to be an object of fear for some [4]
- On an episode of Family Guy (Petergeist), Chris Griffin is cowering in his bed and says "I wish that scary clown at the end of my bed would go away!" The scene cuts to the end of his bed where Ronald McDonald is casually sitting in a chair and draws a pair of golden arches in mid-air. Chris screams.
- In the TV series Monk, the title character claims to have a fear of clowns. He does, however, possess multiple phobias and anxieties.
- In the TV series Living Single, John Henton's character, Overton, displays a distinct fear of clowns.
- In Doctor Who, the Doctor's companion Ace is established as having a fear of clowns, even before the events of The Greatest Show In The Galaxy.
- In the television show "Supernatural" Sam has a fear of clowns
