I’ve never liked clowns, but wasn’t actively afraid of them. As a kid I watched Denver Channel Two’s kids’ show, Blinky the Clown, and didn’t particularly like him. I always had the feeling he wasn’t crazy about kids. I remember his honey-dripping voice when he talked about birthdays, and he was frequently shown visiting kids in hospitals, so I’m sure he was a wonderful guy. But he was a clown. He had makeup all over his face and you couldn’t read his emotions because of it.

The clowns at the circus jumped around a lot, filling up cars, tumbling over each other like maniacs. Little prig that I was, I couldn’t figure out why what they were doing was supposed to be funny.

As you can probably tell from the pictures here, I underwent a change in attitude toward clowns thanks to reading/seeing some highly disturbing stories about them. And I’m not alone. Many adults dislike clowns now. Just the other day I read an alert about clowns being chased out of neighborhoods. My first response to that was, What the hell are clowns doing in neighborhoods?

For me, the drawback to clowns is the same I felt as a kid: you can’t assess their intent because they hide themselves behind makeup and costumes. Call me paranoid, but that’s a deal-breaker.

I’ve attached a link to an interesting article from The Washington Post titled “Why Clowns Creep Us Out.” Author Frank T. McAndrew, psychologist, gives plenty of reasons why those of us who are creeped out by clowns can make our cases for it. The portion about “The Phantom Clown Theory” is especially interesting.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Why+Clowns+Creep+Us+Out&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 Frank T. McAndrew

Have you ever noticed how few children have clown costumes for trick-or-treating? They know what they know.

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