Why are clowns so scary?

[ChippySauce]

I was looking for an article when I scrolled past a post with a clown image (so didn't even read it) and I physically recoiled!
I have no known past incidents in connection so just what is it about clowns that is so terrifying?

There must be something to it because I also dislike pantomime dames and definitely scared of ventriloquist dummies 😬

@Elderflower14 omg that sounds terrifying! Halloween is awful when big hulking teenagers dress up in horror movie outfits, never mind grown adults!

I don't know why but they are!

“thank you, I'll read that later.”

It’s an interesting article.

Rather horrible clown picture to get past first though 😱

Oh no! Really! 🙈

Clowns don't bother me at all, but people in gorilla costumes frighten the absolute giblets out of me.

It's that bloody film that made people look at them differently

Thé custard pies don’t help.

It’s fine- gave me a laugh… and a shudder… 😬🤣

I remember learning about them at school and it seemed to me that the traditional actors became their clown character all the time and lost their original personal identity.

So they are the clown all the time. That freaks me out.

What I also hate is comedians, modern day clowns if you like, who are always a character but never themselves. They can never just be themselves or talk about anything normally, it has to be a joke or a pretence.

It's the idea of putting on a act all the time. It's all fakery, dishonest, untrustworthy and insecure.

Stephen King didn't help at all.
I think it's partly their larger than life buffoonery, their loudness and breaking of boundaries. I used to dread the thought of them coming up and squirting me with those stupid plastic flowers when I was little.
My DC was similarly terrified by someone in a Pudsey bear suit who was at some sports centre and waylaying innocent civilians as we went in. I was about ready to punch him but luckily he went and bothered someone else.

@ChippySauce

"It's so weird as I don't go about my day to day making sure I avoid them"

Sorry this made me chuckle. It sounds like you bump into clowns left right and centre!

I've no issue with clowns which is good as I worked with many.

I’m not autistic or anything, and clowns have always given me the willies. I find their faces sinister. There was a film with Michael Caine years ago called Sleuth -it was brilliant, but it featured someone dressed as a clown and that aspect really gave me the shivers!

I saw an episode of The Avengers (Linda Thorson as Tara King period) when I was a kid in the 1960s that featured a homicidal clown. It scared me half to death!

I don't like clowns nor ventriloquist 's dummies. Not that struck on dolls either - played with toy animals when I was little.

"Brassed Off" is another film probably best avoided, OP.

I dislike them but don't really find them scary. The article linked upthread was interesting. I think maybe we don't really appreciate what a deep importance facial expressions have for us. We read all kinds of cues from physical mannerisms and faces, I guess it's not surprising people can feel unsafe and creeped out when they can't read someone.

I think it's the fake smile even young children and dogs can pick up it's not real and our instinct is then to be on our guard.

I find this really interesting. As a little girl I was terrified of the wolf in the Ladybird 'Little Red Riding Hood' book. But only when the wolf was dressed in the Grandmother's nightdress and bonnet. I think it was something Uncanny Valley-esque? Something non-human pretending to be human, maybe?

Far more recently, I am a member of a Facebook fashion group thing for middle aged women etc. There is a (very obviously) man who posts daily, showing himself in very poorly applied make-up and dresses. And he always has this huge, rictus grin too. I genuinely find his posts disturbing to look at (not because of the unpleasant aesthetic) but because no one else on the FB group has ever acknowledged that this person is a man.

It's that Uncanny Valley, hiding in plain sight thing again.

That'll be it 😂
Bloody good waste of pies if you ask me!

@Arraminta how very odd.
How long have you all been part of the group?

It's a huge group, thousands of members that's been going for quite a few years. I joined about 3 years ago.

And in all that time, not one person has ever mentioned it?!
Maybe you should talk about clown fashion and see if anyone bites 😳😅

It was Poltergeist for me. Still can’t watch now! I am terrified of clowns and I’m sure it was because of that film.

I don't check the FB page every day, but whenever I happen to everyone is telling him how pretty he looks, or that the dress really flatters him?