From Laughing to Screaming: The History of Clowns and Terror

Clowns are currently viewed with fear and even as potential menaces to the public, but throughout their expansive history they've played varied roles as advisers to royalty, major celebrities and children's entertainers.

Not too long ago, jugglers, balloon twisters and rubber-nose-wearing caricatures were a popular delight. Clarabell and Bozo the Clown were family-friendly characters who helped usher television to the masses. Clowns, in some form, have been around for thousands of years, some gaining legitimate fame as artists for crowd-pleasing comedic styles.

Not until the second half of the 20th century did the sinister clown became a pop culture staple. And in recent weeks, a wave of clown sightings and scares has turned grim.

Clarabell's accomplishment, though, was not only his ability to illicit wild laughter from the kids in "The Howdy Doody Show's" Peanut Gallery. Rather, like Bozo, Clarabell and the other "cute" clowns bucked a long history of clowns with a more complex, and sometimes tortured, character.

Fitting then, perhaps, that the current clown craze was first met with laughter but has devolved into substantial threats that have forced law enforcement to devote huge chunks of time to responding to troubling incidents real and perceived. For example:

• A teen in Manhattan reported being chased by a knife-wielding clown.
• Clowns in Monroe, New Jersey, were reportedly carrying knives, guns and a machete.
• A 16-year-old boy was killed in a fight over a clownish mask from the movie "Purge" in Reading, Pennsylvania.

What accounts for this blending of the cute and playful with the macabre and threatening?

Go back many, many years.

“The original clown figure, as a mythological archetype, was a trickster figure or a devil figure,” explained Benjamin Radford, deputy editor for Skeptical Inquirer and author of “Bad Clowns.”

These characters are known for their appearances as court jesters and minstrels in various forms throughout history and across cultures. According to legend, it was a jester named Yu Sze who convinced Chinese Emperor Shih Huang-Ti not to order his people to paint the Great Wall of China, averting years of deadly working conditions; comedic characters were often given more leeway than others to criticize leaders.

The modern image of clowns in white makeup is largely drawn from the performances of Joseph Grimaldi, born in the late 18th century.

Grimaldi, known as “Joey” when in his clown guise, wasn’t quite appropriate for children’s parties. According to Andrew McConnell Stott, author of “The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi,” one of the performer’s most famous songs was about a drunken street merchant.

Grimaldi’s personal life was marred by tragedy including, historians believe, severe bouts of depression. According to Stott, legend holds the performer quipped about his mental illness, “I am GRIM ALL DAY, but I make you laugh at night.” His Janus-faced life was immortalized by Charles Dickens when the author edited Grimaldi's memoirs, ossifying the dual nature and internal torment of the clown in print and history.

The mischievous and tragic origins of the clown are clear. Clowns as public menaces didn’t truly arise until the 20th century — but they needed to take a detour into the realm of juvenile entertainment before their dark transformation could be complete.

Midcentury clowns began to take on a new role: performing for children.

The role was epitomized by the need for multiple actors to portray Clarabell, the character on “Howdy Doody,” a star not only on the show of the 1950s but across the entertainment world.

Over episode after episode, he communicated only through gesture and mime. He wore baggy clothes with neck ruffles, sported oversized shoes and donned stylized hair and makeup. He was a lovable character on the iconic program who charmingly revealed his ability to speak in the show’s final episode. With tears in his eyes, he whispered: “Goodbye, kids.”

Radford, the author of “Bad Clowns,” notes that this role for clowns as children’s entertainers is unique to American culture.

“European clowns, for example, are not necessarily for kids,” he explained.

But in the United States, clowning has become nearly synonymous with children’s theater. Clowns became a prominent part of circus acts aimed at pleasing the young, especially at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Bozo, like Clarabell, emerged in the post-war television era and became a household name. Ronald McDonald appeared in the 1960s to promote his namesake fast food restaurant.

It’s John Wayne Gacy, the infamous serial killer, who marks the clown’s turn to terror. Gacy murdered and sexually assaulted more than 30 young men and teenagers in the 1970s. When he was finally captured by police, he said, “You know… clowns can get away with murder,” according to Clifford Linedecker, author of “The Man Who Killed Boys: A True Story of Mass Murder in a Chicago Suburb.”

This image of a serial-killer clown has become deeply embedded in the public consciousness. Radford contests, however, whether reality matches the myth of Gacy.

“He was actually a building contractor by trade, he wasn’t a professional clown,” Radford explained. “And also, he didn’t kill anybody as a clown.”

Gacy himself helped build up the legend. He painted portraits of himself as his clown character “Pogo” in prison and played up that part of his history. And the idea became deeply ingrained in our image of him in part because of the perverse appeal of the killer clown narrative.

“One thing that makes the bad clown an irresistible caricature is that there is a duality to them,” said Radford. “They’re scary, but they’re funny. They’re frightening, but they’re harmless. They’re sort of two sides of the same coin. And people really react to that binary duality. Humor and horror mixed into one is an irresistible package.”

In 1990, Stephen King’s book “It,” about a creature that transforms into an individual’s worst fears, became a TV miniseries and played a significant role in spreading the image of a homicidal clown in the character of “Pennywise.” Though the series didn’t start suspicion of clowns, it certainly hasn’t helped their case.

We've come to the point where benign clowns feel the need to defend themselves. On Clowns.com's website, the kids' entertainment service includes among its frequently asked questions, "Are your clowns scary?"

Sheepishly, it responds, "Our clowns are non-scary looking, they do not wear makeup(face paint), gloves or wigs. "

In a move many saw as hypocritical, King recently tweeted a defense of clowns:

Despite the unavoidable irony, however, clown hysteria is unlikely King’s fault. As Radford points out, waves of panic about scary clowns have occasionally broken out since at least the 1980s.

“The ‘scary clown thing’ has been going on for awhile. It resurfaces every few years,” he said. “Police would of course investigate, because adults [as clowns] were allegedly trying to abduct kids. But there was never any evidence found of that.”

Of course, there are real people who dress up as clowns and terrify locals, and some have been arrested. And in the age of social media, Radford points out, dangerous clown stories make for instant viral content. But it’s quite rare that they’re committing serious crimes.

So why does the fear of clowns still grip so many people?

“There’s a couple reasons people find clowns scary,” said Radford. “One of them is that they’re wearing a mask. When you don’t know who’s in front of you, it’s scary. You don’t know what their intentions are, you don’t know what they’re going to do.”

He continues: “Of course, clown costumes are garish; they’re grotesque. They’re caricatures. There’s a surreal, almost supernatural element to many of these clowns, so it’s not surprising that many kids, and many adults as well, would be scared of them.“

On top of that, the modern American idea of a clown consists of an adult entering the space and world of children, which the world has grown suspicious of.

Eventually, the current wave of clown-related incidents is likely to crest, and we’ll forget about them for a while. But the character of the evil clown has clearly tapped into something deep in our psyches, so they almost certainly won’t go away for good.

Lead photo credit: Alyssa Miller via Flickr