Clowns
Lon Chaney, Sr.: "There is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight."
An extreme fear of clowns is known as coulrophobia.
It has been said that the character of a clown depends upon where it is seen. A clown at a circus could be funny in this context, but that same clown lurking in an alley way or outside your window late at night is decidedly less funny.
The image of the evil clown appears to have gained notoriety to the extent of becoming a cliché.
Some major examples of "evil clown" imagery are to be found in movies and television:
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.
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).
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 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.
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 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 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 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.
In the Victor Salva film Clownhouse, lunatics murder three circus clowns: Cheezo, Bippo, and Dippo, and assume their identities while terrorizing children.
The movies Xtro, Killjoy, S.I.C.K. Serial Insane Clown Killer, Fear of Clowns and Mr. Jingles all feature evil 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 the Simpson's episode, Lisa's First Word, Homer makes Bart a clown-themed bed, but due to the shoddy work, looks evil. In Bart's nightmare, it says "If you should die before you wake..." and chuckles insanely. The next day, baby Bart is curled up on the couch, chanting "Can't sleep. Clown will eat me."
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 Doctor Who, the Doctor's companion Ace is established as having a fear of clowns.
In Life on Mars, Sam Tyler is haunted by the Test Pattern Girl and her clown.
and finally,
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.)
