SEND IN THE CLOWNS

Many people now claim to be 'scared' of clowns. It's all the rage these days. If someone on a site such as deviantart post one of these horror type clown pictures, you're sure to get someone commenting that clowns have always terrified them. Personally, I don't buy it. I weren't hearing any such phobias voiced prior to Stephen King's 'IT'. Now you have that popular movie [and book] and a slew of entertainment programs on television and in film portraying the evil clown archetype. Even in comics, as I gathered from the Spawn film [which was an adaptation of the comic]. Clowns for me are not scary. They are idiots, and can be seen as quite pathetic sometimes, but not scary. Much like a 'happy' drunk, as opposed to a wife beating bastard alcoholic.

I saw a clown in a 'proper' circus once, when I was in my early teens. He was doing his skit, and I did laugh. He did the bit where he pulled a tablecloth from under a well arranged tea set. After the timely audience applause, he then picked up the table and walked away, revealing the tea set to be attached by string to the table. Not original, but well done. But that was a professional. Most clowns are just dumb guys wearing a clown suit trying to make some change from children's parties.That's the harsh reality of clowns. Gone are the Chaplin wannabes.