Page 15 - December 2020 - January 2021

Psychology of Clowns Being Scary 15

The History and

Psychology of Clowns

Being Scary

Continued from Page 14

Stott credits Dickens with watering the seeds in
popular imagination of the scary clown—he’d
even go so far as to say Dickens invented the
scary clown—by creating a figure who is
literally destroying himself to make his
audiences laugh. What Dickens did was to make
it difficult to look at a clown without wondering
what was going on underneath the make-up:
Says Stott, “It becomes impossible to
disassociate the character from the actor.” That
Dickens’s version of Grimaldi’s memoirs was
massively popular meant that this perception, of
something dark and troubled masked by humor,
would stick.

Meanwhile, on the heels of Grimaldi’s fame in during a performance. Clowns were effect. Says Stott, “Where there is mystery, it’s
Britain, the major clown figure on the Continent unsettling—and a great source for drama. supposed there must be evil, so we think, ‘What
was Jean-Gaspard Deburau’s Pierrot, a clown are you hiding?’”
with white face paint punctuated by red lips and England exported the circus and its clowns to
black eyebrows whose silent gesticulations America, where the genre blossomed; in late Most clowns aren’t hiding anything, except
delighted French audiences. Deburau was as 19th century America, the circus went from a maybe a bunch of fake flowers or a balloon
well known on the streets of Paris as Grimaldi one-ring horse act to a three-ring extravaganza animal. But again, just as in Grimaldi and
was in London, recognized even without his that travelled the country on the railways. Deburau’s day, it was what a real-life clown was
make-up. But where Grimaldi was tragic, Venues and humor changed, but images of concealing that tipped the public perception of
Deburau was sinister: In 1836, Deburau killed a troubled, sad, tragic clowns remained—Emmett clowns. Because this time, rather than a tragic
boy with a blow from his walking stick after the Kelly, for example, was the most famous of the or even troubled figure under the slap and
youth shouted insults at him on the street (he American “hobo” clowns, the sad-faced men motley, there was something much darker
was ultimately acquitted of the murder). So the with five o’clock shadows and tattered clothes lurking.
two biggest clowns of the early modern who never smiled, but who were nonetheless
clowning era were troubled men underneath that hilarious. Kelly’s “Weary Willie” was born of Even as Bozo was cavorting on sets across
face-paint. actual tragedy: The break-up of his marriage America, a more sinister clown was plying his
and America’s sinking financial situation in the craft across the Midwest. John Wayne Gacy’s
After Grimaldi and Deburau’s heyday, 1930s. public face was a friendly, hard-working guy; he
pantomime and theatrical traditions changed; was also a registered clown who entertained at
clowning largely left the theater for the Clowns had a sort of heyday in America with community events under the name Pogo. But
relatively new arena of the circus. The circus the television age and children’s entertainers between 1972 and 1978, he sexually assaulted
got its start in the mid-1760s with British like Clarabell the Clown, Howdy Doody’s silent and killed more than 35 young men in the
entrepreneur Philip Astley’s equestrian shows, partner, and Bozo the Clown. Bozo, by the mid- Chicago area. “You know… clowns can get
exhibitions of “feats of horsemanship” in a 1960s, was the beloved host of a hugely away with murder,” he told investigating
circular arena. These trick riding shows soon popular, internationally syndicated children’s officers, before his arrest.
began attracting other performers; along with show – there was a 10-year wait for tickets to
the jugglers, trapeze artists, and acrobats, came his show. In 1963, McDonald’s brought out Gacy didn’t get away with it—he was found
clowns. By the mid-19th century, clowns had Ronald McDonald, the Hamburger-Happy guilty of 33 counts of murder and was executed
become a sort of “hybrid Grimaldian Clown, who’s been a brand ambassador ever in 1994. But he’d become identified as the
personality [that] fit in much more with the sort since (although heavy is the head that wears the “Killer Clown,” a handy sobriquet for
of general, overall less-nuanced style of red wig – in 2011, health activists claimed that newspaper reports that hinged on the
clowning in the big top,” explains Stott. he, like Joe Camel did for smoking, was unexpectedness of his killing. And bizarrely,
promoting an unhealthy lifestyle for children; Gacy seemed to revel in his clown persona:
Clowns were comic relief from the thrills and McDonald’s didn’t ditch Ronald, but he has While in prison, he began painting; many of his
chills of the daring circus acts, an anarchic been seen playing a lot more soccer). paintings were of clowns, some self-portraits of
presence that complimented the precision of the him as Pogo.
acrobats or horse riders. At the same time, their But this heyday also heralded a real change in
humor necessarily became broader—the clowns what a clown was. Before the early 20th (Continued on Page 16)
had more space to fill, so their movements and century, there was little expectation that clowns
actions needed to be more obvious. But had to be an entirely unadulterated symbol of
clowning was still very much tinged with dark fun, frivolity, and happiness; pantomime
hilarity: French literary critic Edmond de clowns, for example, were characters who had Kal’s Korner
Goncourt, writing in 1876, says, “[T]he clown’s more adult-oriented story lines. But clowns Radio Show
art is now rather terrifying and full of anxiety were now almost solely children’s with
and apprehension, their suicidal feats, their entertainment. Once their made-up persona
monstrous gesticulations and frenzied mimicry became more associated with children, and Kal Korff
reminding one of the courtyard of a lunatic therefore an expectation of innocence, it made
asylum.” Then there’s the 1892 Italian opera, whatever the make-up might conceal all the To Listen To Past Episodes
Pagliacci (Clowns), in which the cuckolded more frightening—creating a tremendous mine CLICK HERE!
main character, an actor of the Grimaldian for artists, filmmakers, writers and creators of
clown mold, murders his cheating wife on stage popular culture to gleefully exploit to terrifying