5 ms·

As someone afraid of clowns, this is a catastrophic failure of clown containment.

loloquwowndueo 4y ago
Coulrophobes of the world, unite !
rightbyte 4y ago
I always wonder what triggers that. Were you like scared by a mean clown as a child? Or was it just like that without any stimuli? I mean many children are scared of Santa due to it being a stranger in their house but I see no adults say they are scared of Santa.
- kej 4y ago
  Reminds me of Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey from Saturday Night Live: To me, clowns aren’t funny. In fact, they’re kind of scary. I’ve wondered where this started and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus, and a clown killed my dad.
- cushychicken 4y ago
  Dunno for sure, I've always found them creepy and repulsive. I do recall flipping through the channels as a child and coming across one of the scarier scenes from It. That might have some bearing on this.
- blowski 4y ago
  What causes fear of clowns? Probably the prevalence of both evil clowns (John Wayne Gacy, Stephen King's It, the recent Evil Clown meme). That, and the prevalence of the fear of clowns.
- sdwr 4y ago
  For me, it's a "man behind the mask" thing. Clowns play big, with exaggerated expressions and responses. The incongruence between the acting and the person behind the acting wigs me out.
  - AlanYx 4y ago
    That's what it is for me. I also get the same feeling from certain common manga/anime drawing styles (e.g., "moe") with exaggerated eyes and exaggerated responses, despite moe apparently being seen to be cute by most people. (I get this feeling especially strongly from styles where no nose is drawn.)
    - atlasunshrugged 4y ago
      Moe from the Simpsons? I thought the running bit was that he was considered ugly?
      - AlanYx 4y ago
        No, "moe" in the Japanese sense. Typically, a petite face, large eyes dominated by enormous black pupils, etc. The way it makes me feel is a little like the response evoked by the movie Coraline, which used dolls with big black button eyes and no noses to evoke a queasy kind of horror-lite response. It doesn't have to be large features though, it can be exaggerated small ones too. For example, Art the Clown has a small black dot on the tip of his otherwise white nose. It's unsettling.
  - theonething 4y ago
    That makes sense though in this case, if you look at the banner video on the homepage, none of them are wearing masks, just some light makeup. So perhaps that will make it better for any coulrophobics in the audience.
- registeredcorn 4y ago
  For me, it is highly dependent on the context. If I see a clown in the midst of a performance, it's fine. It feels "right". You're kind of far away from where they are, and them wearing colorful clothes and strange makeup makes sense because it helps a large crowd see their movements a bit easier. It's the "home" of the clown. If I see a clown doing anything mundane, or just not actively "on" performing in front of a crowd it feels repulsive and weird. Clown just walking down the street? Horrible. Taking pictures with a group of people? Gross. It feels unnatural. It's like the hairy child vomiting photo. [1] The worst is if I see a clown eating or smoking. A clown is a mechanism of performance and entertainment. For them to be "merely human", to be doing something relaxing evokes a kind of juxtaposition that leads to a kind of horror and disgust I can't quite describe. It's like walking down the road and coming across a Silverback Gorilla casually sipping a cup of coffee, reading the newspaper - it's an incongruity. Also, I'm pretty sure the initial spark for my weirdness with clowns started with The Simpsons. [2] [1] https://www.trendzified.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/what-the-1.jpg https://www.trendzified.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/what-... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZcfGRroiaA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZcfGRroiaA
- stronglikedan 4y ago
  I always thought it was a joke, until I met someone that was genuinely afflicted by it. On the plus side, it's really fun to go through haunted houses with them around Halloween.
- smilbandit 4y ago
  for me it was a hobo clown painting in the family room whose eyes always followed me as a child. told my parents it was scary but it never came down, i just assumed it had a lock on my parents souls or something.
- dwringer 4y ago
  I tried making a clown using stable diffusion one day by blending 3 different clown-generating prompts together, and the result that came out was a horrifyingly grotesque inhuman monster. I've never had that happen just blending prompts together to make normal people. The clown makeup screws with how their faces are embedded or something. It ended up with Giger-esque multiple sets of teeth. I can only assume there's a similar phenomenon going on in peoples' imagination.
- heavyset_go 4y ago
  Clowns don't bother me, but I think it might be an uncanny valley thing. Clowns have exaggerated human features, ones that could be grotesque if they were real. I think that means they can share an element with body horror, which does bother me.
amerine 4y ago
I enjoyed this chuckle… and I agree!
nimbius 4y ago
on the contrary, Ive found it an incredible validation of the Clowns with out Borders effort in its entirety. Circuses, parties, TV, movies, war zones, my nightmares, you name it...clowns can always reach it.
- cushychicken 4y ago
  The Mossad must be green with envy.
DonHopkins 4y ago
Are you a mime??? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5srwCNx2Ti0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5srwCNx2Ti0
- TomK32 4y ago
  Where can we support Mimes with Borders?
  - Forgeties79 4y ago
    Don't they make their own?
    - DonHopkins 4y ago
      The perfect murder is to trap a mime inside a real glass box, in the park where everyone can watch him desperately try to get out while horribly suffocating.
      - Forgeties79 4y ago
        Well that certainly took a turn!
      - SuoDuanDao 4y ago
        https://www.flickr.com/photos/46325890@N05/9845057656 https://www.flickr.com/photos/46325890@N05/9845057656 Edit- higher resolution pic: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/344736546477294864/ https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/344736546477294864/
      - krapp 4y ago
        A mime is a terrible thing to waste.
      - somedangedname 4y ago
        See also the death on stage of Tommy Cooper: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x37dxyk https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x37dxyk
racl101 4y ago
I really don't get coulrophobia. I get the fear of crazy looking ones like Pennywise, but how is that different from the fear of any non-clown maniac with a crazy look on their face and intent to murder? You could put a guy in a Pluto (Goofy's dog) costume with a serial killer grin on his face wielding a machete and I'd be just as scared. I will say thought that as an adult perhaps a dislike for clowns cause they're terribly unfunny is logical. Cause someone trying hard to make you laugh especially through slapstick humor rarely works out. But I'm sticking to the fear definition of phobia and not dislike definition. But a fear of all clowns just cause .... I don't get it.
- qorrect 4y ago
  > ... I don't get it. That's thing with irrational fears.
- shagie 4y ago
  (I don't have coulrophobia) The distortion of the facial expressions can make it harder to read and that can cause anxiety in some. Consider the other extreme - https://twitter.com/SchrebersSister/status/1187273051949408256/photo/2 https://twitter.com/SchrebersSister/status/11872730519494082... and that the distortion or the lack of features can be anxiety provoking. If the clown face is always happy, or always sad, even if the person shouldn't be. Are they looking at you, can you track where they are looking? Are their eyes open or closed? The facial recognition wiring in the brain could be sending "I don't know what to do with this" signals to the rest of the consciousness and that's leading to the corresponding anxiety that then manifests as a fear of clowns. --- Tangent of tangent that I was reminded of: Using AI to Find Where Clowns End and Juggalos Begin - https://medium.com/@nhoral/using-ai-to-find-where-clowns-end-and-juggalos-begin-3afbc04c5c55 https://medium.com/@nhoral/using-ai-to-find-where-clowns-end... ICP doesn't just stand for IBM Cloud Private.
  - racl101 4y ago
    Water! Fire! Air and Earth! F-ing magnets? How do they Work? And I don't wanna talk to no scientist! Y'all are lying and getting me pissed!
birdyrooster 4y ago
True, but these children have real problems and don’t have the luxury to concoct feelings of grief by other people’s peaceful self expression. I think it’s a win.
peterp77 4y ago
[dead]

Coulrophobes of the world, unite !

I always wonder what triggers that. Were you like scared by a mean clown as a child? Or was it just like that without any stimuli? I mean many children are scared of Santa due to it being a stranger in their house but I see no adults say they are scared of Santa.

kej 4y ago
Reminds me of Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey from Saturday Night Live: To me, clowns aren’t funny. In fact, they’re kind of scary. I’ve wondered where this started and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus, and a clown killed my dad.
cushychicken 4y ago
Dunno for sure, I've always found them creepy and repulsive. I do recall flipping through the channels as a child and coming across one of the scarier scenes from It. That might have some bearing on this.
blowski 4y ago
What causes fear of clowns? Probably the prevalence of both evil clowns (John Wayne Gacy, Stephen King's It, the recent Evil Clown meme). That, and the prevalence of the fear of clowns.
sdwr 4y ago
For me, it's a "man behind the mask" thing. Clowns play big, with exaggerated expressions and responses. The incongruence between the acting and the person behind the acting wigs me out.
- AlanYx 4y ago
  That's what it is for me. I also get the same feeling from certain common manga/anime drawing styles (e.g., "moe") with exaggerated eyes and exaggerated responses, despite moe apparently being seen to be cute by most people. (I get this feeling especially strongly from styles where no nose is drawn.)
  - atlasunshrugged 4y ago
    Moe from the Simpsons? I thought the running bit was that he was considered ugly?
    - AlanYx 4y ago
      No, "moe" in the Japanese sense. Typically, a petite face, large eyes dominated by enormous black pupils, etc. The way it makes me feel is a little like the response evoked by the movie Coraline, which used dolls with big black button eyes and no noses to evoke a queasy kind of horror-lite response. It doesn't have to be large features though, it can be exaggerated small ones too. For example, Art the Clown has a small black dot on the tip of his otherwise white nose. It's unsettling.
- theonething 4y ago
  That makes sense though in this case, if you look at the banner video on the homepage, none of them are wearing masks, just some light makeup. So perhaps that will make it better for any coulrophobics in the audience.
registeredcorn 4y ago
For me, it is highly dependent on the context. If I see a clown in the midst of a performance, it's fine. It feels "right". You're kind of far away from where they are, and them wearing colorful clothes and strange makeup makes sense because it helps a large crowd see their movements a bit easier. It's the "home" of the clown. If I see a clown doing anything mundane, or just not actively "on" performing in front of a crowd it feels repulsive and weird. Clown just walking down the street? Horrible. Taking pictures with a group of people? Gross. It feels unnatural. It's like the hairy child vomiting photo. [1] The worst is if I see a clown eating or smoking. A clown is a mechanism of performance and entertainment. For them to be "merely human", to be doing something relaxing evokes a kind of juxtaposition that leads to a kind of horror and disgust I can't quite describe. It's like walking down the road and coming across a Silverback Gorilla casually sipping a cup of coffee, reading the newspaper - it's an incongruity. Also, I'm pretty sure the initial spark for my weirdness with clowns started with The Simpsons. [2] [1] https://www.trendzified.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/what-the-1.jpg https://www.trendzified.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/what-... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZcfGRroiaA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZcfGRroiaA
stronglikedan 4y ago
I always thought it was a joke, until I met someone that was genuinely afflicted by it. On the plus side, it's really fun to go through haunted houses with them around Halloween.
smilbandit 4y ago
for me it was a hobo clown painting in the family room whose eyes always followed me as a child. told my parents it was scary but it never came down, i just assumed it had a lock on my parents souls or something.
dwringer 4y ago
I tried making a clown using stable diffusion one day by blending 3 different clown-generating prompts together, and the result that came out was a horrifyingly grotesque inhuman monster. I've never had that happen just blending prompts together to make normal people. The clown makeup screws with how their faces are embedded or something. It ended up with Giger-esque multiple sets of teeth. I can only assume there's a similar phenomenon going on in peoples' imagination.
heavyset_go 4y ago
Clowns don't bother me, but I think it might be an uncanny valley thing. Clowns have exaggerated human features, ones that could be grotesque if they were real. I think that means they can share an element with body horror, which does bother me.

amerine 4y ago

I enjoyed this chuckle… and I agree!

nimbius 4y ago

on the contrary, Ive found it an incredible validation of the Clowns with out Borders effort in its entirety. Circuses, parties, TV, movies, war zones, my nightmares, you name it...clowns can always reach it.

cushychicken 4y ago
The Mossad must be green with envy.

DonHopkins 4y ago

Are you a mime??? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5srwCNx2Ti0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5srwCNx2Ti0

TomK32 4y ago
Where can we support Mimes with Borders?
- Forgeties79 4y ago
  Don't they make their own?
  - DonHopkins 4y ago
    The perfect murder is to trap a mime inside a real glass box, in the park where everyone can watch him desperately try to get out while horribly suffocating.
    - Forgeties79 4y ago
      Well that certainly took a turn!
    - SuoDuanDao 4y ago
      https://www.flickr.com/photos/46325890@N05/9845057656 https://www.flickr.com/photos/46325890@N05/9845057656 Edit- higher resolution pic: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/344736546477294864/ https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/344736546477294864/
    - krapp 4y ago
      A mime is a terrible thing to waste.
    - somedangedname 4y ago
      See also the death on stage of Tommy Cooper: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x37dxyk https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x37dxyk

racl101 4y ago

I really don't get coulrophobia. I get the fear of crazy looking ones like Pennywise, but how is that different from the fear of any non-clown maniac with a crazy look on their face and intent to murder? You could put a guy in a Pluto (Goofy's dog) costume with a serial killer grin on his face wielding a machete and I'd be just as scared. I will say thought that as an adult perhaps a dislike for clowns cause they're terribly unfunny is logical. Cause someone trying hard to make you laugh especially through slapstick humor rarely works out. But I'm sticking to the fear definition of phobia and not dislike definition. But a fear of all clowns just cause .... I don't get it.

qorrect 4y ago
> ... I don't get it. That's thing with irrational fears.
shagie 4y ago
(I don't have coulrophobia) The distortion of the facial expressions can make it harder to read and that can cause anxiety in some. Consider the other extreme - https://twitter.com/SchrebersSister/status/1187273051949408256/photo/2 https://twitter.com/SchrebersSister/status/11872730519494082... and that the distortion or the lack of features can be anxiety provoking. If the clown face is always happy, or always sad, even if the person shouldn't be. Are they looking at you, can you track where they are looking? Are their eyes open or closed? The facial recognition wiring in the brain could be sending "I don't know what to do with this" signals to the rest of the consciousness and that's leading to the corresponding anxiety that then manifests as a fear of clowns. --- Tangent of tangent that I was reminded of: Using AI to Find Where Clowns End and Juggalos Begin - https://medium.com/@nhoral/using-ai-to-find-where-clowns-end-and-juggalos-begin-3afbc04c5c55 https://medium.com/@nhoral/using-ai-to-find-where-clowns-end... ICP doesn't just stand for IBM Cloud Private.
- racl101 4y ago
  Water! Fire! Air and Earth! F-ing magnets? How do they Work? And I don't wanna talk to no scientist! Y'all are lying and getting me pissed!

birdyrooster 4y ago

True, but these children have real problems and don’t have the luxury to concoct feelings of grief by other people’s peaceful self expression. I think it’s a win.

peterp77 4y ago

[dead]