Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogebam here with another classic episode for
Speaker 1: you from our erstwhile host and horror aficionado, Christian Sager.
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about this one because I'm also a
Speaker 1: horror fan and have been watching some films in that
Speaker 1: genre while we've all been isolating, and there are so
Speaker 1: many clown monsters in recent horror. Also because some very
Speaker 1: dear friends of mine have trained in clowning. I've seen
Speaker 1: some amazing, beautiful performances, and some of those friends even
Speaker 1: use those styles and those skills to go into hospitals
Speaker 1: and help bring laughter into the lives of children and
Speaker 1: seniors and their families there. So this episode is why
Speaker 1: are some people afraid of clowns? Ay brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: Christian Sager? When's the last time you saw a clown
Speaker 1: in person? And did you enjoy the experience? Maybe you're
Speaker 1: one of the people who just doesn't like these jokers,
Speaker 1: or maybe it's more serious than a passing dislike. Perhaps
Speaker 1: you have what some call cole rephobia, an intense and
Speaker 1: excessive fear of clowns. But where does it come from?
Speaker 1: Why are people afraid of clowns. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: speculation here, much of which hinges on history and psychology.
Speaker 1: Let's look at the history. First. Jesters, clowns, and other
Speaker 1: silly entertainers are an ancient tradition. The modern day bozos
Speaker 1: and Joey's are softer, sanitized versions of the ancient trickster.
Speaker 1: Archetype evidence indicates pygmy clowns entertained the Egyptian elite thousands
Speaker 1: of years ago, and these ancestors of clowns were worlds
Speaker 1: away from our modern buffoons, but they still had the
Speaker 1: basics down garish clothing, and more importantly, the manic ability
Speaker 1: to do or say taboo things without consequence. The prototypes
Speaker 1: of contemporary clowns are generally thought to be Joseph Grimaldi
Speaker 1: and John Gaspard de Bourou, both of whom had pretty
Speaker 1: unpleasant lives off stage. Grimaldi died penniless, and alcoholic Deberus
Speaker 1: killed the boy. It's true this contrast became even more
Speaker 1: pronounced in the modern day when the notorious serial killer
Speaker 1: John Wayne Gazey was finally apprehended. The public saw numerous
Speaker 1: photos of his clown persona, and he famously said a
Speaker 1: clown can get away with anything. Since that time, the
Speaker 1: public perception of clowns has changed. In the West, people
Speaker 1: don't seem to associate clowns with mere tomfoolery anymore. Instead,
Speaker 1: we see a duality, a bland veneer of joviality covering
Speaker 1: something unknown and sinister. Today, some of fiction's greatest villains
Speaker 1: are evil clowns. There's Penny Wise from It, the Joker
Speaker 1: from Batman, and of course the Killer Clowns from outer Space.
Speaker 1: So from a folklore or cultural perspective, society has altered
Speaker 1: our perception of clowns. But what about the psychology. Author
Speaker 1: Linda Rodriguez McRobie believes people have a fundamental discomfort with
Speaker 1: clowns because their fiscial expressions cannot be trusted and unfaltering
Speaker 1: painted smile breeds distrust in an audience. Psychologists like Dr
Speaker 1: Brenda Widerhold agree. She notes that a fear of clowns
Speaker 1: or other costume strangers begins around the age of two,
Speaker 1: when kids start having anxiety about encountering strangers and are
Speaker 1: still not always able to separate reality and fantasy. And
Speaker 1: we can't talk about this sort of psychology without also
Speaker 1: mentioning Freud's concept of the uncanny valley, the idea that
Speaker 1: when something seems simultaneously familiar yet oddly unfamiliar, it produces revulsion.
Speaker 1: This is the same principle people get creeped out by
Speaker 1: by lifelike robots with their ever so slightly off facial expressions.
Speaker 1: Most people grow out of the sphere as they age,
Speaker 1: but a minority of the population carries it into adulthood.
Speaker 1: The concept of scary clowns has picked up steam in
Speaker 1: recent decades, and colophobia itself isn't a term that arrives
Speaker 1: from psychology, while it describes a real phenomenon. It popped
Speaker 1: up on the Internet as early as the two thousands,
Speaker 1: with claims dating back to the nineteen eighties, so in
Speaker 1: some ways this could just be a fad, but if so,
Speaker 1: it is a fad built on solid psychological and cultural roots.
Speaker 1: The concept of the evil clown exists now and isn't
Speaker 1: going away anytime soon, which is a bit of a shame.
Speaker 1: Clowning has gotten a bad rap, and a largely unfair
Speaker 1: one at that. Today's episode was written by Ben Bollen
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clain. For more in this amounts
Speaker 1: of other topics, Is it how stuff works dot com.
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