The first clowns were not as we know them today. The “clown” has been documented to have their origins traced back to ancient Egypt Old Kingdom Fifth Dynasty some 4,500 years ago and nearly 4,000 years ago a Chinese emperor filled his court with clowns (Bala, 2010). Throughout the course of human history it seems that clown has always been there changing with and evolving. Clowns were to be forms of entertainment, for those of the court. To provide a means of escape from what was going on in the time. Now the question is, if that was their true purpose, then when did they become scary and signs of evil, when men, women and children in early history was not? “A phobia refers to a specific object or fear”1 (Beck & Emery, 2005). The term given
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Which shows some first signs of what coulrophobia is. Throughout the movie the children are running from Pennywise the Clown who was an inter-dimensional being who would appear holding a red balloon and terrorizing children with their deepest phobias (McMahon, 2012). In 1987 the movie “Blood Harvest” was a slasher film where the killer is dressed up as a clown and slitting people’s throat and in 1988 the horror/ comedy movie “Killer Clowns from Outer Space” which showed a race of alien clowns that come to earth to collect people to drink human …show more content…
John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer that dressed up as “Pogo the Clown” in 1968 it was discovered that he had killed 33 young males and buried them under his house. He would use his clown outfit and gimmick to be hired to perform at children’s parties and would use that time to befriend the young boys and kidnap them. In 2007, Paul Carlock Jr was a police officer and minister who performed under the moniker Klutzo the Clown was accused of sexually assaulting boys. In 2013 Martin Evanick was a death metal band drummer who dressed up as a clown called “Vlad the Drummer” plead guilty to producing child pornography and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. With the targets that men chose it is easy to see how the image of a clown can inspire fear, fright and anxiety, and when those victims go out and talk about what happened to them that fear will spread to other people and those people will be apprehensive when they look or see clowns out in their daily
Which shows some first signs of what coulrophobia is. Throughout the movie the children are running from Pennywise the Clown who was an inter-dimensional being who would appear holding a red balloon and terrorizing children with their deepest phobias (McMahon, 2012). In 1987 the movie “Blood Harvest” was a slasher film where the killer is dressed up as a clown and slitting people’s throat and in 1988 the horror/ comedy movie “Killer Clowns from Outer Space” which showed a race of alien clowns that come to earth to collect people to drink human …show more content…
John Wayne Gacy was a serial killer that dressed up as “Pogo the Clown” in 1968 it was discovered that he had killed 33 young males and buried them under his house. He would use his clown outfit and gimmick to be hired to perform at children’s parties and would use that time to befriend the young boys and kidnap them. In 2007, Paul Carlock Jr was a police officer and minister who performed under the moniker Klutzo the Clown was accused of sexually assaulting boys. In 2013 Martin Evanick was a death metal band drummer who dressed up as a clown called “Vlad the Drummer” plead guilty to producing child pornography and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. With the targets that men chose it is easy to see how the image of a clown can inspire fear, fright and anxiety, and when those victims go out and talk about what happened to them that fear will spread to other people and those people will be apprehensive when they look or see clowns out in their daily