Clowns

As Halloween is approaching, I saw a clown mask the other day. I didn’t like clowns as a kid and found it was interesting that I still didn’t like them today. Is there a psychological reason that humans fear clowns? If people think they’re scary, why are they used for entertainment?

 

3 Years 1 Answer 1.8k views

Saffy Laurio

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  1. JR Ferreri 1171

    People can fear any number things as children and these fears are either outgrown or retained later in life. Many young children fear anything that is overly strange: too big, bright, loud or unusual looking. US stores and shopping malls have long featured performers dressed as the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, or popular characters from cartoon television shows. Yes, children have run screaming from performers dressed as Spongebob, Mickey Mouse and Chuck E. Cheese.

    One child will be fine around a giant Easter Bunny, terrified of Santa, thrilled by their favorite sports team’s mascot, and somewhat wary of clowns. Some are frightened of all of the above while others are delighted by all of them, charging at them full speed only to clamp onto the character’s leg once within pouncing distance.

    Clowns are living cartoons, exaggerated humans with outrageous clothing, large colorful facial features, vivid hair, and comically exaggerated movements. Instead of being easy to see from long distances and humorous as intended, this otherness can strike some people as disturbing. What I’ve observed is that people tend to be more easily frightened by male Whiteface clowns than females, Auguste clowns (peach tone foundation) or Tramps.

    When clown makeup is badly designed it can be upsetting, such as dark colors surrounding the eyes (causing the eye sockets to sink in), overly large features, angry angular lines, mouths that are red above and below the lips, etc. Some clown faces are ineptly executed by people who haven’t studied clown makeup design, some are intended to be scary.

    Not all clowns are terrifying:

    Auguste clown

    Tramp Clown
    Spiffy the Magic Clown

    UTC 2020-11-30 12:35 AM 0 Comments

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