Why do clowns exist?

“ [Some of the] very first clowns were the court jesters who poked fun at kings and made people in high places uncomfortable. That’s why they exist,” he tells TIME of the history of clowns in medieval Europe.

Are children being taught to fear clowns in hospitals?

The skills aren’t being passed on any more. But it’s more than that. Children are frightened of clowns; adults, too. A University of Sheffield study of 250 children for a report on hospital design suggested children find clown motifs “frightening and unknowable”.

Did Charles Dickens invent the scary clown?

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.

Are Boston’s Phantom clown sightings real?

In the 1980s, a cluster of phantom clown sightings, mostly reported by children, scared people in the suburbs around Boston, and ever since, similar flare-ups have occurred. The difference between then and now, according to experts?

The circus clown developed in the 19th century. The modern circus derives from Philip Astley’s London riding school, which opened in 1768. Astley added a clown to his shows to amuse the spectators between equestrian sequences.

Did clowns come before mimes?

The earliest ancestors of the clown flourished in ancient Greece—bald-headed, padded buffoons who performed as secondary figures in farces and mime, parodying the actions of more serious characters and sometimes pelting the spectators with nuts.

What do evil clowns do?

They may not wear clown costume but, nevertheless, engage with people for their own amusement, abuse, tease and speak what they think of as the “truth” much like the court jester and “dip clowns” do using “human foibles” against their victims.

How common is fear of clowns?

How common is fear of clowns? There are few studies on coulrophobia. Some experts believe as many as 1 in 10 adults have a fear of clowns. One study on hospitalized children found that approximately 10 out of 1,000 children, most of them girls, were afraid of the clowns the hospital brought in to cheer them up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOpuoOCoe5A