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