Is anyone afraid of Clowns? I encountered one on my Shop...

I am not afraid of clowns but I was on a shop and I was warned before I stepped inside, that there was a clown in there ....."think famous arches hamburger place with the clown".....

I thought it was odd that I was warned about the clown but she said other customers were afraid of clowns (terrified) actually....and she wanted to warn me he was inside...

Which leads to my questions: If you are afraid of clowns, what part of the clown scares you? (not trying to make fun...just really curious).

I look at clowns as whimsical.. funny... clothed brightly and in heavy makeup..that's about it..

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Although I do not find them scary, there evidently is something very primitive in us that is scared of them, possibly because of their abnormality. When my sons had their 3rd birthday I hired a clown to come in and entertain the kiddies, make balloon animals and do light magic. When he appeared more than half of the kids were terrified. I quickly shunted him to the hallway, paid him and sent him on his way. These were not kids who were old enough to have seen the horror movies with clowns or be exposed to anything much except clown dolls and maybe Ronald McDonald. So I have to assume that many of us are wired for a fight or flight adrenaline rush when we see one.

I have an adult friend who is afraid of clowns. She has disliked them since she was a child. I am not aware of any other phobias that she has. Just coulrophobia.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

When I worked as a professional clown I used to hate the parents that forced their terrified kids to get close for photos and such. Same with the kids who are terrified of Santa and the Easter Bunny at the mall. I never met an adult who was afraid and most of the kids over 4 I had no problem with. The other adults I had problems with were friends who never wanted to pay my going rate of $30 per 15 minutes of performing.

Not afraid of them, but they annoy me. Maybe it stems from the time I worked for the Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Clown College in Venice, FL. They got to be a little much on a daily basis.

There are two types of people in this world: Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

Clowns creep me out, always have. Reading and watching Stephen King's "It" did not help. I was also terrified of the Santas and Easter Bunnies at the mall. Still am

I've seen parents force their kids to sit on Santa's lap in the mall. The kids were screaming bloody murder. They were terrified of Santa! Usually the kids were between 1 and 5 years old. I think the older kids were less afraid.

I'm not afraid of clowns but I don't like the whole mask thing. The mask in any form is creepy. Yes, Santa and Easter Bunny too. I think it speaks to a part of our subconscious that recognizes danger in people who wear a "mask" of happy or sad or generous but as always, when it's just a mask, those people are dangerous.

My 12 year old is afraid of clowns. She can't explain why, just says she thinks they're "creepy". In fact, she was in the hospital last year and the hospital had a clown that came around and cheered the kids up. When the clown came in the room, my poor daughter was terrified. I gently apologized to the clown (a little old lady, who volunteered at the hospital). She closed the curtain to the room, took off her nose, glasses and wig to show my daughter that she was just a regular person. We both appreciated that, but she still won't go near clowns. ~shrug~ I'm terrified of heights, so I can't really give her a hard time for being afraid of clowns.

I used to see a life coach pretty regularly.... back when they were called bartenders.

I am not afraid of clowns. I like them. Clowns make fun of us. They remind us that what we see is not always what we get.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao-Tzu

Stephen King ruined them for me.....forever!

Captain Kangaroo was a clown before he became Captain Kangaroo. You can learn about him in the National Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee Ws.

Couldnt care less about clowns, they don't bother me but snakes is a whole other matter.

Her Serene Majesty, Cettie - Goat Queen of Zoltar, Sublime Empress of Her Caprine Domain

My cousin, who is 58, is sincerely terrified of them. When he first told me I thought he was joking. He isn't. It is a real thing for some people.

Some people's fears seem irrational to us when we don't have them ourselves. I have a friend who's a nice, educated woman and a member of my church board BUT she has a hysterical fear of bridges and chunky peanut butter.

Her Serene Majesty, Cettie - Goat Queen of Zoltar, Sublime Empress of Her Caprine Domain

A good friend of mine is a correctional officer. He deals with murderers and rapists and drug addicts and robbers, and he has to keep them locked up without giving them a chance to break his neck and escape. He's fine with all that, but he's really afraid of clowns. True story.

"The future ain't what it used to be." --Yogi Berra

A must see movie is, "Killer Klowns From Outer Space." If you watch it a few times when you are young, you too, will be afraid of clowns.

My daughter was always terrified of clowns since she was a baby. They just annoy me but I think others are more sensitive to the "uncanny valley". That is when you feel repulsed when something is not quite human and it sets off something in our brains that tells us "that thing is not right". I get that feeling when someone has overdone plastic surgery and I have a hard time looking at their face.

I thought the clown was annoying. He was saying to a 9 year old, "Do you have a girlfriend? You don't? Are you sure? Why don't you?" I thought it was a bit much for a little kid to be dealing with...I know sometimes aunts/uncles tease a pre-teen about if they have a girlfriend or not. But not a clown dressed as a stranger.

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Is anyone afraid of Clowns? I encountered one on my Shop...

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