Monster Clown: Difference between revisions

{{trope|wppage=Evil clown}}

 

 

 

Clowns are ''supposed'' to be funny. They're supposed to make everyone laugh, especially children. This is the entire point of their existence. Sometimes they succeed. But for some people, clowns awaken [[wikipedia:Coulrophobia|some primal fear]]. There are children who won't go near a clown without screaming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{{examples}}

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwb9W51j7fo&eurl The original design of Ronald McDonald, as seen in this advertisement.]

** For those of you who don't know, that's Willard Scott under that original Ronald makeup.

* A Motel 6 commercial features a guy not being able to sleep because of all the disturbing clown paraphernalia decorating the guest room he's staying in.

* Krinkles the Clown, of Post's Sugar Rice Krinkles. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDWXGcsMTHw Good Lord, where to begin?]

 

* Hisoka from ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]''.

* In ''[[Akira]]'' there are two rival biker gangs. One gang, called the Clowns, dresses in clown-like outfits and acts very much like evil clowns.

* Tongpu, alias Mad Pierrot from ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]''.

* Mayuri Kurotsuchi, 12th division Captain from ''[[Bleach]]''.

** Also, the lvl 2 akuma that could imitate shapes, Pierrot.

** Inverted with {{spoiler|Allen himself, who uses the Innocence Crowned Clown. But his adoptive father, Mana, may have been a straight example...}}

** And Allen was beaten up by clowns until he got adopted.

** [[It Got Worse|And now there are several of them...]]

** The Anime had two robot guards modeled after him. The creators probably thought the show just wouldn't be complete if they didn't use the design.

** There is also Saggi the Dark Clown, a monster card, as well as one of the Player Killers in the manga—who was apparently too creepy for the anime and 'toned down' to, as the [[Abridged Series]] put it, "a gay clown".

*** Specifically, he was a different ''kind'' of clown; a ventriloquist with a [[Perverse Puppet]] in the shape of Kaiba, who claimed that he had put Kaiba's soul into the doll.

** Cranked [[Up to Eleven]] by Romano, the Gundam Fighter for Neo-Portugal, who not only dresses up as a clown but has a ''mecha'' that looks like one. Naturally, he becomes Chibs's next opponent...

* ''[[Remote]]'' has a clown that sings an old folk song whenever someone sees him. In his wake he always leaves a corpse. Or a bomb.

** Penchinon is a pirate. Pagliaccio, the [[Robo Speak|robo speaking]] Zonder doll that can fold herself into a sphere, is probably a better example.

*** Pagliaccio actually means "clown" in Italian.

* Subverted in ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]''. Suzuki, a contestant in the Dark World Tournament, desperately wants to fit this trope, and it seems like he does after killing some laughing spectators...but then Genkai kicks his ass all over the place. {{spoiler|Afterwards, he ditches the makeup and [[Defeat Means Friendship|becomes an ally]].}}

 

* Subverted by a short-lived superhero called ''Funnyman'' whose schtick was... you guessed it....

* [[The Joker]] from ''[[Batman]]''. '''The''' [[Trope Codifier]].

* Eliot Franklin, from the [[Marvel Universe]], worked as a clown and wore his clown costume to commit crimes. He eventually became a professional hitman.

* The Clown Cenobite (aka "Winky Dink") from the ''[[Hellraiser]]'' comic story "Dead Things Rot".

* The Painted Doll, a Joker-expy from ''[[Promethea]]''.

* Frenchy from the National Lampoon's [http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2007/10/looking-back-with-alan-kupperberg-evil.html Evil Clown Comics] feature which ran intermittently in the magazine in the late 80's and early 90's. He was the brainchild of Nick Bakay and Alan Kupperberg, and was not only totally bitter and diabolical but had... ahem, a way with the ladies as well. Sometimes he was too much even for the proudly non-PC Lampoon, which refused to publish one panel of a particular story.

 

* ''[[Beetlejuice]]'': The title character from the movie.

** And as noted below, Scuzzo the Clown from [[Beetlejuice (animation)|the animated series]].

** Even more scary when you realize he's actually an {{spoiler|[[Eldritch Abomination]]}} disguised as a clown.

*** Ironically, he chose the clown form to trick children into trusting him.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfiyJa0Zeas Parodied] in ''[[Scary Movie]] 2'' with a clown doll who [[Mugging the Monster|finds that not all victims are helpless]].

* ''[[The Greatest Show On Earth]]'' features a gentle, altruistic, medically-inclined clown who never removes his makeup, even off-duty... because {{spoiler|he's on the run for the murder of his wife}}.

* ''Klown Kamp Massacre'' and 100 Tears both feature killers dressed as monster clowns.

* ''[[La Casa 3]]'' has the clown doll that Henriette carries around. On few occasions it turns into sharptoothed version of itself.

 

* Pennywise from ''[[IT]]'' by [[Stephen King]].

** In the TV miniseries based on the same, [[Tim Curry]]'s portrayal of the role was so creepy, the other actors avoided him even off-camera. He is responsible for a hell of a lot of people's coulrophobia.

** [[Irony|Ironically]], while It often used its shape-shifting ability to take the form of nightmarish imagery, one of its primary uses for the Pennywise form was to ''attract'' kids. As such, It gives adults a new reason to fear clowns: [[Adult Fear|they lure children in with balloons and dancing, only to then do unthinkable things to them...]]

* The Ankh-Morpork Fool's Guild in the ''[[Discworld]]'' series realizes that clowns scare and disgust some people. Thus, they prepare their charges through exceedingly harsh conditions to endure a lot of abuse. [[Terry Pratchett]], creator of the series, has described the guild as "the stricter sort of medieval monastery without [the monastery's] non-stop boffo laughs." He also introduces the idea that whiteface clowns are scary even to other clowns because their humor often comes from bullying others. Doctor Whiteface is described as having, under his painted grin, features "cold and proud as a prince of Hell".

{{quote|''They are tragic, and [[Black Comedy|we laugh at their tragedy as we laugh at our own.]] The painted grin leers out at us from the darkness, [[Nietzsche Wannabe|mocking our insane belief in order, logic, status, the reality of reality.]] The mask knows that we are born on [[Banana Peel|the banana skin]] that leads only to [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|the open manhole cover of doom,]] and all we can hope for are the cheers of the crowd.''}}

** In the Fools' Guild edition of the ''[[All There in the Manual|Discworld Diary]]'' series, the Guild's clowns, mimes and jesters are revealed to be agents of a widespread and ruthless spy ring operated purely for its own profit and power.

* One of the secretaries at the Peoria REC in [[The Pale King]] resembles one.

 

* ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' had two: Zeebo the Clown, the ghost of a criminal who haunted a haunted house (go figure); and the Crimson Clown, something of a cross between a Monster Clown and a [[Demonic Dummy]].

* The Clown in the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episode "The Thaw" was created as [[Lotus Eater Machine|virtual-reality entertainment for a race in suspended animation]]. The Clown [[Instant AI, Just Add Water|became self-aware]] and [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|sadistically scared to death anyone who opposed it]].

* ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' episode "Look (Stop Me if You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellas..." has a pair of killer clowns whose boss is a Punch and Judy puppet.

* ''[[Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy]]'' features a screeching purple clown named "The Audience" who lives on a cloud and produces mashed potato sculptures from his hollow abdomen. He shows no particular signs of being evil, but he's still terrifying and bizarre in the extreme.

 

* [[Vocaloid]]: Len Kagamine, playing Lemy/Remy Abelard, in the [[Mothy]] song The Fifth: Pierrot/Gobanme no Piero, is a very unique example of this. First, he's just an assassin who has the nickname "Pierrot" and wears a clown outfit. Second, he's not really a monster. He's just {{spoiler|been raised wrong by Santa/Julia Abelard, his adoptive mother and leader of the organization he belongs to, Pere Noel}}.

* The appropriately titled song "Clown" by the band [[Korn]].

** There's also a quick shot of one at :04.

** More Pink: from the same album, the song ''Funhouse'':

** And seriously, what more can you do with evil clowns, except [[Kill It with Fire]]? The video's pretty freaky too.

* While the clowns in the video for the Arctic Monkeys' "Fluorescent Adolescent" aren't demonic monsters, given that the video is centered around a fight between two gangs of those wacky circus comedians, they're not exactly nice, either.

* [[Alice Cooper]]'s ''Can't Sleep, the Clowns Will Eat Me''.

{{quote|''[[Paedo Hunt|But that was in Indianapolis]], and thanks to the liberal reciprocity laws, Kinko can be with you [[Depraved Bisexual|boys and girls]] today or anytime.''}}

* [[Oingo Boingo]] recorded a song called "Clowns of Death" and performed under that name on a few occasions. Auxiliary band members would sometimes dress in clown costumes, billed as the Sad Klown Orkestra.

* [[Esham]], as "Homey The Clown" on ''Homey Don't Play'' and ''I Ain't Cha Homey''.

* The [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLifSFBs_Lk music video] for Sublime's "Wrong Way" depicts Annie's abusive father as a clown.

 

 

* An episode of ''[[WWE Smackdown|SmackDown]]'' in April 2000 had the Mean Street Posse posing as a trio of circus clowns during a hardcore title match when they ambushed Crash Holly.

* Insane Clown Posse.

 

== Reality TV ==

* Used in a third-season episode of ''[[Scare Tactics (TV series)|Scare Tactics]]'' for a teenager set to babysit a little girl, only instead of a clown statue, it's the little girl's [[Not-So-Imaginary Friend]].

 

** And some of them are very weird. Like the eye-chicken-ventriloquist [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/opticaper.htm Opticaper], the straitjacket-snake-clown [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/insanititter.htm Insanititter] and whatever the hell [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/madcap.htm Madcap] is.

* The ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' supplement ''Heroes Of Horror'' is about infusing your games with anything from a touch to an overdose of the macabre, the frightening, and the unnerving. One of the monsters introduced? The "gray jester". One of the scenarios provided? A gray jester and a hag enslaving and eating children.

* The Dilisnyas, one of the most treacherous and murderous of [[Ravenloft]]'s great noble houses, trace their bloodline back to a fellow by the unlikely name of Pidlwik. In the original adventure module ''I6: Ravenloft'', which inspired the campaign setting, Pidlwik's crypt identifies him as the court jester.

** The Skurra, of the Travelling Carnival, are one part this, one part [[Enemy Mime]], and all subversion; while extremely creepy (even the mutated Carnies are somewhat afraid of them, and there is a belief amongst them that some or even all of the Skurra are actually ghosts), they are not malevolent in the slightest.

*** Similarly: the Dark Eldar, who would cheerfully torture you in a variety of horrible ways even if they ''didn't'' need to, crap their pants when the Harlequins show up. ''Even if they're just there to put on a show''.

* In the Warhammer fantasy universe isolated villages are sometimes visited by the Carnival of Chaos, what appears to be an innocuous troop of performers turn out to be the hideous daemonic servants of the god of despair, who hypnotise the simple village folk during the performance whilst they quite rapidly decompose. Models are brilliant though, complete with nurglings dressed up as circus animals.

** And then there's the Cult of Rakdos, from the Ravnica block. If the land [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=97082 Rakdos Carnarium] doesn't make your blood freeze, you need to get your head examined. A cult of slash-happy killers who consider their parties a "flop" if someone survives to tell about it - and they have a ''[[Circus of Fear|circus]]'' component to them, too? (And with a circus comes...) Thanks, Wizards, I may never sleep again.

* Naturally, there's at least one ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' scenario (set in 1920s Germany) featuring a carnival jester who's really an [[Eldritch Abomination]] that's been traveling with the show incognito for years and causing various tragedies and disasters wherever they went.

** The notably Fiend-type [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Ryu-Kishin_Clown Ryu-Kishin Clown].

 

* Essentially averted by [[Cirque Du Soleil]] in their specific clown acts. Traditional whitefaces and augustes are less intimidating than the popular conception, and some character-based clown acts largely eschew garish makeup and costuming. Indeed some clowns are downright ordinary-looking compared to the other characters. But there are villainous/mysterious characters who, intentionally or not, have appearances akin to this trope: Boum-Boum in ''Quidam'', Le Titan in ''La Nouba'', etc. Closest to the trope is the bizarre emcee Fleur in ''Alegria'': According to the [[All There in the Manual]] material, he was the court jester to the now-gone ruler of the kingdom, and now he wants to be king.

 

* Joker-sama in ''[[Persona 2]]''. Unusual if only for his distinctive elegance... {{spoiler|and the fact he's the plaything of [[Eldritch Abomination|Nyarlathotep]] }}.

* In ''[[League of Legends]]'', there is a ''playable'' monster clown named Shaco. He can set invisible jack in the boxes that cause terror and fire [[Frickin' Laser Beams|laser beams]], poof into invisibility with an evil laugh, backstab people with venomed knives, and make duplicates of himself.

** Note that it's more like this in [[Woolseyism|the old Ted]]'s script, in the original japanese version he's more of an [[Villainous Harlequin|idiot]], even after he {{spoiler|kills Leo, destroys the world, etc.}} When brought to America, he pretty much became [[The Joker]] of video games.

* ''[[Left 4 Dead 2]]'': Two words: zombie clowns. It makes honking noises where it goes, which in turn attracted the other infected to it and thus to the player. Meaning you have to make him your top priority lest you want more zombies to deal with.

** For an even worse example from the same series, CircusMan.EXE from EXE Beast and ''Battle Network 6''.

*** Something perhaps creepier than his appearance is that one of his attacks involves transforming his body into a circular cage draped up like a circus tent, falling down on top of your character to entrap them, then several bulges appear rapidly all over the drapes implying being pummeled (dear god hopefully) all over.

*** Oh God, CircusMan. The first time you see him, you witness him doing some kind of creepy dance that drains the energy of everyone around him in that cutscene. He ''sucks up'' the energy, and then he soon uses the energy to revive [[Sealed Evil in a Can|Gregar and Falzar.]] He then opens up his chest to reveal a powerful vacuum which he uses to absorb one of the two beasts! [[It Got Worse|Oh wait, but he's not done with being a Monster Clown yet!]] {{spoiler|He later successfully uses the vacuum to capture Mega Man too, starting a rather long [[Rescue Arc]].}}

**** Don't forget about CircusMan's operator, Yuika. Yuika wears an outlandish outfit, has heart-like makeup on her cheeks, and overall acts like a stereotypical clown. She also lured several Navi Operators into Central City 3's area and thus arranged for CircusMan to steal their energy to unleash the Cybeasts in the first place, not to mention having MegaMan kidnapped as well.

** Mash, the clown robot boss from ''7''.

* ''[[Castlevania: Chronicles of Sorrow|Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow]]'' and subsequent games have the Killer Clown enemy, who juggles playing cards and throws them at you. (Get their ability and you can do that too! It's surprisingly awesome.)

** And there was also the [[Bad Future]] event where players could see a destroyed Seaside Town full of some of the [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|monsters turned into zombies]] (ex: Zombie Hippy, Zombie Frat Boy, Zombie Zombie) And then the Zombie Clown. His in game description? "AIEEE! Ah! Gah! Sweet merciful God, no! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

** Inverted with the wacky pirate: "You'd think a clown with an eyepatch and a hook hand would be even more terrifying than a normal clown, but somehow, the combination is pretty charming"

** Made worse by the fact that, according to him, they were all ''laughing at him...''

*** Oh, and his death scene. ''He falls onto his own chainsaws, [[Laughing Mad|laughing while they cut him up.]]''

* Needles "Sweet Tooth" Kane from ''[[Twisted Metal]]'', who wears a flaming clown mask and stores the bodies of murdered children in his ice cream truck. The entirety of ''Twisted Metal: Black'' is actually {{spoiler|a psychotic delusion taking place inside his mind}}.

** A homicidal clown, he's essentially an [[Expy]] of [[The Joker]].

* Malcolm the jester in the ''Kyrandia'' adventure game series. Suffers a [[Heel Face Turn|reluctant flipflop]] in the third and final game which does ...absolutely nothing at all. He retains the same personality. He still says incredibly evil and nasty things. He just stopped killing people. (which of course nobody believes, so it's up to you as Malcolm to clear your name in the third.) Most unconvincing HFT ever, most unrepentant villain ever too. Even with his personality set to ''"nice"'' and with him talking to the sorceress Zanthia, whom he has a bit of a crush on, everything he says still makes him sound like a spiteful misanthropic [[Jerkass]] just one dagger away from a multiple homicide. He's not so much an [[Anti-Hero]] as he is the same [[Magnificent Bastard]] he was before, just without the murderous streak. [[False Reassurance|He claims.]]

* In the first chapter of ''[[Dark Cloud]] 2'' (aka Dark Chronicle), the [[Big Bad]] ({{spoiler|before we find out about [[The Man Behind the Man]]}}) is Flotsam, creepy leader of a troupe of killer clowns.

** Also, his [[Expy]], [[Sword of Mana|Goremand.]]

* Joka from the ''[[Klonoa]]'' series, a clown-faced balloon demon who ''never stops smiling'', even when visibly angry. He also has an odd tendency to die and come back without explanation.

* The final stage of the game ''[[Carn Evil]]'' is the Big Top, which is absolutely crawling with midget clowns, overly beefed up jokers, and even rabid dogs in clown gear. The former two being even creepier then the torture victim enemies found in the Freakshow stage. The sight of the smaller clowns popping up from the sides of the screen at point blank range while his friends close in on you even after half their faces and bodies have been blown away is shuddersome.

** Tokkentakker, the end boss. Though he's relatively mild compared to [[Nightmare Fuel|the rest of the game]].

* The GAC clowns in ''[[Dead to Rights]]''.

* ''[[Splatterhouse]] 2010'' has a level set at a theme park which is, of course, populated by demonic clowns and spin their heads, split fire, twirl upside-down on their hands kicking you with their legs and crawl along backwards on the floor if you knock them down.

* ''[[Serious Sam]]'' II has weird looking, unicycling, manically laughing, suicide bombing clowns that attack in groups. Yeah...

* In ''[[Terraria]]'', unlocking hard mode causes Clown monsters to appear during a Blood Moon. Silly-looking as they are, they're also fairly tough, and they throw bombs that destroy blocks and can mess up any buildings you've made.

* [[Laughing Mad|Hecklar]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su4s7oUOAVs from] ''[[Cardinal Syn]]''.

* [[The Joker]] as he appears in the ''Batman Arkham'' games is every bit as [[Complete Monster|monstrous]] and [[Laughably Evil|clownish]] as you'd expect, but he plans on making an army of literal Monster Clowns in the first game by injecting his face-painted henchmen with Titan formula, which causes them to hulk out into Bane-like abominations. {{spoiler|He gets in on the fun himself by shooting himself with a Titan filled dart before the final boss fight}}. This series also gives us one of the franchise's crueler interpretations of Harley Quinn as well.

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

{{quote|"Even undead, clowns are annoying."}}

* Strong Man, the Old-Timey version of Strong Mad from ''[[Homestar Runner]]''. As his name suggests, he is actually an unintelligent circus strongman who for some reason ''is always facing the camera'' and is working for [[Dastardly Whiplash|Sir Strong Bad]], The Homestar Runner's archnemesis.

 

* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' does a bit of [[Lampshade Hanging]]:

{{quote|'''Mort:''' And how did you know that girl didn't like [http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/archive_page.php?comicID{{=}}66 clowns]?

* In ''[[Nodwick]]'', after re-lived her fifth birthday several times:

{{quote|'''Piffany''': I had to watch the ''clown'' they hired for my party. I'm going to need a few more ''teddy bears'' to get to sleep tonight!}}

* {{spoiler|Gamzee Makara}} from ''[[Homestuck]]'' first appeared to be a comedic subversion. [[Beware the Silly Ones|Not]] [[Chaotic Evil|any]] [[From Nobody to Nightmare|more,]] [[Ax Crazy|to]] [[No Medication for Me|say]] [[Omnicidal Maniac|the]] [[Lethal Joke Character|least.]] {{spoiler|Luckily, Karkat manages to calm his ass down through [[The Power of Friendship|The Power of Moirallegiance]].}}

** Monster Clowndom appears to be the [[Gang of Hats|hat]] of the Subjugglators, judging by The Grand Highblood's facepaint and colorful paintings. [[Nightmare Fuel|Facepaint and colorful paintings made of the blood of slaughtered trolls.]]

* ''[[Wapsi Square]]'' demonstrated that there are few things scarier than a [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/11282003/ dog in a clown mask.]

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has a [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20110209 Jack-in-the-box] in Heterodynes nursery combining the charm of Monster Clown with steel-clad brutality of an overengineered murder-bot. "It explains... ''so much''..." We don't know yet who made this toy, though—it may well be local "young masters" [[Mad Scientist|themselves]].

* In ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'', Black Mage gains a clownlike outfit after becoming a blue mage.

* In ''[[The Word Weary]]'', Yorick's elf rogue character is disguised as a jester- and he's just as [http://wordwearycomic.blogspot.com/2011/04/28-april-2011.html acerbic and mean] as he is the in regular story.

 

* Just a fair warning: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-SamlxVgnc&feature=related This may keep you up tonight.]

* There's a viral comment being spread on [[YouTube]] warning, "a clown will kill u at 3:00 A.M. tomorrow morning if u dont pass this 2 10 vids ''[sic]''."

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MItzvEjNURA Behold Baby Ronald McDonald].

* Tom Foolery of the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]''. Scary makeup, spine-chilling laugh, weaponized toys, and an urge to see the whole world go down in flames. He is basically the setting's [[Captain Ersatz]] of [[The Joker]].

* [http://www.cracked.com/blog/exploring-the-mysteries-of-the-mind-with-the-sims-3/ Subject Beef] certainly fits. Seanbaby speculates on the cause-effect relationship of wearing clown makeup and killing people. All we can say for sure is that it's there, one way or another.

* [[The Grotesque|The Jester]], ringmaster of [[Circus of Fear|Le Cirque d'Abberations]] in ''[[The Tale of the Exile]]'', is one of these. He has a magically-induced deformity that gives him a permanent [[Slasher Smile]] and a tendency to mutilate others as a form of art.

* [[That Guy With The Glasses]] featured a video with [[Doug Walker]] doing a pretty damn good impression of [[Heath Ledger]][[The Dark Knight Saga|'s Joker]] practicing his origin story. An attempt to spin this off into a series called "Melvin, Brother of the Joker" was not nearly as well received, and the character became [[The Scrappy]] among fans. Walker has engaged in a fair amount of [[Self-Deprecation]] about this, and Melvin was killed by other TGWTG contributors during one of the donation drives.

** [[The Spoony Experiment]] featured [[Noah Antwiler]] playing "Chuckles the Fucking Jester", a character from the ''[[Ultima]]'' series. Spoony finds him creepy, screaming when he enters the room. He is also relentlessly obnoxious, making bad jokes and beating Noah with a rubber chicken for not playing "The Game" correctly. After [[It Makes Sense in Context|Spoony's robot blasts him with a laser beam]], Chuckles flees, and a mysterious figure points out his ability to cause great fear, giving him [[Blackest Night|a Yellow Lantern ring]].

{{quote|65. There are no evil clowns living under my bed.}}

* [[The Fear Mythos]] gives us the Jester, a masked psychopath who serves the [[Perverse Puppet|Wooden Girl]]. He sees himself as an artist who has mastered comedy, and views comedy as being anything unexpected. So if you were, say, walking your dog on a pleasant summer day, he might pop out of a bush and blow your brains out just [[For the Evulz]]. The fact that the Jester is one of the few humans who serves the Wooden Girl willingly (as opposed to being unable to control his own body like the majority of her servants) just makes him even more horrific. [http://strangeandsecretfaces.blogspot.com/2012/01/laughter-is-best-medicine.html This creepypasta] gives a pretty clear indication of how utterly insane he is.

 

== Western Animation ==

* Can't forget Joker from ''[[The Batman]]''. Especially "Vampire Joker" in ''[[The Batman vs. Dracula]]''.

*** Arguably the goofy, baggy clown-outfit made him look even creepier than his normal purple tux, since it twisted his reasonably normal human proportions into the depths of [[Uncanny Valley]].

* Frankly, there are countless times ('''not''' including that stint in ''Treehouse of Horrors'') that Krusty the Klown of ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' fits neatly into the oversized shoes of this trope. Point in fact he is scary enough to provoke heart-attacks in patients with heart conditions (namely Homer).

** "What's wrong? Oh right... My ''grotesque appearance!"''

** Not to mention the haunted Krusty doll.

{{quote|"Hi, I'm Krusty the Clown and I don't like you." "Hi, I'm Krusty the Clown and I'm going to kill you."}}

* Zombozo the Clown from ''[[Ben 10]]''.

* Although [[Pepper Ann]] didn't feature any actual monster clowns, there was one episode where Pepper Ann watched a movie that revolves around this trope: Gutter Clowns. She had nightmares about that movie.

** Studio boss Seymour Plotz doesn't know this, so he sends a [[Jerry Lewis]]-style clown to the water tower to entertain Wakko on his birthday. Plotz doesn't like clowns, either, so when he finds out—he does nothing. True [[Hilarity Ensues]].

{{quote|'''Dr. Scratchnsniff:''' Wakko, repeat after me: "A clown is my friend. A clown will not bite me and throw me in the basement... A clown is not a big spider."}}

* In the ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|Legion of Super Heroes]]'', episode "Fear Factory", Lightning Lad is terrified of a clownlike doll from his childhood called "[[The Exorcist|Captain Howdy]]".

* ''[[Mighty Max]]'' had an episode (and a micro playset) involving Freako the Clown.

** "So, it's agreed? We all hate clowns."

* Freakshow from ''[[Danny Phantom]]''.

* Dr. Rockzo, the rock n' roll clown (he does cocaine!) {{spoiler|seriously, dude; ''a lot'' of cocaine}} from ''[[Metalocalypse]]''. He's a clown that's designed to be scary (in more ways than one). Ironically, Toki loves him despite being the most childlike of Dethklok's members.

** Toki was shown to have a long-time love of clowns - there was a shot of him as a child sitting on [[Serial Killer|Gacy the Clown's]] lap (shudder). Besides, it's metal to like clowns!

** Also partially subverted in this episode, in that Deedee stops Dexter by learning the ways of an order of benign mimes. Not to be confused with a [[Heroic Mime]].

* Binky The Clown from ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' isn't really evil, but he is incredibly obnoxious and somewhat creepy, and provides a recurring source of irritation for Garfield.

** Not to mention the end of the episode had Mr. Finster walk out of Chuckie's room after tucking him in and noticing Stu turned away from him. He says, "Stu, I didn't know you were coming over," only to have clown faced Stu turn around and do the exact same thing that the clown faced Tommy did except he says, "''I'm not Stu...''" * laughs*

*** Another episode called "The Trial" featured a creepy clown lamp with a giant perpetual grin and an evil countenance.

*** The episode "Clown Around" had plenty of Monster Clown's for all.

*** To keep this list from getting longer, lets just say that ''[[Rugrats]]'' was ''very'' fond of Monster Clowns.

** ''[http://youtu.be/-LjwCjaqSO4?t=1m52s I wish that scary looking clown at the end of my bed would go away!]

* The short-lived American adaptation of Australia's teacher sitcom ''[[Sit Down, Shut Up]]'' has a Monster Clown in the form of the overly cheerful (and mentally unstable) vice principal Stuart Proszakian (voiced by Will Forte from ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''). Before he was vice principal, Stuart was a clown entertaining at a Florida prison. The second episode (where the teachers run a schoolwide fair) even had Stuart dressed in prison stripes and clown make-up (making him look more like [[Beetlejuice]]) and singing this song (set to folksy banjo music) with the following lyrics:

* An episode of ''[[Extreme Ghostbusters]]'' had the ghostbusters hunting vampire-like monsters who feed on laughter and disguise themselves as clowns, because as this page tells us, there's nothing funnier than an ominous clown with an [[Evil Laugh]] following you by night.

* Paddywack from ''[[Darkwing Duck (animation)|Darkwing Duck]]''. Beady red eyes, long grasping limbs, fangs and a bottom of the well voice. Not to mention that he was an [[Sealed Evil in a Can|otherworldly evil entity]] that fed on fear or chaos or some other kind of metaphysical claptrap and had [[Mind Over Matter|poltergeist]] [[Invisibility|powers]] [[Demonic Possession|galore]].

* In an episode of ''[[League of Super Evil]]'', the team revives Doktor Frogg's first invention, Chuckles the Robotic Clown, for his birthday. Frogg later reveals that he invented Chuckles when he was a kid to ruin all the birthday parties he was never invited to and [[Turned Against Their Masters|then Frogg's own birthday came]].

* Played with in ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]'', wherein Spud spends half an episode paralyzed by his fear of clowns. After finally realizing that the fear is irrational, he joyfully asks a troupe of clowns to make him laugh. Cue the clowns eating some magicked cupcakes, which transform them into hideous scorpion/clown/demon monsters. [[Nightmare Fuel]] all around!

** Good to know: Child Clowns eat only Steve Mahahanan's Child Clown Wet Food Logs.

* ''[[Minoriteam]]'' has Halfpint, the evil gangster clown.

** There was also the episode where Jimmy and Beezy tried to become clowns, only to be constantly rebuffed by the selfsame jerks.

* [http://i43.tinypic.com/6yl8io.jpg Sneero],the villain clown in [[Achille Talon]].

* ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' featured the villain Proto-Clown, a rampaging superpowered brute of a clown [[Gone Horribly Wrong|created by a genetic experiment]] intended to create a perfect [[Non-Ironic Clown]]. Notably, he was barely sentient and spoke only in [[Hulk Speak]], and was only scary due to his [[Unstoppable Rage]] and ability to tear buildings asunder with his bare hands. As it turns out, he was completely harmless once calmed down, but he ''hated'' it when people laughed at him.

* ''[[Adventure Time]]'' features clown nurses, which aren't bad at first, but after Finn constantly objects, his clown nurse tells him "ITS THE ONLY WAY!" with a red demonic face accompanied by one of the worst [[Scare Chord]]s ever.

 

* Urban legend: A teenage girl (of course) is babysitting, and the parents call home to check in. "Everything's fine," she says, "oh, but I covered up that clown statue in the back hall with my jacket, it was creeping me out." "Clown statue? [[Oh Crap|We don't own a clown statue]]..."

 

* A charity in the Netherlands is the CliniClowns, people who dress up like clowns and visit children's hospitals in order to make them feel better. After doing this for years, psychological research shows that this backfires because too many children are ''afraid'' of clowns. Oops...

** A [http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1582409620080116?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews Reuters article] elaborates: "The study, reported in the Nursing Standard magazine, found ''all the 250 patients'' aged between four and 16 they quizzed disliked the use of clowns, with even the older ones finding them scary."

* In his book ''Mysterious America'' and [http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2008/10/phantom-clowns-on-coast-to-coast.html elsewhere], Fortean Loren Coleman has documented numerous cases, beginning in May 1981 but intermittently continuing up to the present day, of malevolent activity by persons unknown, dressed in clown attire, toward targets such as elementary school children. However, given that no such perpetrators have ever been apprehended, the "phantom clown" reports continue to remain unexplained.

* Lon Chaney, Sr., "The Man of a Thousand Faces", and perhaps the single most iconic (as well as genuinely frightening) horror actor from the silent film era, once made the observation that "There is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight."

** Jesus, what kind of parents would do ''that'' to their kid?

* Inverted by rodeo bullfighters, who dress like clowns to deal with situations (out-of-control bulls) which would scare the living shit out of practically anyone.

* The [[Juggalo]] subculture has shades of this.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Subverted Innocence Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Villains]]