Monster Clown: Difference between revisions

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.

 

 

 

Monster Clowns are often [[Affably Evil]] or [[Faux Affably Evil]] - if they work in a circus, it'll be a [[Circus of Fear]]. Likewise, many of these clowns may or may not be [[Ax Crazy|completely insane]] and act [[Psychopathic Manchild|in a very similar manner to an overgrown child]]; they tend to commit their crimes while [[Laughing Mad|laughing crazily]] [[The Hyena|and frequently]], cracking fittingly dark jokes ([[Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor|if you can ''call'' them that]]).

The point is that real-world clowns ''clown'': while clowning is intended to be funny, it can be received as ritualised (self-)humiliation, and may make modern audiences quite sick to the stomach - now imagine what the Monster Clown's [[Nightmare Fuel|sick twists on their gags will do to 'em]]. Somtimes, a Monster Clown won't even do ''that'' much... they just ''look'' like a clown, without any of the jokes or working in a circus or going to kids' parties. On the flipside of it, [[wikipedia:John Wayne Gacy|John Wayne Gacy]], one of the most famous serial killers in the United States, worked part-time as a clown - the AP [[Critical Research Failure|once used a stock photo of Gacy for National Clown day]].

 

 

{{examples}}

* 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...

* Cicero in ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'' is an insane assassin who maintains a persona of a jester when out in public. You can also get in on the fun if you decide to wear his outfit.

* Lola Pop from ''[[ARMS]]'' was never intended to be this; producer Kosuke Yabuki intended her to just be a silly, fun-loving circus clown who just happened to a contender in a [[Fighting Game]] where ''every'' playable character was silly, but players were terrified of her regardless. Kosuke later said half-jokingly that he had "learned a weakness in Americans" due to them being scared of such a thing. So... if he ever decides to greenlight less lighthearted game, coulrophobia sufferers be warned...

* Mad Clown from ''[[Punch Out|Super Punch Out]]'' doesn't stop at looking the part, he incorporates all kinds of showy acrobatic maneuvers and even juggling balls into his fighting style. His juggling balls are especially dangerous because they're a prelude to a brutal instant-knockdown attack that comes out ''fast''. If you go into his fight expecting a mere Bear Hugger reskin, you're in for a ''very'' rude awakening.

 

== [[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.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

{{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."}}

:* Bart's clown bed in "Lisa's First Word". Say it with me now. "'''''[[Sickbed Slaying|If You Should Die Before You Wake!]]'''''"

:* [[Madness Mantra|'''Can't sleep, clown will eat me''']]

:* In the supplement book ''Flanders Book of Faith'', one of Ned's Humble figurines has a little girl being frightened by a clown. The title: ''First visit to the Circus''.

** Is there any way that could have gone ''right''?

*** Considering that {{spoiler|Peter accidentally killed the man he thought was his father (Francis, not the town drunk from Ireland) while performing as Pee Pants}}, no, nothing could have gone right from there.

* 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:

:* If anyone buys you or barters you a prison clown, scream as loud as you can and call the proper authorities. For me...

* 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]].

* The Clown Demons who run the carnival in ''[[The Owl House]]'' episode "Really Small Problems". While this is truly a nightmarish concept, they are the [[Affably Evil]] type who do not tolerate anyone scamming customers - [[Hypocrite|''unless'' the scammers are working for ''them''.]]

* In ''[[American Dad]]'', Roger overlaps this with [[Evil Teacher]] in his H.J. Rimmens personality, being a teacher at a clown school. Right off the bat, he admits to using mind games and emotionally abuse his students into becoming clowns, adding that 60% of them will be [[Driven to Suicide]] by the end of the semester. Of course, [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain|seeing as this is Roger we're talking about]], he’s not very good at being either type of villain, and eventually loses his permit to teach clowns. A [[Flash Forward]] scene shows him as a [[IT| Pennywise]] [[Expy]] gunning for revenge against Steve, only to [[Epic Fail|get stuck in a storm drain while doing so]].

 

== [[Other Media]] ==