Clowns

1) Kids usually are scared of things they are unsure of, or things that are out of the ordinary. One example is Barney. They see him all day on TV but when they meet him in real life they scream their heads off... why mostly because he no longer really looks like the little dino from the TV, he is now more real and for some reason HUGE.

I have two clown characters, one is a white faced clown and the other is a rodeo clown, the small kids are scared of the whitefaced clown because it is not what they consider normal, but as for the rodeo clown I use who looks very much like a hobo I get no screamers at all. So small kids are not scared of clowns, they are scared of unfamiliar faces or faces they cannot relate to.

As for teens, it is the scary movies and peer perception that makes then scared of clowns.

2) I Don't know. I just know I am freaked out by THEM!!

3) Maybe because they saw scary clown movies.

4) This may be so and most unfortunate for that. I do strongly disapprove of film or television producers/writers who portray clowning in any way suspect. My other comments will say the same thing. Clowning is simple fun for children under the age of eight years. One organization has a course of training entitled 'How to be stupid'. Clowning is not stupid. It is child-like. One would not call a child stupid?

The fear of clowns is called, "coulrophobia."

This is "the fear of an antagonist with a painted face". (In other words, a clown.)

Here is the story:

"A girl in her teens is babysitting for a family in Newport Beach, Ca. The family is wealthy and has a very large house - you know the sort, with a ridiculous amount of rooms. Anyways, the parents are going out for a late dinner/movie. The father tells the babysitter that once the children are in bed she should go into this specific room (he doesn't really want her wandering around the house) and watch TV there.

The parents take off and soon she gets the kids into bed and goes to the room to watch TV. She tries watching TV, but she is disturbed by a clown statue in the corner of the room. She tries to ignore it for as long as possible, but it starts freaking her out so much that she can't handle it.

She resorts to calling the father and asks, "Hey, the kids are in bed, but is it okay if I switch rooms? This clown statue is really creeping me out."

The father says seriously, "Get the kids, go next door and call 911."

She asks, "What's going on?"

He responds, "Just go next door and once you call the police, call me back."

She gets the kids, goes next door, and calls the police. When the police are on the way, she calls the father back and asks, "So, really, what's going on?"

He responds, "We don't HAVE a clown statue." He then further explains that the children have been complaining about a clown watching them as they sleep. He and his wife had just blown it off, assuming that they were having nightmares.

The police arrive and apprehend the "clown," who turns out to be a midget. A midget clown! I guess he was some homeless person dressed as a clown, who somehow got into the house and had been living there for several weeks. He would come into the kids' rooms at nights and watch them while they slept. As the house was so large, he was able to avoid detection, surviving off their food, etc. He had been in the TV room right before the babysitter right came in there. When she entered he didn't have enough time to hide, so he just froze in place and pretended to be a statue.

See more on the clown statue urban legend from Snopes.com (linked below).