Coulrophobia

There is actually a word for it.  That is, the fear of clowns.  It’s “coulrophobia” and I guess it’s a real thing although modern in origin.  Part of this, I think, stemmed from The Joker in the Batman comics and movies and Stephen King’s “It” helped fuel the flames.  An “ordinary” clown with frizzy hair and a jolly red nose is, instead, made up to look like a crazed maniac and usually has some sort of psychotic laugh to help chill the bones.  Suddenly the benign clown is a scary Halloween character.  And then there is John Wayne Gacy…a real life serial killer par excellence who loved to play dress-up to entertain the kiddies.

The character of Kramer on “Seinfeld” has coulrophobia, as does Phil, the father on “Modern Family” and Booth, the FBI agent on “Bones” who actually shoots a clown image in one interesting show.  The fall-out from it reverberated through several subsequent episodes and he needed “counseling.”

I have a friend, who shall remain nameless, who has a collection of glass clowns; some of them quite valuable.  But he says he only collects “happy” clowns but, really, is he happy having a collection of happy glass clowns?  I mean, clowns are people who have souls and, of course, souls have a dark side.  The clown Emmet Kelly was famous for being sad.  I wonder if he was happy under his sad make-up.  He made a good living at it so maybe he was happy.  Or, at least, not murderous.