Well, this study may pretty much changes everything. Strength is weakness, Brussels sprouts are chocolate… A poll of young hospital patients found that every one of them rejected the use of clowns as part of the decor, and even the teenagers in the study found clowns to be scary.
“We found that clowns are universally disliked by children,” one researcher said.
Yikes! However, it also turned out that all the children were perfectly okay with hollow-eyed zombies creeping around under their beds at night, half-eaten brains and blood dripping from their foul luminescent fangs. Who knew? Here’s the story:
A carnival reveler dressed as a clown celebrates on the street in Berlin February 18, 2007. REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski
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14 comments so far
Can’t sleep. Clowns will eat me.
- Posted by John C AbellAs with all bold headlines and generalizations one must be cautious. Hospital clowns are very different from circus clowns and are trained in sensitivity and
- Posted by Peggy Coonleyknow how to ease the pain, fears and concerns of their audience. Indeed the child or patient is the star of the show not the clown, the clown is a mere muse for healing, for laughter and wonder to help the patient once more feel human. This is an art and when
practiced well produces amazing results. I am a therapeutic clown with cancer patients ages 1-91 and in four years of this work have had only one child react in the manner the article and study suggests. Quite the contrary folks are greatful for our work. Parents schedule visits when we are working and docs have asked for help from us.
I think the study needs more in depth research before making the grand statement and bold headlines. Yes some children may be fearful of the circus clown who is indeed larger than life, but a well trained hospital clown is more like an angel in their midst. Amazing that the word i must type in for this to go is LOVE and that is indeed what the hospital clown shares.
As a high school teacher, I have noticed that many of my students are scared of clowns since Stephen King’s “IT” movie was first released. Maybe King has ruined the clown image for several generations of kids.
- Posted by Bill SimmsBill, I think John Wayne Gacy might have had something to do with it too.
- Posted by CharleneI can’t bear clowns. I hate them. I think the only clown I ever felt positive toward was Red Skelton. I avoided the circus almost my entire life just to avoid the clowns. I never even saw “It”. I would be horrified to find one beside my bed in a hospital. I avoid them with a passion.
- Posted by OliviaI am a true believer that most people are scared of clowns and it has nothing to do with the movie “IT”. Clowns are loud, in your face and grossely made-up. Of course they are scary. Think about how little kids cry when they see Santa for the first time. It is a traumatic experience. BIG, LOUD & all covered up so you can’t recognize what is underneath.
- Posted by Krishttp://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/052 6042clown1.html
All I can say is check out the link above.
- Posted by Paul Moses“may pretty much changes” is a wonderful turn of phrase, Mr. Basler. May I use it?
- Posted by Shawn HendricksYou know, that big, red, bulbous nose presents the most convenient aiming point.
- Posted by Shawn HendricksDear Olivia,
- Posted by Shawn HendricksGuess what’s under your bed right this moment. It has big honkin’ shoes and huge buttons. It has a ruffled waistband. It has baggy striped pants and lace at its wrists and collar. It’s face is colorfully disfigured with huge eyes. Yep; it’s Elton John but he’s just clowing around. Or is he?
It is probably the monkey effect. Someone is scared by a clown. That someone tells someone else about the fear, breeding fear in the second person and the fear spreads like that from person to person. Soon, the fear prevades society as it never did in the middle of the last century. All this, even though these people have never even seen a clown. And then, a clown begins putting acid in the drinks at school and the office and the carnival and the fair and the circus and the city’s water supply. But mostly, it’s because one person shares their fear with another.
- Posted by Shawn HendricksOnce you go clown, your pants spontaneously fall down.
- Posted by Shawn HendricksEver kissed a clown? It doesn’t feel as funny as you might think.
- Posted by Shawn Hendricks[…] study in England says that children universally dislike […]
- Posted by DeadDog » DeadDog Archive » Clowns