Clowns: Are They Really Funny?

Coulrophobia is a term used to describe an intense, abnormal and exaggerated fear of clowns and mimes. This irrational fear of clowns is acquired by the sufferers either after personally going through a bad experience or after watching a sinister portrayal of a clown in the media.

‘Coulrophobia’ is a relatively novel term. Used for the first time ever in the 1990s, it is made up of a combination of two Greek words, namely ‘koulon’ and ‘phobus’.

‘Koulon’ means limbs and ‘phobus’ means fear. Thus coulrophobia implies the fear of clowns and mimes (both are known to use limbs). Though normally found among children, this condition is sometimes also found in teenagers and adults.

According to around a hundred websites dedicated to coulrophobia, the exact reasons as to why it happens are the make-up and exaggerated features of a clown.

The painted eyes, the smile and that huge bulbous red nose can be quite scary, especially for children. Such traumatic experiences in one’s childhood can act as a trigger for future events and the fear may thus persist throughout one’s life.

Coulrophobia is characterised by a host of symptoms that range from panic attacks to high anxiety around people in clown attire or people with bizarre tattoos and heavy make-up.

Unless this phobia of clowns is extremely severe, the simple approach of avoiding clowns and other such triggers will suffice. Otherwise, one has no option but to go in for treatment alternatives like hypnotherapy, medication and few other therapies.

The major credit for enhancing coulrophobia goes hands down to the media portrayal of clowns. The obscured facial features shown in films like ‘Scream’ and ‘Saw’ are a testimony to this fact.

So the chances that coulrophobia will cease to exist remain bleak until and unless the media curb their tendency of turning clowns, which were initially meant to be funny and evoke a few laughs, into our worst nightmares.