Real Reasons Why Clowns Totally Freak Us Out

#1 People Hate Clowns

Fear of clowns is nothing new. Actress and singer Liza Minelli looks frightened when hoisted up at her birthday party as a young girl. Children are easily jarred when they can't distinguish between reality and "fun and silly" performers.

#2 The Clown Who Started It All

Back before we had Krusty the Clown on The Simpsons or Bozo, there were other celebrity clowns, dating as far back as the early part of the nineteenth century. Joseph Grimaldi rose to fame in England because he raised the bar with his makeup and costumes, performing as a happy and joyful character to mass audiences. However, behind the makeup, Grimaldi was severely depressed and died from alcohol poisoning in 1837.

#3 The First Clowns Were Not Fun Characters

In some societies, such as Native American tribes like the Pueblo and Apache, clowns were part of spiritual ceremonies, and even there they were a mixed bag. Meant to make people laugh, they were not supposed to be children's entertainment. They were considered imps or spiritual, often playing tricks and games while performing unsavory things.

#4 It's All In The Makeup

The real creepiness of clown makeup isn't in its excess. It comes from subtle more subtle differences. As children, we are familiar with the appearance of our caregivers and family members and we see them as having a friendly human face. But a clown uses oversized and exaggerated features to distinguish itself from the everyday appearance of an adult. Clown faces are unnatural, large, exaggerated and distorted, with features that don't match the âÂ€Â˜safe, friendly human' pattern we have created in our minds.

#5 Pop Culture Has Made Their Evil Cliche

When we think of 'evil' or 'creepy' clowns today, we probably think of Pennywise from Stephen King's "It", or even Batman's evil nemesis, The Joker. But, creepy clowns have been depicted in popular culture for much longer than most of us can remember.

#6 Pagliacci

Opera fans may be familiar with the 1892 Ruggero Leoncavallo classic opera Pagliacci. Pagliacci is Italian for clown which painted all clowns in an evil fashion. The title character in that production commits murder out of marital jealousy and had homicidal tendencies.

#8 A Dying Breed

Clowns have fallen out of fashion. With all the negativity in the circus clown arena, it doesn't seem to be a very profitable profession to get into for young entertainers these days. A study showed that in 2014 the clown population, or those performing as clowns professionally, dropped from just 3,000 to less that 1,900 in the US. Most people who perform as clowns do it long term, which means with no new smiley faces entering the field, they could soon fade right away.

#14 Wrinkles The Clown

Wrinkles (pictured) turned 65 in 2015 and has been a clown his entire adult life. But nobody wants to hire Wrinkles anymore. His schtick was not common and may be part of the reason why kids fear clowns. Wrinkles would get hired by parents in Florida to enter children's bedrooms and scare the crap out of them as punishment.

#9 Coulrophobia Is Real And Pervasive

The irrational fear of clowns, better known as coulrophobia, is much more widespread than you might expect. Considered an actual psychological phobia by the mental health association, just like the fear of spiders, heights, enclosed spaces, and snakes, clowns have taken the number five spot of phobias most common to adults over 20 years of age. In the UK it sits at number three, just behind the fears of needles, and spiders. Actor Johnny Depp has a fear of clowns, though you would not know it by his costumes from his last 12 films.

#10 It's A Treatable Phobia

This inability to interact with the clown means that we feel potentially under threat and feel fearful, panicky and threatened. Loss of breathing ability and sweating are symptoms when a person with coulrophobia meets up with a clown. Generally, clown fears are set up in childhood and continue into adulthood. As with most other fears and phobias they can be treatable with modern therapeutic techniques such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Relaxation therapy and guided imagery, Hypnotherapy or a combination.

#11 The Middletown Clown

Back in 1956, when clowns were just happy and silly, a supermarket owner erected this giant 30-foot clown to advertise his grocery stores. But the design didn't turn out to be joyful, and it frightened many customers. The clown a disapproving expression, so he ended up looking more sinister than endearing, and he used to rotate, giving children coming from any direction a sight for sore eyes. However, several attempts to have the structure ripped down have come under fire, as locals have come to love their creepy clown. It was even featured in a few movies and TV shows.

#12 Pogo The Clown

When convicted rapist John Wayne Gacy decided that he wanted to run for political office in the 1970s, it was clear that he would never get a foot in the ring, so he decided to prove his abilities by doing community service work. He went the route of a friendly, funny clown named Pogo who entertained at children's parties for free. Photos of Gacy in clown makeup quickly became a focal point of this "killer clown" case when 33 murdered rape victims were discovered rotting in his home six years later. Admitting that he often wore his Pogo outfit while committing his murders, he became the face of "killer clowns" from that moment on, giving clowns an even more frightening allure.

#13 Scary Clown Pranks

Recent reports of stalking clowns throughout America and now in the UK have brought on a fear unlike any other. People are frightened and they reports seem to have some validity though they were first written off as a hoax. So far in 2016 twelve arrests have been made as part of this wave.

#14 The Real Insane Clown Posse

A young teen in Tennessee, in September 2016 was walking down the street when he was assaulted by a man wearing a clown mask, who stabbed him in the hand. That same month, a man in a clown mask stabbed a sixteen-year-old in Reading, Pennsylvania. Two girls in Florida were offered candy to follow a clown into the woods but ran home. Several other reports of children seeing clowns near wooded areas inNorth and South Carolina have also surfaced. More recently, and vastly more uncomfortable, a student in Corpus Christi, Texas tried to get other students to dress as clowns and commit acts of violence.