WotC's Chris Perkins discusses Spelljammer's space clowns in a new video.
That's kind of wild, but circuses died down a lot when I was young, I don't think my son even had an opportunity to go to one.My younger kids don't even realize there's a connection between clowns and circuses, they just view them as a generic boogeyman
We all float up hereGen X here, I don't remember clowns being particularly scary as I was growing up. Other than Pennywise the clown from Stephen King's It and Bart Simpson's fear of the scary clown bed Homer made for him.
Also from 1978, but US; I certainly recall plenty of scary clown imagery, but clowns as funny circus performers was still pretty prevalent. I don't think a Simpsons that released in the 2020s would have Krusty the Clown as a character, just as an example, the idea of clowns as funny performers just doesn't appear in modern media nearly as often.Maybe you guys just largely invented/popularized it and then inflicted it on my generation? They were certainly regarded as scary/creepy when I was growing up (born 1978 so an "Xennial" or "Elder Millennial" lol). Doesn't help that in the UK we have Punch & Judy and stuff of course, and that's obviously creepy as hell. Gacy got arrested in '78 I note.
Yep, exactly. I think we've had a circus come through once in the past 10 years, and I don't live in a low-population area.That's kind of wild, but circuses died down a lot when I was young, I don't think my son even had an opportunity to go to one.
I think it is because the sources of non-ironic clown imagery have died off thus only the scary stuff remains.Also from 1978, but US; I certainly recall plenty of scary clown imagery, but clowns as funny circus performers was still pretty prevalent. I don't think a Simpsons that released in the 2020s would have Krusty the Clown as a character, just as an example, the idea of clowns as funny performers just doesn't appear in modern media nearly as often.
I think that's correct, and it's kind of self-perpetuating, because the more clowns are a scary thing, the less they're a fun/non-ironic thing. It's a bit like animatronic stuff in general, particularly Chuck E. Cheese-type stuff, which used to be beloved but is now widely seen as creepy as hell.I think it is because the sources of non-ironic clown imagery have died off thus only the scary stuff remains.