Coulrophobia

Coulrophobia is an irrational fear of clowns. If a person has coulrophobia, they will feel discomfort, fear, rapid heartbeat, sweating, difficulty of breathing, and/or panic attacks near clowns and other such like that. The idea was brought into the Star-Verse in Blue Star: The Obsidian Core, where Max Norl reveals to have coulrophobia. In Blue Star: The Horror Circus, in which Hobo the Clown, real name Jason Wilson, is first introduced as Elliot's killer and a villian.

## History

People who are supposed to like clowns—children—supposedly don’t. In 2008, a widely reported University of Sheffield, England, survey of 250 children between the ages of four and 16 found that most of the children disliked and even feared images of clowns. The BBC’s report on the study featured a child psychologist who broadly declared, “Very few children like clowns. They are unfamiliar and come from a different era. They don't look funny, they just look odd.” Clowns, as pranksters, jesters, jokers, harlequins, and mythologized tricksters have been around for ages. They appear in most cultures—Pygmy clowns made Egyptian pharaohs laugh in 2500 BCE; in ancient imperial China, a court clown called YuSze was, according to the lore, the only guy who could poke holes in Emperor Qin Shih Huang’s plan to paint the Great Wall of China; Hopi Native Americans had a tradition of clown-like characters who interrupted serious dance rituals with ludicrous antics. Ancient Rome’s clown was a stock fool called the *stupidus*; the court jesters of medieval Europe were a sanctioned way for people under the feudal thumb to laugh at the guys in charge; and well into the 18th and 19th century, the prevailing clown figure of Western Europe and Britain was the pantomime clown, who was a sort of bumbling buffoon. But clowns have always had a dark side, says David Kiser, director of talent for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. After all, these were characters who reflected a funhouse mirror back on society; academics note that their comedy was often derived from their voracious appetites for food, sex, and drink, and their manic behavior. “So in one way, the clown has always been an impish spirit… as he’s kind of grown up, he’s always been about fun, but part of that fun has been a bit of mischief,” says Kiser. “Mischief” is one thing; homicidal urges is certainly another. What’s changed about clowns is how that darkness is manifest, argued Andrew McConnell Stott, Dean of Undergraduate Education and an English professor at the University of Buffalo, SUNY.

## Known Characters With Coulrophobia

* Dan Vanagus - Sleep paralysis about Ronald McDonald.
* Dark Star - Same as Dan.
* Max Norl - Friend lored by clown and hasn't been heard of since.

* CarnoMS - Sleep paralysis with IT.

## Known Clowns

* Unnamed Clown
* Ronald McDonald
* IT
* Hobo The Clown

## Citations

* The History and Psychology of Clowns Being Scary
* *IT* (miniseries)
* Phobias - Symptoms - NHS Choices

## Trivia

* Coulrophobia was first heard in Blue Star: The Obsidian Core.
* Blue Star had sleep paralysis with Ronald McDonald at a young age, realizing he has coulrophobia.
* It is revealed that one of Max's friends was lored and kidnapped by a clown and was never heard of again.
* The author, CarnoMS, has had coulrophobia since he was 4, because, like Dan, he had sleep paralysis, except with IT.
* The only reason Jason decided to fight Blue Star as a clown is because he learns that Dan has coulrophobia.