Question: The evil clown is a subversion of the traditional comic clown character with the modern archetype popularised by a book that follows the experiences of how many children?

Passages:
Bozo the Clown is a clown character whose broad popularity peaked in the United States in the 1960s as a result of widespread franchising in early television. <P3-S0> Hagwon (] ) is the Korean-language word for a for-profit private institute, academy or cram school prevalent in South Korea. <P3-S1>  Although most widely known for their role as "cram schools", where children can study to improve scores, hagwon actually perform several educational functions: they provide supplementary education that many children need just to keep up with the regular school curriculum, remedial education for the children who fall behind in their work, training in areas not covered in schools, and preparation for students striving to improve test scores and preparing for the high school and university entrance examinations (the university entrance exam is also called suneung (수능)). <P3-S2>  Many other children, particularly younger children, attend nonacademic hagwon for piano lessons, art instruction, swimming, and taekwondo (태권도). <P3-S3>  Most young children attend a hagwon. <P3-S4>  Hagwon also play a social role, and many children, especially the younger ones, say they like going to hagwon because they are able to make new friends; many children ask to be sent because their friends attend. <P3-S5>  There are many hagwon for adults too, such as flower arrangement and driving-license hagwon. <P3-S6>  The term is also sometimes used to describe similar institutions operated by Korean Americans in the United States. Le Clown Gordoon is a New American Circus-style clown character created and portrayed by Jeff Gordon.  He has performed most notably with the Big Apple Circus but has also appeared with Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and several other circuses as well as at the Walt Disney World Resorts in Orlando, FL. It is a 1986 horror novel by American author Stephen King.  It was his 22nd book and 18th novel written under his own name.  The story follows the experiences of seven children as they are terrorized by a being that exploits the fears and phobias of its victims to disguise itself while hunting its prey.  "It" primarily appears in the form of a clown to attract its preferred prey of young children. The evil clown is a subversion of the traditional comic clown character, in which the playful trope is instead rendered as disturbing through the use of horror elements and dark humor.  The modern archetype of the evil clown was popularized by Stephen King's 1986 novel "It".  The character can be seen as playing off the sense of unease felt by sufferers of coulrophobia. Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain.  In television commercials, the clown inhabited a fantasy world called McDonaldland and has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids.  Since 2003, McDonaldland has been largely phased out, and Ronald is instead shown interacting with normal children in their everyday lives. The Evil Clown of Middletown is a large outdoor sign in Middletown Township, New Jersey.  Originally built by and for Food Circus grocery store, which later became known as the regional supermarket Foodtown, it is now a roadside display and de facto advertising sign for a nearby Spirits Liquors.  Much of the clown's notoriety stems from its sinister-looking face, which might be described as bearing a vaguely-amused sideways scowl. <P1-S0> "A Rape in Cyberspace, or How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society" is an article written by freelance journalist Julian Dibbell and first published in "The Village Voice" in 1993. <P1-S1>  The article was later included in Dibbell's book "My Tiny Life" on his LambdaMOO experiences. Frenchy the Clown is the title character in "National Lampoon"'s "Evil Clown Comics", which ran in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Steve Smith (born August 8, 1951), professional clown and circus director, is best known to audiences as the clown character, "TJ Tatters."

Supporting sentences:
 The modern archetype of the evil clown was popularized by Stephen King's 1986 novel "It". It is a 1986 horror novel by American author Stephen King.  It was his 22nd book and 18th novel written under his own name.  The story follows the experiences of seven children as they are terrorized by a being that exploits the fears and phobias of its victims to disguise itself while hunting its prey.