Have you ever wondered when it was exactly that clowns became terrifying to people? I mean, sure, there must have always been little bed-wetting children here and there who were put-off by clowns, all the way back to Scaramouche’s day and beyond. But at what point did clowns transform, in the minds of vast swaths of people the world over, en-masse, from absurd and funny haha to pant’s-crapingly yikes frightening? And Why?

Today the scary clown (or evil clown) probably finds more representation in our pop-culture than the funny clown. (Think Poltergeist, Stephen King’s IT, Killer Clowns from Outer Space, The Joker, and yes, John Wayne Gasy just to name a few.) I have a theory as the when and why the shift came about, and just exactly who those with acute coulrophobia can direct their undying scorn toward for ushering in a cultural shift that tortures them.

Witness, through the magic of scrolling pictures, the machinations of…

Lon Chaney Sr. in A Blind Bargain



Lon Chaney Sr. in The Hunchback of Notre Dame



Lon Chaney Sr. in Phatom of the Opera



Lon Chaney Sr. in London After Midnight



Lon Chaney Sr. in He Who Get’s Slapped



Lon Chaney Sr. in Laugh, Clown, Laugh


Or to put it another way-





Ok, ok, maybe it’s not all his fault. But he knew what he was doing.

“There is nothing funny about a clown in the moonlight.” -Lon Chaney

Indeed not sir, indeed not.