‘Let’s Put A Smile on That Face’: Clown-Fearers Reflect

By Kylie Smith

Face paint, funny clothes and big shoes are here. This Halloween, welcome to Lubbock’s newest attraction: Clowntown 3D.

Nightmare on 19^th Street has people with coulrophobia—a medical term for fear of clowns—terrified.

An actor dressed as a clown smiles at Nightmare on 19th Street, a haunted house attraction, in Lubbock. (Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU)

For sufferers, a masquerade supposed to elicit joy and laughter is an actual panic-inducing occurrence. The condition reflects—and possibly results from—the use of clowns in scary movies, such as “It” and “The Dark Knight.”

Kasey Klopfenstein, a junior agricultural business major from Houston, said his phobia started when he was a young boy because of a clown movie his dad had left playing. It has grown into a much stronger hatred for clowns now.

Klopfenstein said he is no longer allowed in Houston’s Phobia Haunted Houses after things got physical between him and a clown.

“I went to the left, he went to the left,” Klopfenstein said. “I went to the right, he went to the right. Then he put his hands up, which in turn freaked me out because I was already on edge, and I decked him in the face.”

Quincy Gautier, a junior public relations major from Keller, Texas, also dislikes clowns. Her fear was caused by a Scooby-Doo episode, in which a clown hypnotizes Daphne. She said her fear worsened after a friend tricked her into watching “It”.

How can you tell if your hatred for clowns is just a fear or coulrophobia?

The Mayo Clinic defines a phobia as “an overwhelming and unreasonable fear of an object or situation that poses little real danger but provokes anxiety and avoidance.” A fear is not a phobia unless it interferes with one’s normal functioning in professional or social settings.

An actor dressed as a clown screams at Nightmare on 19th Street, a haunted house attraction, in Lubbock. (Allison Terry/The Hub@TTU)

Klopfenstein and Gautier are not the only ones whose fear resulted from media exposure.

Matthew Jimenez, a junior accounting major from San Antonio, said his fear of clowns originated not only from watching “It,” but also from playing a video game called Twisted Metal.

“The main character was a clown and he had fire grow out of his head,” Jimenez said. “It was pretty much scary for me when I was a little kid. That kind of just set the whole standard for clowns.”

What is the freakiest part about clowns? The face paint.

Clowns appear sinister because they “obscure their face with paint, thus covering their features and true emotions; they confuse our ability to judge their mood,” according to the book Human Instinct.  In that sense, they are not unlike Darth Vader, whose face remains hidden for most of “Star Wars.”

“I feel like all the face paint and stuff almost dehumanizes them,” Gautier said. “They’re like creepy little creatures. They’re not people.”

Jimenez agrees: It is the brightness and wide color range of clowns’ face paint that seem the most out of place to him.

If seeing a clown can ruin your weekend, stay away from 19th Street.

But if you enjoy bike horns, big red noses and mysteries lurking in the dark, don’t miss out on Clowntown 3D’s last weekend of terrors.