Talk:Evil clown

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What is the importance of including the following in this article: Statistical evidence for the "evil clown" meme:

A Google search shows that an estimate of approximately one in 272 web pages contains the word 'evil' and one in 2120 contains the word 'clown'. By chance, assuming a null hypothesis that the two words are uncorrelated, only one in every 576,640 web pages should contain both words. Google's estimate of the number of web pages containing both 'evil' and 'clown' is roughly one in 18,700, or 30 times higher than that predicted by chance.

The estimate of the occurrence of the exact phrase 'evil clown' is roughly one page in 450,000, significantly higher than the expected rate of finding the two words anywhere in the same document. By comparison, the exact phrase 'good clown' is only estimated to occur in one in every 3,170,000 web pages.

(All calculations to 3 significant figures, as of early 2002).

-- Zoe

No. I vote for removal since it is at best original research and really bad and flawed at that. Wikipedia is not to place to post original research. --mav 05:13 Dec 12, 2002 (UTC)

It's flawed, all right, but not all that original. There have been some actual dead-tree type essays on this in Jungian literature (Ann and Barry Ulanov, The Witch and the Clown), where the 'dark' side of the Clown archetype = the "Trickster" of various mythologies. I can't imagine who'd look up "Evil clown", myself... --- Someone else 05:48 Dec 12, 2002 (UTC)
I can't believe this is actually an article on a would-be encyclopedia. And attempting to justify it by boasting stats from a search engine is the height of myopia.--69.81.161.110 23:58, 3 Feb 2005 (UTC)


Is 'recent' an appropriate addition? What does 'recent' mean, exactly? Because a character such as the Joker points to social fears of clowns since at least the 1930s. 24.222.64.85 17:29, 9 November 2006 (UTC)


Contents

[edit] John Wayne Gacy

Should John Wayne Gacy be added in here? He was dubbed the "Killer Clown" and may have added to the mystique of the evil clown mythology.

-Erskine

  • I second this. He ought to be added.appzter 04:41, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

On the subject, I don't know how to set up redirect pages, but shouldn't "Pogo the Clown" in the article redirect to John Wayne Gacy? Stefano Magliocco 22:09, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Gacy definitely belongs in this article, but his description as "a homosexual American serial killer" seems gratuitous. He was also a white serial killer, a male serial killer, a Illinoisian serial killer, an English-speaking serial killer, etc. What about this one aspect of his identity justifies special attention?

[edit] Evil clowns in movies

Was there a movie where Russian spies posed as clowns? I think the movie featured the main characters giving aliens a glass of water, and near the beginning, one of the characters dealt with opponents by pointing his fingers at enemies and saying "bang". Andjam 00:42, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the synopsis - I have been looking for its title (Real Men btw). 9ofzeven (talk) 14:35, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

There was a Stranger in a Strange Land movie? Rearden Metal 00:55, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

The movie "Shakes the Clown" featured clowns acting in arguably evil ways.

[edit] Kefka from FFVI?

Would you guys consider Kefka Palazzo from Final Fantasy VI an example of an "evil clown?" His absence from the list jumped out at me. What do you think? --Jason the Delicious

On a related subject, evil clowns also show up as minibosses in the video game Dragon Quest II.

Also, what about Template:It (monster)?

kefka certainly can be called as an evil clownTowers84 14:00, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

I disagree. I played the game when it was known as FFIII for the Super Nintendo, and I never got the sense that Kefka was a clown in any way. IMO, only the CG portrait created for the Final Fantasy Anthology update makes him seem so. Can any Japanese or Japanese-American readers confirm or deny my opinion? NickJones 14:23, 28 July 2007 (UTC)NickJones

[edit] sex and the city

whats the name of the episode when Brady has his first birthday and the lawyer doesn't like clowns; by the way which one here is afraid of clowns, Miranda or Brady

[edit] What about Michael Myers?

Does Michael Myers count?

22:50, 21 September 2006 (UTC)Enda80

Michael Myers is not a clown though. He's simply a killer who steals and wears a mask. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.203.137.27 (talk)

He slew his first victim while dressed as a clown. His adult mask resembles one.

19:03, 23 October 2006 (UTC)Enda80

Actually, it's a modified "Captain Kirk" mask. See Trivia for Halloween on IMDb.

Precisely. Resembles a clown. ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.116.67.106 (talk) 12:21, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Subterano

"*In the movie Saw and its sequels, the antagonist sends a clown-like doll on a bicycle to deliver macabre messages to his victims.

  • In the movie Subterano, the antagonist sends a clown-like doll on a bicycle to deliver macabre messages to his victims."

I know about Saw, but based on the trailer at IMDB, it looks like Subterano has nothing to do with clowns. Because of that and the fact that it has the same description as Saw, I'm going to delete it. I don't intend on seeing it, so if it does have clowns in it, feel free to add it back in with something more closley related to it.

[edit] Images: not fair use

I am afraid that all images used in this article are copyrighted and their usage here do not fit the "fair use" concept, which allows us to use these screenshots only in discussions of the corresponding films. I am afraid most of them must be deleted. Mukadderat 01:52, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] That Picture

That picture's a little frightening. =( Does it have to be there? 152.23.196.162 14:06, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] homey the clown

while disgruntled is not evil im removing it

[edit] Earlier versions of the theme

Michael Myers in 1978's Halloween, at the age of 6 slew his sister while dressed as a harlequin.

http://www.amazon.com/Spider-Gotham-Hound-Slaves-Laughing/dp/155742327X/ref=pd_sim_b_5/102-1170224-7979311 Perhaps in the Spider novel Laughing Death

However, the cliché also appears in these pulps: http://www.comicmix.com/news/2007/06/25/the-shadow-knows/ Shadow #9 , our special "Foreshadowing The Batman" volume, reprints "Lingo," one of Walter Gibson's all-time classics which inspired the Batarang, Theodore Tinsley's "Partners of Peril" (the novel that inspired Detective Comics #27's "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate," plus a bonus Tinsley novelette: "The Grim Joker" (featuring a murderous, white-faced crime clown). Next spring, we'll be releasing a special "Foreshadowing The Joker" volume that will reprint Ted Tinsley's "Death's Harlequin" and the 1940 Shadow radio script, "The Laughing Corpse." The latter, broadcast six weeks before Batman #1 debuted, featured a chemical that caused victims to laugh themselves to death, quite similar to The Joker's original M.O. "Death's Harlequin" was on sale the same month as Detective Comics#27 (when we can be pretty sure that Bill Finger was paying close attention to The Shadow Magazine) and pitted The Shadow against a murderous clown who like The Joker was a vision of madness: "The thin lips were drawn away from skull-like teeth. The cheeks were sunken and leathery. Dank black hair lay matted thinly on a baldish scalp the color of old parchment. A living corpse in the costume of a gay Harlequin! With a wide-muzzled gun. And a jeering laugh that made the silence in the room crawl with menace."


Enda80Enda80

[edit] The "evil clowns in popular culture section" is too big.

I feel that the section on evil clowns in popular culture is too big, and has become bloated with examples that are useful to no one. For example:

  1. Kefka, the main villain of the SNES game Final Fantasy VI, wears face paint and clothing reminiscent of a clown.
  2. Phillipe, (a circus clown) is the boss of the England area in the SNES game Final Fight 2.

Who would find these examples of evil clowns useful? Wikipedia doesn't need to list every single example of an evil clown. Gary 01:56, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

        • I decided to delete nearly all of them, leaving a few famous examples, like the Joker in the Batman series. I think these few remaining entries serve as good examples of the Evil Clown, without being obscure or drowning the reader in endless examples of evil clowns in animes and video games that few people have ever encountered. Gary 04:24, 8 August 2007 (UTC)