Are you afraid of clowns?
My high school ministry is headed to Hume Lake for summer camp, and this year’s camp theme is all about clowns. The title is “Hey Rube!”, which is ridiculously ambiguous, but all of the promo material has clowns all over it.
I didn’t expect this, but we have had DOZENS of kids tell us that they are scared to death of clowns. I’ll usually say something like, “Yeah right, haha… no you aren’t.” But they’re usually staring back at me in a frightened daze as they picture clowns stabbing people or something.
How does this happen? How do people become scared of clowns? Was it because of Pennywise? Did some birthday parties go south earlier in life?
I think this whole thing is ridiculous… but if you Google “clown phobia” you can see a thousand websites that offer to help people with clown fears (most of them want money to help). This lady has issues that extend beyond clowns…
I’ve actually had a few kids say that they aren’t going to camp this year because of the theme. That upsets me. They went when the theme was about PIRATES! I guarantee that pirates kill more people each year than clowns do. I’d bet that SHEEP kill more people each year than clowns do.
Would you stay home to avoid the clowns? What theme would you stay home to avoid? What are you scared of, you big scaredy cat?
I’ll go first: NOTHING.
ryanguard.net 
I will admit that I have a pretty hefty fear of clowns myself. I watched the trailer and it creeped me out. If I were in HS and knew this, it very well may have prevented me from going.
I can’t explain this fear. I just know it’s deep, makes me feel sick and faint, and I avoid Clowns at almost all costs.
Have you ever seen the movie “Pee wee’s Big Adventure”? That movie caused my fear of clowns. There are just so many scenes with them being as creepy as possible, and I can’t stand it. I can’t stand them. I’ll be honest: I wouldn’t go this year to Hume because of the theme.
The movie “It” scared me to death when I was little (probably because I was way too young to be watching it but my parents let me make that decision). I used to collect clown figurines as a kid but that movie pretty much killed it cause I had a musical clown whose head would “roll”, you know, like when you’re working out, and it looked exactly like “It”. But for someone who is prone to fear, clowns don’t scare me at all. I’m really surprised it is keeping kids from going. Just tell them they can skip the opener!
I saw PeeWee’s Big Adventure but I can’t remember the clowns… very well anyways. I do remember the dinosaurs though. I’m pretty sure we drive past them to and from Arizona.
I definitely want to re-watch “It” before summer camp. I guess I’ll be alone.
DK, I can’t tell if you’re kidding, so I won’t call you a sissy.