I Used to be a Circus Clown

Maybe it’s the recent announcement of a new Joker origin story, or perhaps just 2017’s general specter of clownish grotesquerie, but something feels perfectly timely about Pennywise.

The villain from Stephen King’s “It” terrified when he was left to childhood imaginations in the author’s 1986 doorstopper. And he is likely to send similar shudders after appearing, in the form of young Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard, in the new Warner Bros. release opening Sept. 8.

One of the great fixtures of modern literary evil, Pennywise the clown, with the help of the 27-year-old Skarsgard, is attempting to jump mediums and give a new generation an injection of fear.  From the Los Angeles Times. 

I used to be a circus clown -- at parties oft requested.

But now if I put on greasepaint I just might be arrested.

I loved to take a pratfall and to throw a pie or two --

Today such actions label me a terrorist cuckoo.

I never thought I’d see the day when clowns became so scary.

How did Bozo transform into creepy adversary?

I think we’ve lost the aptitude to belly laugh our way

Out of existential dread and general dismay.

Instead of celebrating all the silliness that life

Hands us on a platter, we must concentrate on strife.

And make a monster of a clown, and make a mock of God --

And all our happiness and cheer declare to be a fraud.

A people who prefer to wallow in sadistic gore

Are Coliseum-bound to watch the Christians die once more.