[bright music] Today we think of clowns as entertainers, mainly for kids.

Nothing to be afraid of, right?

Well, for a huge chunk of Western history, clowns definitely weren't for kids and they were always kind of threatening.

[upbeat music] Hey, I'm Danielle and welcome to "Origin of Everything."

Even though clowns are ostensibly for kids, there are plenty of people who are afraid of or at least creeped out by their overall weirdness, and I can't say that I blame them.

Clowns' heavy makeup hides their true expressions, their silence and miming can sometimes seem menacing, and they like to play mean pranks.

On top of that, a rash of popular horror flicks in the '70s, '80s and '90s, like Stephen King's "It" and 1988's "Killer Clowns From Outer Space" spiked people's fear of bloodthirsty clowns.

And in 2016, people across the U.S. reported lots of ominous clowns lurking outside, so clowns clearly have a lot of scary staying power.

And with the recent reboot of Stephen King's classic "It," we thought it would be fun to look at where the idea of the scary clown comes from.

Because while it might not surprise you that clowns have always been viewed as threatening, it wasn't because they were out on killing sprees, unless you count serial killer John Wayne Gacy or the clown Pierrot who killed a little boy in 1836 by beating him with his walking stick.

Rather, the larger reason clowns have been scary is because in Western history, they have a tradition of challenging the social order.

But first things first, we have to ask, where do modern clowns actually come from and how did they evolve?

Because it goes way further back than you probably think.

In his book, "Bad Clowns," Benjamin Radford suggest we start with the medieval jester, AKA, the hired fool.

In royal courts, jesters played a crucial role by critiquing the monarchy, and they were basically the only ones who could do it.

Picture going to work and telling your boss that he's fat, has bad breath and is sleeping with too many mistresses, all without getting fired or beheaded, which is actually a very real concern when we're dealing with a monarch, who is the head of the government and the army and the justice system, and the leader of the church and has absolute control over the lives of all of his subjects.

Think of it this way-- King Henry VIII of England had six wives, and he beheaded two of them for treason because he suspected them of cheating.

On the other hand, his jester, Will Sommers, had a long career and outlived Henry.

And beyond just smack-talking the king in his royal court, when you consider that the jester was often the one person under the monarchy with real freedom of speech, you realize that's actually a surprisingly large amount of power.

I mean, people often avoid sitting in the front row of a comedy show; imagine being in a royal court and facing the one person in a whole country who could tear you to pieces with no consequences.

Okay, so we have a general understanding that jesters provided relief from the social hierarchy, but that's not necessarily physically scary.

To find out how that may have happened, we need to move forward to another pivotal moment in clown history-- 16th century Italian Commedia dell'arte.

Now, in case you're not up on your early Italian theater history, in commedia, characters on stage represent familiar prototypes, like the Innamorati, a pair of upper-class hopeless lovers, and clowns like the Pulcinella and the Arrlechino, AKA, Harlequin.

But unlike the medieval jesters that took pot shots at the king or the happy go-lucky clowns at modern birthday parties, Harlequin isn't so clearly defined.

He often served two masters but was loyal to none; he could be benevolent or sly depending on his own plots.

Sometimes he hung out with spirits and fairies.

He often threw a monkey wrench into others' plans, especially the wealthy.

He silently mimes while wearing a checkered suit and a thick mask that hides his expressions.

Basically, Harlequin is a mischief maker that does whatever is expedient or amusing to him without a clear moral objective.

Theater nerds, like myself, would call this character alignment a chaotic neutral.

Chaotic neutrals are their own kind of terrifying-- neither all good nor all bad, they tend to favor chaos over law and order.

They can abide by their own code or no code at all, including a willingness to get physically violent.

And if you want a modern harlequin example, think Batman villains like the Joker and Harley Quinn, whose name seems painfully obvious now.

Plus lots of Commedia dell'arte troupes started moving from town to town and started miming their acts because they didn't speak the languages everywhere they went.

So they came to town and didn't speak the language, wore strange costumes, wore intense face paint that masked their actual appearance, played a character with a terrifying lack of morals, and skipped town at the end of the show.

Okay, now we can start to see why for a good portion of Western history, clowns were rather scary figures.

So how on earth did these characters ever become seen as something for children?

Well, that has two parts involving Joseph Grimaldi and the rise of circuses.

First, we have to go to London in the early 1800s to meet the Kanye West of clowning, Joseph Grimaldi.

You might not know his name, but Joseph Grimaldi was a superstar.

He pioneered the white face makeup and frilly outfitted clown style we know today.

At one point, it was estimated that one-eighth of London's population saw him perform his very classical clown style.

And like all celebrities, he was in the limelight, partially because he was a famous performer and partially because of his dramatic life and tabloid exploits.

He used to say, "I am grim all day, but I make you laugh at night."

Well, super sad.

But despite that, Grimaldi left a huge impact on the world of clowning.

His signature white face makeup and outfits were copied the world over.

And around the same time as the style was being copied, we saw an explosion of circuses and carnivals where clowns started playing a major part.

And it was in the circus we saw an evolution towards funny slapstick clowns.

They used clown techniques, but with a lot less edge.

They were more playful and dropped much of the chaotic neutral social commentary stuff we saw in the past.

Over time, we got the pie in the face, floppy-shoed, red-nose clowns we all know today.

That leaves us with the final question-- "Why are people terrified of clowns "that go bump in the night?"

And where did the recent uptick in reported clown phobias come from?

Well, remember those psycho clown movies from the '80s we were talking about earlier?

Seems like a lot of them were responsible for fueling people's underlying fears.

What's interesting when you understand the history of clowns is that movies like "It" or "Killer Clowns From Outer Space" essentially combine the more modern sense that clowns are supposed to be for children with a much older tradition of clowns being these very scary, chaotic neutral characters willing to do whatever crazy thing they felt like.

Plus, there's something very sinister about taking a cute, funny person you used to see at carnivals and turning him into Pennywise, a homicidal clown with a penchant for killing kids.

So how does it all add up?

We've had the medieval court jesters who could mess with the social order, the Italian Harlequin, who comes on the scene as a mass chaotic neutral prankster, followed by Joseph Grimaldi and the rise of the white-faced circus clowns, who eventually got linked to horror movies and gave us the killer clowns we all love to hate.

Because when it comes down to it, clowns definitely aren't just for kids.

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