What do you call a fear of clowns? Coulrophobia, from the ancient Greek term for “one who walks on stilts.” Perhaps coulrophobia is a creepy cousin of the uncanny valley. This article from Scientific American explains further. Here’s video of a woman who is afraid of clowns. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Coulrophobia”
We were talking earlier about the term uncanny valley,
Referring to that queasy feeling you get when you see a robot or an online avatar
That looks almost human but not quite, and it just is really creepy.
I’m thinking that maybe that also explains cool-rophobia.
What?
You know the word cool-rophobia?
I don’t.
It’s the term for a morbid fear of clowns.
Oh, it reminded me of Cool Britannia.
No, Coolrophobia.
How do you spell that?
C-O-U-L-R-O-phobia, Coolrophobia.
And what does that first part mean?
Coolro means, actually it means the one who walks on stilts,
Because I don’t think the ancient Greeks had a term for clowns,
But I believe a psychotherapist coined this term in the 70s, Coolrophobia.
And there are whole cool-rophobia support groups online.
Fear of clowns.
Yeah, morbid fear of clowns.
But I think that’s sort of the same idea.
The uncanny valley that just makes you feel queasy.
And that somebody pretending to be something they’re not.
Yeah, exactly.
And not actually being funny.
Exactly.
