Fear of clowns has always struck me as a bull**** phobia.
Yeah, i think the real question is, 'Do a lot of people really have clownocoloroclophobia?' , or is that just a lot of people exagerating, and there are v few people who have that phobia for real?
It just depends on the clown, lol, for me anyway, I was freaked out by the clown in Poltergiest when i was wee, and that was designed to be that way, so job well done. Apart from that I only recall being scared of this one clown doll that was brought home for me when i was very very little, that was soon tossed out as a result. But then i was just as freaked out by this sculpture my older brother did of himself at art school, lol, they put that out of the way as they could not chuck it out, and hid it behind the toilet, not a great idea for when I walked in and saw it's bricky beard poking out. So I guess that could come under the uncanny valley thing that was mentioned in terry78's post, same as the clown doll.
Clowns are an easy thing for movies to subvert into horror, putting a lot of make up on can be used to instill fear like war paint and, actually, ok, i have just figured out how this clown thing has gotten out of control...you heard it here first folks...
The thing is, clowns started in the circus right? You were supposed to view them from a distance as they ran around throwing buckets of water over donkeys and whatnot. They were never intended to be blowing balloons up right in front of kid's faces at their birthday parties, the make-up effect was not intended for that. The make up was there to highlight the comedic expressions the clown made at the circus, whom you watched at a distance.
So one bright spark got the idea that 'hey, the kids love the clowns at the circus, let's hire them out for birthday parties', and then they start getting used in horror movies and whatnot as a generation of filmakers have been freaked out by close up clown acts at birthday parties.
if anyone else has any questions pertaining to the secret of the universe, i shall be in my trailer deciphering them from the ingredients of chewing gum wrappers and will be with you shortly.