#HorrorClowns

Clowns have had their ups and downs. More accurately, though, they’ve had their downs. No wonder they’re everybody’s least favourite children’s entertainer – they’re invasive, unfamiliar and proprietors of un-beckoned goofing.

But the increasingly popular reincarnation of clowns into horror figures is a gag too far, according to Randy Christensen, president-elect of the World Clown Association (WCA). Christensen (aka Oxford P Nuts, Clown of the Year 2013) has spoken out against such illegitimate clowning.

"In my opinion, these horror characters are not clowns," Christensen says, and for him, to be "compared to Stephen King's It is a false comparison. It's like comparing apples and hamburgers."

He’s surprisingly chatty for a clown – shouldn’t he be trying to communicate this to us through the medium of balloon animal?

Christensen's comments come in the wake of the latest series of American Horror Story (now showing on Fox TV), which has been dominated by a menacing, killer clown called Twisty (above), who has been stealing the show and sparking coulrophobia among its viewers. Did show creator Ryan Murphy ever even intend to tarnish the already-dwindling reputation of clowns in his script?

“He said he wanted to create the most terrifying clown in the history of television,” says Twisty actor John Carroll Lynch.

But he advises people not to dress up as the knife-wielding, macabre villain for Halloween. Sure nobody will be nice to you if you’re dressed to kill. But then again, it’s probably advisable not to dress as a normal clown either, unless you’re trying to capture the horror of having no sense of humour.

EMILY LONGWORTH