But Unease Lingers, Stateside, Over Scary Clowns

First, those grim Germans. Now those nose-to-the-grindstone South Koreans. Learning to laugh, from actual laughing instructors. The New York Times has more.

The interest in laughing classes is partly a response to the economic slump, said Han Kwang Il, director of the Korea Laughter Center, who gives 15 lectures a week. "People want to blow away their economic gloom with gut-busting laughter," he said. "But they don't know how to laugh and where to laugh."

Park Dong Sun, director of a laughter therapy center, Hahaha Korea, said that smiling faces would go a long way toward making South Koreans more likable overseas. "To people who don't know our manners, South Koreans' rigid look could be taken as an insult," Mr. Park said. "The next big jump in our economic growth will come when our people start laughing more."

Sure, a pleasant demeanor - and humor - can facilitate smooth business relationships. But it verges on humorlessness to actually talk about laughter as a tool for economic growth. Turns out there's another problem with forced good times. Some people are uneasy around clowns, and their lives are changed forever as a result.

There's even a name for the condition: coulrophobia. The Detroit News reports:

Beth Wallace was stopped at a traffic light when a truck pulled up next to her. As she took a sip from her thermos of coffee, Wallace, 32, a San Francisco resident, glanced at the driver, who turned his head and returned the stare. It was then that she saw the ghostly white face and bulbous red nose: The driver was a clown. Wallace shrieked and scrambled to lock her car doors, barely noticing the hot coffee she spilled on herself.

.......The fear of clowns, or coulrophobia, is no laughing matter. Although there are no official statistics, some experts believe that as many as one in seven people suffer from some level of the phobia, symptoms of which can include shortness of breath, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea and overall feelings of dread. In October, a plan to erect dozens of clown statues in Sarasota, Fla., a fabled circus town, was almost scrapped after an outcry from coulrophobes and clown-haters. Coulrophobia is most commonly triggered by a traumatic experience in childhood, says Steven Luel, a psychologist in New York specializing in anxiety and phobias. Indeed, that was the case with Wallace. At the age of 6, she met her first clown at the circus, an encounter she still remembers clearly 25 years later. "A clown got right up in my face, and I could see his beard stubble under his makeup. He smelled bad, and his eyes were weird," she says. "I guess I never got over it."

Phew. Scary stuff. Verily Hitchcock-ian. Even newspaper columnists have been traumatized by clowns. I think the feds need to find some research grant money so experts can examine this more closely. My bet is that thanks to repressed memory syndrome, many are suffering from coulrophobia unawares. Moreover, I'm certain we're hearing only from white people about coulrophobia for a reason: Due to institutional racism, communities of color haven't been encouraged to explore their experiences with coulrophobia. It's quite likely coulrophobia among minorities is among the causes of racial disparities in education, income, incarceration and health.

TECHNORATI TAGS: SOUTH KOREA, LAUGHTER, LAUGHING CLASSES, ECONOMIC GROWTH, COULROPHOBIA, RACIAL DISPARITIES

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 2, 2006 10:14 AM