The dark side of clowns

At the forefront of modern-day clowns are Joseph Grimaldi and Jean-Gaspard Deburau who excelled at making people laugh, but in real life, Grimaldi died as a penniless alcoholic and Deburau murdered a boy in the street.

They were not unusual. John Wayne Gacy, a professional clown, turned out to be a notorious serial killer. He used to say "A clown can get away with anything." Since then, the perception of the clown seems to have taken a turn.