The tale of the “Clown Statue” and the Babysitter

When it comes to classic spooky tales told on moonless nights in front of the campfire, they don’t come better than the clown statue story. So popular is this anecdote – that’s most commonly encountered during the weeks running up to Halloween – it has more than earned itself coveted urban legend status.

And as with any good urban legend, the number of years it has been recounted by storytellers is surpassed only by the number of different variations and permutations it has taken on during that time.

The basics of the tale go like this. A girl is babysitting a child (or children) and she notices a clown statue in the children’s bedroom. Unnerving as it is, the girl returns downstairs and receives a call from the parents who are duly checking up on the sitter and her charges. The girl reports that everything is okay, but mentions the clown statue. The parents become alarmed, and inform the girl that they do not have a clown statue. As this point the truth dawns on the girl – the clown is a real person. An intruder.

From there the tale can take on many different paths depending on what variation of the tale you stumble upon, some more morbid or sinister than others.

Despite the popularity of the tale, it is just a legend. There have never been any known cases of intruders, killers or madmen disguising themselves as clowns to “blend” in to victim’s homes, nor of them being dismissed as innocent statues.

Take the below version that spread in 2004 –

A couple with children were trying out a new babysitter. About an hour after they left for a night on the town, they realized they had forgotten to give her their cell phone number, so one of them called her.
After she wrote down the number, the babysitter asked if she could watch satellite TV in their bedroom. She had just put the children to bed and wanted to watch a particular show. (The parents didn’t want their children watching too much garbage, so the living room TV did not have satellite channels.)
Well of course she could watch TV in their room, they replied. The babysitter had one other request: could she put a sheet or blanket over the clown statue that was in the bedroom? It kind of made her nervous.
Take the children and go to the neighbors, said whichever parent was talking to her. We’ll call the police. We don’t have a clown statue.
The police caught the clown as he was running through the neighborhood.

In this tale, the clown appeared in the parent’s bedroom, and the story ended well, with the clown being caught by the police as it made its escape. But it doesn’t always end so well for the girl, or even the children, as this darker version of the story attests –

:: a few years ago a mother and a father decided they needed a break, so they wanted to head out for a night on the town. So they called their most trusted babysitter. When the babysitter arrived the two children were already fast asleep in bed. So the babysitter just got to sit around and make sure everything was okay with the children.
Later in the night, the babysitter got bored and so she wanted to watch tv but she couldn’t watch it downstairs because they didn’t have cable downstairs (the parents didn’t want their children watching too much garbage) so she called them and asked them if she could watch cable tv in the parents room. Of course the parents said it was ok, but the babysitter had one final request. She asked if she could cover up the large clown statue in their bedroom with a blanket or cloth, because it made her nervous. The phone line was silent for a moment, and the father (who was talking to the babysitter at the time) said….. take the children and get out of the house….. we’ll call the police… we don’t have a clown statue….. the children and the babysitter got murdered by the clown. it turned out 2 be that the clown was a killer that escaped from jail.
if you don’t repost to 10 peeps within 5 minutes the clown will be standing next 2 your bed at 3:00am with a knife in his hand….

Thankfully, for most versions we see online, the ending fares much better for all involved (except the clown) as he is captured by police without slaughtering anyone. As for how this story is told around the campfire, we guess that’s up to the storyteller.

Other versions omit, include or alter other details. Some versions assert the clown was a midget, and others claim it was the children complaining of the “clown statue” while others assert it was the babysitter who found the statue unnerving. Some versions state it was the children (or child) as the intended target, and others claim it was the babysitter.

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It can be argued that clowns have seemed to begin somewhat of a transition; from children’s entertainment into the realms of scarelore. More of us confess to being rather unnerved by these make-up wearing performers. This isn’t really helped by books and movies, like Stephen King’s “It“.

While this is probably not great news for neither professional or hobby clowns, our increasing obsession with ‘killer clowns’ is actually unfounded. From what we can determine, there have been no cases of prolific killer clowns in history, and the association between clowns and serial killers is almost entirely a thing of legend. Perhaps most famously, serial killer John Wayne Gacy would often dress up as a clown. However this was to attend local children’s parties where he would perform. He was never known to attack or murder any of his victims wearing the clown attire.

And while there may be isolated incidents of physical attacks occurring that involve the attacker adorning either a clown outfit or mask, this is likely down to the attacker simply attempting to mask their identity.

Despite this, clowns are still increasingly finding themselves in spooky folklore and creepy prank videos. However, in this case, the clown statue anecdote, like many stories involving ‘killer clowns’, is a thing of legend. There is no real truth behind the tale.