Mari-Rose May Feel Vindicated By This

Kids don't like clowns.

Bad news for Coco and Blinko -- children don't like clowns and even older kids are scared of them.

The study, reported in the Nursing Standard magazine, found all the 250 patients aged between four and 16 they quizzed disliked the use of clowns [as decorations in kids' rooms], with even the older ones finding them scary.

"We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable."

Mari-Rose doesn't like them, either ... bad experience at the Bozo show. (Don't ask.)

I must be the outlier in this survey. I liked clowns when I was little. They gave me candy at parades and made me laugh at the circus. The only weird part for me was, sometimes at local parades and fairs, my dad would talk to one of them that he knew. The clown would totally break character - so even though he was still in his clown costume, he'd suddenly become this sort of fat, ordinary, middle-aged guy talking to my dad about cars and taxes and stuff.