Terry Pratchett Was Right!

One of the repeated jokes in hte Terry Pratchett books is that clowns are not in fact funny: they are menacing, scary creatures with no redeeming features at all. It appears that children actually agree:

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

The news that will no doubt have clowns shedding tears was revealed in a poll of youngsters by researchers from the University of Sheffield who were examining how to improve the decor of hospital children's wards.

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, with even the older ones finding them scary.

"As adults we make assumptions about what works for children," said Penny Curtis, a senior lecturer in research at the university.

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

Universally disliked by children, eh?

Another repeating joke in the same books is that it isn't just the children that hate mimes: everyone does, In fact, everyone agrees that the punishment meted out to them is entirely just: being thrown into the City's scorpion pit. There's a public policy which I think a lot of people could get behind actually.